David Stobbe
A&C
Grease is the word
It’s got groove, it’s got meaning
Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion
Grease is the way we are feeling
Sound familiar? These lyrics are from the title song for the popular motion picture Grease, the classic rock ‘n roll musical about the fictional Rydell High’s senior class of ‘59, with its duck-tailed, hot-rodding Greasers and flirtatious, gum-snapping Pink Ladies. The 1978 film earned $394 million in worldwide box office sales.
But before the film came the 1972 Tony-nominated show that ran on Broadway for an astounding 3,388 performances and was revived twice in New York and in London. After the film, Grease attracted 12.2 million viewers as a 2016 live FOX television special and became a staple at community theaters, summer stock playhouses, and on high school stages.
Grease has been many things, but it has never been culturally inclusive.
That is, until Crystle Lightning (who hails from Enoch Cree First Nation in Alberta) and Henry Andrade, also known as MC RedCloud (who is Huichol, an Indigenous people of Mexico), thought to change the musical’s groove, meaning and motion by re-envisioning the work in a decolonized, brown-centric 1950s and calling it Bear Grease. The two hip-hop artists, collectively known as LightningCloud, also direct and play the starring roles of Sandy and Danny.
The show, which features an all-Indigenous cast—including Teneil Whiskeyjack, Tammy Rae, Rodney McLeod, Nipíy Iskwew, Bryce Morin, Melody McArthur, Artson and newcomer Justin Giehm—was conceived in Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton, Canada, in 2018. It was first performed at the Fringe Festival in Edmonton in 2021, began touring shortly thereafter and is now in town for eight performances at the Santa Fe Playhouse.
Marketing materials suggest Bear Grease both informs and parodies the original Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey and John Farrar musical by infusing the source material with Native customs and culture. This sounds like the making of an engaging and entertaining evening of theater, particularly since the all-Indigenous cast consists of very talented, invested and energetic performers who seem to be having a wonderful time on stage. Sadly, too much undermines LightningCloud’s good intentions and the show’s promotional promises.
The most apparent shortcomings are the low budget production values, where the show’s music is limited to a pre-recorded soundtrack and its scenic design is an empty stage with a rear screen that projects frequently wonky images to establish time and place. Touring tends to restrict staging, but this lack of creativity and commitment is disappointing.
Also, the show doesn’t really change the musical’s groove, meaning or motion. Instead, it merely uses Grease as a conceptual framework to piece together period musical numbers, most of which are not from the original show or film. Coupled with the amateur production values, Bear Grease comes across as something more akin to expendable dinner theater than the kind of legitimate theater that typically graces the Santa Fe Playhouse stage.
Most surprising is the lack of Indigenous influence incorporated into the material, which is a missed opportunity. Native culture serves more as a punch line in the lyrics (lots of frybread references) than a through line in the story. And hip-hop (the creators’ forte) significantly outweighs anything specifically traditional and Indigenous in the storytelling.
With that said, the few moments that do embrace things Indigenous are remarkable. Rae (Whitefish Lake First Nation/Métis), in dramatic lighting, performs a moving rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” sung in Cree. Morin (Enoch Cree Nation) stands center stage and chants the Grease song “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” accompanied only by his own hand drum and the desire to dance.
Musical numbers like these add weight and meaning to those songs, which nicely complement the fun that flows throughout this production. Rather than the exception, they should be the rule. In a post-show speech on opening night, Lightning and Andrade mentioned their desire to ready this show for Broadway rather than limit productions to fringe festivals, pow wows and Indigenous market weekends. This would be the place to start.
Please note the shows for Thursday, Aug. 17 have already sold out. An additional matinee performance has been added to Sunday, Aug. 20 following public demand.
Bear Grease: 7:30 pm Thursday, Aug. 17; 6 pm and 8 pm Friday, Aug. 19; 1 pm, 4 pm and 8 pm Saturday, Aug. 19; 1 pm Sunday, Aug. 20; 3 pm Sunday, Aug. 20. $15-$75. Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 East De Vargas Street, Santa Fe, 505-988-4262, santafeplayhouse.org
Guest writer Bob Abelman is the award-winning theatre critic for the Austin Chronicle and the author of two humorous theatre-centric novellas, All The World’s A Stage Fright and it’s sequel Murder: Center Stage (Gray & Co. Publishing). Both are available through all online retail outlets.
