Electrifying - Grease
Electrifying - Grease
Electrifying - Grease
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The Show<br />
Timeline of <strong>Grease</strong><br />
1970<br />
At a cast party, Jim Jacobs<br />
and his friend Warren<br />
Casey come up with the<br />
idea of a show featuring<br />
music from the 1950s,<br />
the golden age of Rock<br />
and Roll. Jacobs decides<br />
it should be about the<br />
kids he went to high<br />
school with. Soon<br />
after, Casey is fired<br />
from his job and so<br />
with time on his hands, he sits<br />
down at his typewriter and <strong>Grease</strong> is born.<br />
5th February 1971<br />
Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey mount their first<br />
production of <strong>Grease</strong> in an experimental theatre in<br />
Chicago. With a non-professional cast of 18 and a<br />
budget of only $171, the “four night only” run plays<br />
to full houses of 120 each night, and then the run is<br />
extended again and again…<br />
14th February 1972<br />
<strong>Grease</strong> opens in New York, off-Broadway at the Eden<br />
Theatre. It receives seven Tony nominations after the<br />
producers threaten to sue the awards committee for<br />
saying off-Broadway shows can not be nominated.<br />
The show moves onto Broadway proper and goes<br />
from strength to strength.<br />
1971/ 1972<br />
A national tour of <strong>Grease</strong> crosses the US and Canada<br />
with a seventeen year old called John Travolta playing<br />
Doody, the nerdy kid who idolises Danny.<br />
1973<br />
The first London production opens at the New<br />
London Theatre with a then unknown American<br />
actor, Richard Gere, as Danny Zuko and Stacey Gregg<br />
as Sandy, followed by Paul Nicholas and Elaine Paige<br />
in the lead roles.<br />
www.greasethemusical.co.uk<br />
© 2000 PN & DI Associates. All rights reserved.<br />
1978<br />
John Travolta hits the big time playing Danny Zuko<br />
opposite Olivia Newton John as Sandy in the smash<br />
hit film from Paramount Pictures.<br />
1993<br />
David Gilmore directs and Arlene Phillips<br />
choreographs the London production of <strong>Grease</strong><br />
which opens at The Dominion Theatre, starring Craig<br />
Maclachlan as Danny Zuko. This version has played<br />
ever since in London, on tour in the UK and across<br />
the world.<br />
1997<br />
<strong>Grease</strong> goes on a UK tour<br />
starring Shane Richie and<br />
then Ian Kelsey as Danny.<br />
1999<br />
After 6 successful years,<br />
the London production<br />
of <strong>Grease</strong> closes at the<br />
Cambridge Theatre.<br />
2007<br />
<strong>Grease</strong> re-opens in London at The Piccadilly Theatre,<br />
starring Danny Bayne as Danny Zuko and Susan<br />
McFadden as Sandy (both winners of the ITV<br />
programme <strong>Grease</strong> Is The Word).<br />
<strong>Grease</strong> Fact:<br />
The first scene to be<br />
written was the girls’<br />
pyjama party scene<br />
6
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