Grease is the word

Freedom presents a new take on the 1971 classic

Springtime at FHS means many different things to many different people: the beginning of allergy season for some, the start of baseball and softball for others and, for the Freedom Drama Club, springtime means the annual musical. Years past have brought successes such as “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “The Wizard of Oz” and, most recently, “The King and I.” This year’s production of the 1978 classic, “Grease,” also hoped to live up to the legacy of the original while adding a FHS twist.

When asked how they believed the show compared to the original, Senior Maddie Edder said, “The original 1971 musical is very very different from the 1978 movie. The biggest difference is that there are a lot of songs from the musical that did not make it into the movie and there are also a lot of songs in the movie that were not originally in the musical. We were luckily able to add all of these iconic songs from the movie into our production. There are also some minor differences in the plot throughout, however the musical still carries out the same story of the Grease movie that people know and love today.”

Casting for the show began back in November of 2016 with practices beginning in January of 2017. The student and faculty cast has put in months of out of school work into making their show a success for the brief three days where they performed on the high school stage. The show also featured a variety of set changes with the help of the cast and stage crew and a guest appearance from principal Mr. William Deal.

Another change long time play fans noticed is the apparently missing orchestra. In the past years, the orchestra has been situated at the base of the stage in what has been called the “pit.” This year the orchestra is cleverly hidden above the stage on a platform located in the middle of the stage. While the orchestra is not as large as the one in previous plays, the clever location allowed for a new addition to the stage reserved for the famous Burger Palace from Grease.

This year’s drama club was incredibly young to those in years past; while lead roles were filled by seniors Kameron Mayhue and Maddie Edder, the rest of the cast consisted primarily of juniors and freshmen.

Although John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John may be missing from the stage, the talented students of FHS more than made up for it.