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ALL ABOUT THE MUSICAL "GREASE"

With a hip-shaking rock ’n’ roll score featuring hits like “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’” and “We Go Together,” Grease celebrates Rydell High’s class of 1959 in all their duck-tailed, bobby-soxed, gum-snapping glory!

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Named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers and set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School in Northwest Chicago, the musical follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love.

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The first Broadway production opened in 1972; when it closed in 1980, Grease's 3,388-performance run was the longest yet in Broadway history! It went on to become a West End hit, a successful feature film, have two popular Broadway revivals, and become a staple of regional theatre, summer stock, community theatre, and high school and middle school drama groups. It remains Broadway's 17th longest-running show!

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CASTING

 

Generally, at ACT-1 we are open to gender-blind/re-gendered casting. Therefore, please audition for whatever roles you are attracted to!

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However, please try to choose the roles that best reflect your talents. Just because you like a role doesn't mean you are well-suited for it, and you'll want to have the strongest audition possible!

 

As you get to know the show and the music, please pay attention to the characters' vocal ranges and required skill sets. Sometimes we can slightly adjust the key of a character's solo song, but we do prefer to keep accompaniment in the original key as much as possible.  

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Carefully read the character descriptions and requirements below, and let us know if you have any questions!

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ROLES/CHARACTER BREAKDOWNS

 

Danny Zuko 

Vocal range: Tenor (D4-B5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​The leader of the Burger Palace Boys; good-looking, strong and confident, with an air of easy-going charm. 

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Sandy Dumbrowski

Vocal range: Soprano (A3-F#5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​New girl in town; sweet, wholesome, naive, cute, and innocent.

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Betty Rizzo

Vocal range: Alto (A3-C5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​Leader of the Pink Ladies; tough, sarcastic, and outspoken but vulnerable.

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Frenchy

Vocal range: Alto (A3-D5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​​A dreamer; good-natured but not too smart, she is heavily made up, fussy about her appearance, particularly her hair. She can't wait to finish high school so she can be a beautician.

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Marty

Vocal range: Alto (C4-C5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The 'beauty' of the Pink Ladies; pretty and looks older than the other girls, but betrays her real age when she opens her mouth. She tries to act sophisticated.

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Jan

Vocal range: Alto (A3-C5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​Funny, loud, compulsive eater, and awkward member of the Pink Ladies. Loud and pushy with the girls, but shy with boys.

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Doody

Vocal range: Tenor (D4-A5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​The youngest of the guys; small, boyish, and open, with a disarming smile and a hero-worshipping attitude towards the other guys. He also plays the guitar.

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Kenickie

Vocal range: Tenor (C4-F5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The second in command of the Burger Palace Boys; tough-looking, tattooed, surly, and avoids any show of softness. He has an offbeat sense of humor.

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Sonny Latierri

Vocal range: Baritone (G3-A5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​A member of the Burger Palace Boys; funny Italian-American, he is a braggart and wheeler-dealer who thinks he's a real lady-killer.

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Roger

Vocal range: Tenor (D4-A5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The anything-for-a-laugh stocky type of boy; a clown who enjoys winding people up, he is full of mischief and is always dreaming up half-baked schemes and ideas.

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Vince Fontaine

Vocal range: Flexible

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

A typical 'teen audience' disc jockey; slick, egotistical and fast-talking. He is also a veteran 'Greaser.'

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Cha Cha aka Charlene Digregorio

Vocal range: Alto (C4-C5)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The best dancer at St. Bernadette's; a loud mouth, she wins the dancing competition with Danny.

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Eugene Florczyk

Vocal range: Tenor (A3-E5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

The class valedictorian; physically awkward, with weak eyes and a high-pitched voice. He's a typical 'apple-polisher' - both smug and pompous, but gullible.

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Johnny Casino

Vocal range: Tenor (G4-E5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

All-American, rock-star “greaser” student at Rydell High, whose real name is Clarence.

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Miss Lynch

Vocal range: Flexible

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: Adult 

Character's Ethnicity: Any

A no-nonsense, serious, loud English teacher.

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Patty Simcox

Vocal range: Alto (D4-A4)

Character's Gender: Female

Character's Age: High School teen

Character's Ethnicity: Any

​A typical cheerleader; attractive, athletic, sure-of-herself, but can be given to bursts of disconcerting enthusiasm. She's a bit of a pain and unpopular with the Pink Ladies, and can twirl a baton.

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Teen Angel

Vocal range: Tenor (E4-F5)

Character's Gender: Male

Character's Age:  Flexible

Character's Ethnicity: Any

Frenchy's suave and slick guardian angel, who encourages her to stay in school.

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The Pink Ladies Ensemble

​The club-jacketed, gum-chewing, hip-swinging girls' gang who hang around with the Burger Palace Boys.

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The Burger Palace Boys

A super-cool, DA-haired, hard-looking group of high school wheeler-dealers... or so they think.

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Bit Parts

​Radio Voice: Male, Age Flexible (Range: Tenor, A3–C5)

A Radio Voice

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Ensemble

ADDITIONAL INFO

RESOURCES

Please watch this production of GREASE! 

SHOW HISTORY

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​ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION

The score borrows heavily from the sounds of early rock and roll. In its original production in Chicago, Grease was a raunchy, raw, aggressive, vulgar show. Subsequent productions toned down the more risqué content. The show mentions issues such as peer pressure, love, friendship, teenage rebellion, and other theme's of adolescence. 

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Since it was first performed in 1971 in Chicago, the content has been diluted and its teenage characters have become less Chicago habitués (the characters' Polish-American backgrounds in particular are ignored with last names often changed, although two Italian-American characters are left identifiably ethnic) and more generic.

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ORIGINAL FILM

Grease was adapted in 1978 as a feature film, which starred John Travolta and British-Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, removed the musical's Chicago urban setting, and changed some plot elements, characters, and songs while adding new songs and elaborating on some plot elements only alluded to in the musical. Some of these revisions have been incorporated into revivals of the musical. 

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OTHER FILM AND TV PRODUCTIONS

A 1982 film sequel, Grease 2, included only a few supporting characters from the film and musical. 

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In 2016, in the wake of similar productions that NBC had performed for other musicals, Fox broadcast a live production of Grease, known as Grease: Live, as a television special starring Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Vanessa Hudgens and Jordan Fisher. The TV musical used elements from both the original stage version and the film.

PO BOX 57443 

Sherman Oaks, CA 91413

CONNECT WITH US

Staff is available through phone or email most hours of the day.  

7 DAYS / WEEK

10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

(818) 915-8527

HOURS OF OPERATION

CONTACT

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Los Angeles, California United States

© 2020 by Academy for Children's Theatre
 

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