Grease Sheffield City Hall: Manor Operatic Society 'near flawless' for SOLD OUT Grease performance - review

What a show the Manor Operatic Society’s Grease was for the SOLD OUT Sheffield City Hall audience. Energetic, captivating and hilariously funny, the entire company should be incredibly proud of that opening night.

The iconic Pink Ladies and leather-donning Burger Palace Boys were belting out fan-favourites like ‘Greased Lightning’, ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘Mooning’ (which you will need to prepare yourself for) all whilst performing some intense, high energy dance routines – hardly missing a beat.

Dylan Lambert (Danny Zuko) and Emily Mae Hoyland (Sandy Dumbrowski) were terrifically cast, costumed and rehearsed. Katie Ann Dolling’s Rizzo was for many the standout performance, playing the snappy, chain-smoking Pink Lady with ease and confidence, which at times lifted her co-stars with her to another level.

In fact, each of the Pink Ladies – including Hannah Lancashire (Marty), Emily McGeoch (Jan) and Sophie Pitts (Frenchie) – did a stellar job, taking to the characters almost flawlessly.

For some, the lasting picture from this show will be the final shot of the leather-clad Sandy held in Danny’s arms with the cast around them, but for most, and I must say myself included, it will be the hilariously unexpected appearance of both Sam Clarkson’s (Roger’s) shaved butt-cheeks at the end of ‘Mooning’.

Perfectly timed to end the song – after a number of ‘moons’ during the number, with his rear still covered by his underwear – Clarkson dropped it all to nearly his knees, almost blinding us all as the stage lighting reflected back to the audience.

There were few hiccups along the way, a missed note or an out of time step during the group dances, but largely, this excellent show was exactly that. Excellent.

I have to give credit to the man who offered the best character performance of them all though. Callum Haigh as the nerdy Eugene was spot on.

Callum became Eugene for the night. The way he ran across the stage and delivered his limited lines was perfect, never dropping the Eugene-ness for one second. But for me, the bit that pulled it all together was his dancing. Whilst every character gave each step their 100 per cent best, Callum was in the midst of the crowds dancing in the jumpy, sometimes uncoordinated way Eugene would. Brilliant.

The brilliant choreography and showmanship instilled by the directors, Richard Bradford and Linda Kelly, was fantastic. They created an excellent show, which they should be tremendously proud of. I did, at times, find the story difficult to follow, but I was assured by those who joined me at Sheffield City Hall that that was really just me.

It clearly went down a storm with the crowd, who jumped at the oppotunity to stand up, sing and dance with the cast as they belted out some musical encores at the end of the show. Grease ticked all the boxes and lived up to the sold out hype it had built.