By Shawn Hogendorf, Correspondent 

The Burger Shop Boys and the Pink Ladies will fill the Prior Lake High School auditorium with timeless tunes and dance moves when students doo-wop back to 1959 to perform the spring musical, “Grease.”

The musical opens April 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Prior Lake High School, 7575 150th St., Savage. Performances also are planned for April 12, 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee show at 2 p.m. April 20.The Burger Shop Boys join Sam Bartel
of Prior Lake, who plays Danny, to
sing a tune about hooking up with
Sandy over the summer. (Photos by
Shawn Hogendorf)

Decked out in A-line dresses, poodle skirts, leather jackets and jeans, the Prior Lake High School musical cast and directors hope to bring nostalgia to audience members.

But to do that, the cast has to fill some high heels and Chuck Taylors.

“Grease is part of our collective unconscious, and there is a good and a bad side to that,” said musical director Josh Shank. “It’s almost playing dress-up with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and that’s the fun part. The hard part is that’s what people expect. It’s really hard to perfect that – not only meeting someone’s expectations, but taking them back to the first time they saw this.”

Shank said the cast is one of the most talented and dedicated he has ever worked with at the high school. The orchestra, technical crew and cast have all attended nearly every practice and done everything asked of them with enthusiasm, he said.

“The freshmen have really stepped up by choreographing dances to two songs and other freshmen play the parts of leading roles,” Shank said. “That’s not even talking about the seniors who have worked four years to get to this level. I wouldn’t recast a single part in this musical.”

Ryanne Dunning of Savage, who plays Sandy, said her role is scary to play because it is so well-known.

“Everyone knows Sandy in ‘Grease,’” Dunning said. “I have to try to play Olivia Newton-John. She is someone I have always looked up to in this role.”

Although the task of performing “Grease” is somewhat frightening, Dunning said the cast members are also excited and came into this musical knowing all the characters.

“We’re high-schoolers playing high-schoolers, so we get to be ourselves. But at the same time we get to be someone else, so it helps to bring some of our personal experiences into this,” Dunning said.

As it turns out, some of the 1950s themes haven’t changed after nearly 50 years.

“Grease has all the things that make a play timeless,” Shank said. “There aren’t a lot of matchmakers like the ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ anymore, but there are a lot of teenagers, and that’s what ‘Grease’ is about. It was about teenagers in the time and place it was performed, in the time and place it was written and still is now. All these issues go across time to tell us about growing up.”

 The underlying themes that speak to gang violence, teenage pregnancy and peer pressure are still relevant to the students, director Jenny Witt added.Ricky Dunning of Savage, who plays
Kenickie, shows off grease lightning.

The directors of the spring musical have been talking about doing “Grease” for years, Witt said. But as directors, they always worry because the musical calls for such a strong cast of guys, she said.

“A lot of high schools don’t have the luxury of having a bunch of talented guys, but we do,” Witt said. “This was a great time for us to bring ‘Grease’ to Prior Lake.”

Alongside the stage performances, a pit crew made up of high school band members will perform the musical score.

Musicals are interesting and different from plays in that a musical suspends a person’s disbelief, Shank said.

“The action of the play is like a boat and the music is like a wave that sends the boat farther downstream toward its destination,” Shank said. “Music has the power to do that. That’s why it’s OK to break into song during the middle of the play.”

The set design is also something that makes this production unique, Witt said.

“A lot of people have seen or been in different productions of ‘Grease,’ so I tried to keep the set fresh and new,” said technical director Dave Tuma. “I don’t want to duplicate something someone else did.”

The idea behind the set was to keep the scene changes down to 15 to 20 seconds, Tuma said.

“I don’t like dropping a red curtain every time there is a set change,” he added. “So I designed the set with the scene changes in mind.”

For instance, the bedroom set turns into the burger shop by a quick flip around during intermission. The lockers transform into a garage that holds Grease Lightning, a car rented for the production from the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre.

As the technical director, Tuma also oversees the production students in the light and sound booths.

This year, the production students are using something lighting crews at the high school haven’t worked with before, Tuma said. The lighting crew will program six “intelligent lights” operated from a computer to cue the lighting.

Sound engineers also have to be at the top of their game with cues, Tuma added.

“I always say if you screw up lighting no one knows the difference because it is artistic, but if you mess up the sound, everyone knows,” Tuma said. “I am demanding of these kids when it comes to microphones and music. The students are never allowed to mute the mics. They bring the levels in and fade the levels out so the transitions are seamless.”

Jenny Krocak and Kiah Bizal, both of Prior Lake, said they spent days collecting 1950s-style clothing and props for the show.

What they couldn’t recycle from cast members’ closets, they made, said Krocak, head of costumes. The costume crew started by collecting old stuff people had around their homes, and then things get more specific character by character, she said.

“It’s a lot of fun to see all this come together,” Krocak said. “I didn’t expect the set to look this cool. But it’s awesome.”

“I have to say I watched the movie a few times as a kid, but it’s cool to see this come together on stage at our school,” added Bizal, head of props.

Tickets for “Grease” cost $5 for students and $7 for adults. Tickets will be available at Prior Lake High School one hour before the shows start.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.