'Grease' Lightning Strikes Newburgh

Move over, John Travolta! Robert Gantzos performs rings around your performance of Danny Zuko in "Grease." From the minute he bursts on stage in Mandel's Grand Street Theater's current production of the long-running Broadway show, you realize you're watching a star performance that lights up the sky. With a dazzling smile, fancy footwork, vibrant athletics, good voice and potent sex appeal, he brings a quality of innocence to the role of a 1950s high school kid in love with a Sandra Dee kind of girl. This is the first production of the musical that I didn't find vulgar, thin and loud. Co-directors James Sisco and Joyce Briscoe toned down the most offensive parts (Sisco called them "unnecessary garbage") - and, in doing so, changed "Grease" from an R rating to PG-13. In the process, wit, charm and humanity of the 1950s era are memorialized in The Choice of the Week!

Although Gantzos is definitely the show's star, it's not a, one-man band by any means. He's given terrific support by the 20-member cast and pit band. Notable in the cast are Mary Ellen Piggott as Rizzo, with her show-stopping number, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do"; the comedy of Ruthi Hulbert and Sharon Martin; the swinging performance of Nick Karnavezos as Teen Angel; and the performance of Dawn Hutchinson as Jan. But there's not a weak performance in the cast. This superior production plays like greased lightning and is one of the autumn's special events.