“It is a Chicago story, and a lot of people don’t know that.” With this thought in mind, Michael Driscoll, Lake Forest Academy’s Director of Theater, decided to bring the Chicago story “Grease” back to its home ground. The story is based on the real experience of Jim Jacobs, the writer of the musical, at William Howard Taft High School.
The story takes place in the 1959 Rydell High School, located at the northwest side of Chicago. The two protagonists, Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski, fall in love during the summer before senior year, but as Sandy transfers to Danny’s high school, he is not ready to show his sweet side to his friends, and brushes her off. Heartbroken and miserable, Sandy begins her journey of self-discovery and independence. The conflict ultimately resolves with both characters choosing authenticity over image, and that is Driscoll’s favorite moment. Many shows portray Sandy as a superficial and frail girl, but that is not what Driscoll wanted to represent on the LFA stage. According to Driscoll, Sandy is a woman who “says what she means, and means what she says,” and she sticks with her belief in a firm and steady manner.
The show is really about friendship, connection, acceptance and love. That is exactly what LFA’s theater production wants to communicate to the audience, who are mostly teenagers who are experiencing the process of discovering their real selves. In this way, Driscoll wants to allow the community to celebrate individuality and uniqueness.
Besides the lively music and romantic story, behind the scenes, months of dedication and collaboration brought the production to life. When asked what her favorite part of the winter musical, Helena Riley ‘26, playing Sandy, said that her favorite moment is how Driscoll teaches actors to “act like a fool” and how he puts on a whole show to design different poses to make student actors laugh and get used to opening themselves up in such a comedy.
One thing special about this production in LFA is that it features one song that is from the original play that did not make it to Broadway and a bunch of underscoring that is also from the original production of “Grease.”
The musical will not be as energetic and complete as it is without the efforts of the whole production team, with Peg Plambeck and Tim Plambeck as the voice instructors, Valerie Gonzalez as the Choreographer, Jason Koenig as the production manager and technical director and Sally Stephenson as the pit instructor. Regardless of the challenge of acting out this unfamiliar high school life in the 1950s, actors pushed through it with countless vocal and stage rehearsals, including Saturday rehearsals. For the crew, one of the challenges is to bring a real car on the stage, and the final solution was to borrow one from one production of Columbia College. The pit orchestra, which this time was placed on stage, perfectly delivered the vibrant 1950s-inspired rock and roll and the nostalgic energy that completes the show.