GREASE - Ashley and Derek's First Performance - 7/22/08

As some of you may recall, I saw the first preview of GREASE last summer with Laura Osnes and Max Crumm...and HATED nearly everything about the production. Therefore, it was going to take a lot for me to go back to see the show. Then those sneaky producers cast Ashley Spencer and Derek Keeling as their replacements, still allowing those who saw the TV show to see people from TV and allow those who saw Laura and Max to go back and see another pair in this sub-par production. Well, I am here to report that America totally got it wrong in the initial voting...Ashley and Derek were terrific tonight!

The production itself is still bad...the sets are amatuerish, and Kathleen Marshall's direction and (non)choreography is dreadful. Even some of the orchestrations/arrangements of the songs are just not pleasing to the ears.

That being said (and I hate to admit this...don't hate me BWW!), I really enjoyed myself tonight. Derek Keeling was known on the TV show for always cracking his voice...well, there were absolutely no signs of that tonight, no nerves either, just a wonderfuly sung and acted performance as Danny Zuko. His "Summer Nights" with Ashley was great "Sandy" in Act 2 was spot on. His hair was really really puffed up, and looked kind of strange though. I actually thought it was a wig, but then when he came out of the stage door with the same dew, I kind of did a double take. His chemistry with Ashley was excellent...as opposed to Laura trying so hard to get Max to be sexy, but it never worked (totally Max's fault, not Laura's). Derek also fit in with the rest of the T-Birds...he seemed like one of the guys, rather than Max, who seemed like an outsider.

Ashley Spencer's performance as Sandy Dumbrowski was excellent...I'd say as good as Laura, if not better (since she had a worthy leading man). Her voice was great, but she did seem a bit nervous/wobbly on some notes, but her acting was perfection. She also looked a lot more like Sandy than Laura in my opinion...even when she was not the main focus of the scene, you couldn't take your eyes off her. Gorgeous...and what stage presence. I'm sure those of you who saw her in Hairspray would agree. Her transformation at the end was also fantastic. "You're the One That I Want" had so much energy tonight...I was impressed.

I had seen a youtube video of Taylor Hicks singing "Beauty School Dropout" from his first Broadway performance, and it was dreadful...off pitch, bad acting, almost seemed like he was walking through. That was not the case tonight AT ALL. I thought Taylor did a fantastic job. He sang the song extremely well and completely won the crowd over. I was awaiting the harmonica playing, thinking it would be cheesy, but it really worked with what he did. I also loved how he brought it back in the curtain call...so much fun.

Other standouts for me included Allison Fischer as Patty Simcox (who I loved the first time around), Kirsten Wyatt as Frenchy, and Janine DiVita as Rizzo, who gave a brilliant rendition of "There Are Worse Things I Could Do."

So, overall, I surprisingly enjoyed the show much more than I did the first time. These two leads are able to carry the show and if you are a fan of either of theirs, I would recommend seeing them if you can. Standing room tickets are a great view, and only $31.50. Definitely worth it.

ugh WAT, I've resisted against seeing this show and this review isn't helping...

Something tells me that withoutatrace was an Ashley and Derek fan from the reality show and that he or she is just really happy they got to see them perform. It will be interesting to see if Ashley and Derek sell as many tickets as Laura and Max.

Ashley and Derek will sell more in my opinion.

I thought maybe they would lower the key for him since he has a hard time with the high notes.

And, whose friend are you?

I have a lot of friends Choderman, but none of them are on Broadway-I have no personal agenda here. I'm just waiting for you to write that Ashley is a triple threat. LOL

Sorry! Without a trace made it clear that he was talking about tonight's show when he gave his raving review on tonights performance. You on the other hand did not make it clear that you were talking about tonight's performance and I didn't want assume anything. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm interested in hearing the reviews. There is nothing wrong with supporting your friends, I just think it's a little misleading to not to mention that you are friends and therefore can be biased. I made the "triple threat" reference to Choderman because I was on the NBC board a lot during the reality show and she was constantly saying that Ashley was the only triple threat and that the others couldn't dance. It turns out that Laura is a first rate dancer and Choderman didn't know what she was talking about. It was funny to me that a grown woman would write the same thing over and over again as if she blieved that if people read it enough they would believe it. I hope that Ashley and Derek do really well and enjoy their time on Broadway. I'm interested in hearing what an objective viewer thinks of their performance.

I don't think your review was biased in a bad way, at least you made it obvious that you were a fan of the reality show and that you were happy you got to see the person you wanted to win perform. I have more of a problem when people chime in how wonderful a performer is and act like they have no personal connection with them. Choderman is a personal friend of Ashley's and she rarely admits that when she posts and to me that is very misleading. Even if you don't know Derek personally you grew to really like him and form an opinion of him outside of the performance that you saw last night and that can't help but contribute to how you feel about his over all performance. You specifically said that Derek's voice did not crack last night, yet someone else said that it did. I don't know who to believe because I don't know you or the other poster. You might have not heard something that someone else did or the other person might just hate Derek and want to make him look bad. It's hard to know what people have to gain by writing good or bad things about a performer because it's not easy to know if someone has an agenda or not. I thought your review was harmless even though you did write that Millions of American's were wrong when they voted for Max because Derek was so much better-obviously that was a very biased statement but completely harmless.

Having seen the TV show, I thought that the choice between Laura and Ashley was about as close a call as there could have been. Both of them were excellent.

Thanks Wat for a fabulous review!

Quick Questions:

1. Did they changed the playbill?

from this...


to this art work?


2. Did you stage door? and how was it? Were there tons of people? How's Taylor?
Derek? and Ashley?

J*

I didn't hear Derek crack and, to be honest, I was waiting for it myself. I'm, of course, biased but I didn't hear the crack.

As for Austin it is my understanding that he made it very clear he didn't want the part. When the reality show was on I liked Austin but as time has gone by and I've rewatched performances I've come to the decision that Austin just simply not right for the part. There are so many avenues open to him but I don't think Grease should be one of them.

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