The world’s most produced musical takes the Lyric Theatre stage this weekend as “Grease The Musical” will make a four-show run Friday through Sunday.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday June 18, 2:30 p.m. Saturday June 19, 7:30 p.m. Saturday June 19, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday June 20.
Tickets, which are not part of the Lyric 2021 Patron Package, are available at brownwoodlyrictheatre.com at $20 for adults and $15 for students.
“We’ve probably sold tickets more rapidly than other show we’ve had before,” Lyric Theatre Executive Director Eric Evans said regarding Grease in a recent interview on KOXE. “We weren’t sure we were going to get permission to do this show, so as a result we could not put it into the patron package. We didn’t finally get permission of everything until probably late February. If you’re a patron and are used to going that route, just give me a phone call and I can work through that with you. Good seats are almost all gone.”
The Grease cast features Jackson Tucker as Danny, Carlee Richardson as Sandy, Kaedon Robertson at Kenickie, Kate Yantis as Rizzo, Evan Fraze as Doody, Claire Clayton as Frenchy, Zaiden Lopez as Sonny, Lilly Lee as Marty, Brian Osbourne as Roger, Andie Tidwell as Jan, Langston Barnes as Eugene, Layla Weedon as Patty, Paul Underwood as Vince Fontaine, April Tassin as Cha-Cha, Caleb Bostick as Johnny Casino, James Williams as Teen Angel, Ren Yantis as Miss Lynch, Renee Fraze as Secretary.
Also appearing in the play will be Presley Dunlap, India Vogt, Allie Haynes, Jaslin Jones, Jillian Lambert, Kelly Jones, Alleson Jameson, Brooke Minchey, Michael Hill, Carson Blair, Cooper Green, Elijah King, and Gage Jones.
“One of the reasons we wanted to do Grease beside it’s a great show, a fun show and people know it, is we have so many kids,” Evans said. “In 2019 we had more kids in high school that wanted to be in the program than we had spots to fill. This year we thought we could add a little more high school involved regular musicals and we’re doing the full blown musical for this, but it takes a lot of high school kids. We didn’t want something that was just particular to one school district in the area, so we’ve got kids from almost every school district.”
Brownwood High School theatre teacher Shannon Lee is serving as the director.
“We love having Shannon direct these plays,” Evans said. “She has so much enthusiasm. Shannon has proven herself very beautifully at directing high school students. With that in mind it’s cool that she’s doing this show.”
The Lyric production will appear very similar to the movie that was released in 1978, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
“The play is very close to the movie that came out, but the play came out first,” Evans said. “The result is there are some nuances that are a little different, like there are some songs that are in the movie that aren’t in the play. So we went ahead and got rights to sing the songs that are in the movie also.”
Grease is the first of a busy summer of productions for the Lyric with Mamma Mia following July 16-25 with an eight-show run, Beauty and the Beast July 30 and Aug. 1 featuring a cast of seventh through 12th graders, and Jungle Book Aug. 6-8 with a cast of third through sixth graders.
“We’re rehearsing four musicals at the same time,” Evans said. “We’re averaging right at 150 actors and volunteers at the theater every day seven days a week right now.”
For more information on upcoming productions or to purchase tickets, visit brownwoodlyrictheatre.com.