Grease celebrated its second birthday at the Piccadilly theatre by announcing that Ray Quinn has extended his run as Danny until November 2009 and that the show has extended until September 2010.
The cast celebrated the anniversary, which makes Grease the longest-running show ever at the Piccadilly theatre, on 25 July, when they were joined by pupils from Wallasey School who will stage their own version of the hit musical as part of the Sky1 series Grease: The School Musical.
Grease began its current run in the West End in July 2007 following a televised search for new leads that saw Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden crowned as London’s Danny and Sandy for the new millennium. Since then, nearly 750,000 people have hand-jived along with the 50s-set musical which includes songs such as You’re The One That I Want, Summer Nights, Hopelessly Devoted To You and Greased Lightnin’.
The tale of a troubled high school love affair was written in the early 70s, but it was the 1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John that made it one of the most popular musicals ever.
Quinn originally played Doody to Bayne’s Danny in the summer of 2008, before rejoining the cast in May 2009 as the leader of the T-Birds. In between stints in the musical, the former Brookside actor and X-Factor finalist won the latest series of celebrity ice-skating competition Dancing On Ice. Quinn’s Sandy is played by his real life girlfriend Emma Stephens.
While celebrating the show’s birthday, the Wallasey School pupils took the chance to pick the brains of the West End cast. Grease: The School Musical, which airs on Sky1 in August, will see the youngsters stage their own production of the musical with the help of producer Stacey Haynes and vocal coach Zoe Tyler. The show is presented by former Blue star Duncan James, who will return to the West End stage this winter in Legally Blonde The Musical.
MA