Photo Flash: Olney Theatre Center's GREASE

Those summer nights are going to last just a little longer as Olney Theatre Center extends its production of Grease before it even opens. Bobby Smith returns to direct what can be called the original high school musical.

Grease will now play the Mainstage July 27 through August 28. There is a Pay What You Can performance on July 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $26 to $54, with discounts available to groups, seniors, military, and students. Call the Box Office at 301.924.3400 or visit olneytheatre.org for tickets and information. In addition, Olney offers several special performances that include sign interpretation, audio description, and post-show discussions. Please see the Fact Sheet
for more details.

It's 1958. Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko spend their summer days at the beach, and their summer nights falling in love. They don't expect to see each other again. When Sandy transfers to Rydell High, she's surprised to find Danny isn't exactly the guy with whom she fell in love. With Rizzo and the Pink Ladies coaching the wholesome Sandy, and Kenickie and the other Burger Palace Boys razzing Danny, who knows if true love will prevail.

Grease was first staged at the Kingston Mines Theatre in Chicago in 1971 - forty years ago. The co-creators, Jim Jacobs and War Ren Casey, were friends for seven years before they collaborated on the project. It was over a beer at a party when the idea first struck. Reacting against the "traditional" musical melodies, Jacobs and Casey amused themselves by imagining a new kind of Broadway, with music from the late 1950s, and characters from the golden days of rock ‘n' roll. Little did they know that their songs would become classics (and karaoke favorites): "Summer Nights," "We Go Together," "Greased Lightnin"....

Grease made its Broadway debut in June 1972, and ran for 3,388 performances and 20 previews. Two subsequent Broadway revivals were mounted in 1994 and 2007. The hit film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John proved to be the highest-grossing movie musical to this date.
Play the iconic roles of Danny and Sandy are David Bryant Johnson, making his Olney debut, and
Jessica Lauren Ball, who previously performed at Olney as Martha Jefferson in 1776. Johnson's credits include the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Arvada Center), Curly in Oklahoma! (Discoveryland Theatre), and Riff in Atlanta Symphony's West Side Story. Ball toured nationally in The Pajama Game, and has performed locally at Toby's Dinner Theatre as Laurie in Oklahoma! (2010 Helen Hayes Award nomination), Cinderella in Cinderella, Sister Amnesia in Nunsense, and Johanna in Sweeney Todd, among others.

Working with Smith on the creative team are Ilona Kessell (Choreographer), Aaron Broderick (Musical Director), Robert Klingelhoefer (Scenic Design), Seth Gilbert (Costume Design), Charlie Morrison and Sonya Dowhaluk (Lighting Design), GW Rodriguez (Sound Design), and Renee E. Yancey (Stage Manager).

Photo credit: Stan Barouh