NABBING a couple of seats to this year's hugely hyped Summer Youth Project was a tall order.

Tickets for the premiere and swan song of Grease sold out months ago and as for the handful left over for yesterday's matinee, they flew out of the box office in less time than it takes to warble "Chang chang changitty chang shoobop". There were even whispers of a waiting list.

So it's not without a tinge of pride (we beat hordes of second cousins to the punch!) that we waded through the sea of parents, friends, nannies, uncles, aunts and godparents into the auditorium - smug as they come.

The Summer Youth Project team never shy away from a challenge but Grease was a bold choice. Unlike previous productions of, say, last year's Hairspray, which all things considered can be classed as relatively niche in the musical theatre world, you would have had to have lived under a rock for the last 30 years not to have shimmied along to Greased Lightnin’, wept with Olivia Newton-John as she declared her undying devotion to John Travolta's broody reflection in a paddling pool or memorised the catchy lyrics by osmosis. And haven’t we all wished we could have pulled Danny from the manicured claws of that strumpet Cha Cha DiGregorio?

Perhaps bracing themselves for the mammoth task ahead, the creatives behind the annual musical, recruited nearly 30 extra performers for back-up. You can never have too many hand-jivers. 

To complicate matters, as usual, the actors, technical crew, and set designers had a marathon ten days to rehearse, fine-tune and polish the full-scale show ahead of opening night - no mean feat when consummate thesps have a leisurely three weeks on average to run their lines and grow into their character. 

From the first notes of Summer Nights and Henry Firth’s impressive falsetto as Danny Zuko, the 180-strong cast served up a stellar performance, with enough pathos to tease out a few unexpected goosebumps between bursts of belly roars, courtesy of the T-Birds. 

The Grease Lightnin' sequence was simply spectacular and had the audience wriggling in their seats, tapping their feet to the beat and furiously head bobbing. Bradley Cull aka Kenickie's mid-air split will surely go down in SYP history. It certainly took my breath away.

Phoebe Moss's transformation from a meek lovelorn teen to a fearless single-minded young woman was utterly believable. Like her co-stars Henry Firth and Megan Hughes as Rizzo , she succeeded in remaining faithful to the show's spirit while injecting modernity, a touch of pizazz and distinct personality into every one of the familiar hits.

A special mention must go to petite powerhouse Teen Angel Scarlet Roche. Her precocious rendition of Beauty School Dropout was the highlight of the performance. 

Like troopers spectators eagerly muddled through the rousing finale's beebops and shoobidowaoohs (not the easiest of ditties to sing along to even with the best will) as the ensemble spilled out into the auditorium egging everyone on.

Another year, another tour de force performance - we doff our hats to the young 'uns.

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