Get ready to hand jive at Helias Catholic High School's next spring musical.
"Grease" will open March 15 and also run March 16-17 at the Miller Performing Arts Center in Jefferson City. The show will begin at 7 p.m. on March 15 and 16 and 2 p.m. on March 17.
The musical will include all of the iconic scenes you know and love, such as the big school dance, "Greased Lightning," and one of the students favorites, the sleepover scene.
"You see all these scenes because 'Grease' is so iconic and everybody knows what it is and you get to be those characters that you watched for so long. ... It's so cool and so fun because we just get to be goofy and we get to just be girls together," said Lainey Hood, who plays Marty and is also the student music director. This will be her seventh musical.
Hood has enjoyed stepping into Marty's shoes so far, adding, "I'd say Marty is truly just herself. You know, she is very blunt and she's really honest. She's just such a fun character because she's got sass but it's a different kind of sass than Rizzo does and I've never played a character like that before."
Hood isn't the only student playing a different role than usual.
Alli Echelmeyer, co-choreographer, will portray Rizzo.
"I think it's been really fun because all of the other roles I've played before have been like princess-y and innocent and then there's Rizzo and she's just so different. And I think it's just really interesting to see how I can play her to make her likable, but also still that iconic villain in the story," Echelmeyer said.
Echelmeyer has been co-choreographer for four years. This is also her seventh musical.
Hood added, "I think my favorite thing is just having an outlet outside of life where you get to kind of just be somebody else for a little while and get to know who you are as a person through these characters that you get to play. I think that's been my favorite part of doing these."
The dream sequences and 1950s setting have made for interesting and fun sets, according to Enzo Lenart, stage manager and student director. This is his fourth musical.
"My favorite parts are the sets and seeing it all come together. Sometimes we don't get pieces until the week of and so you just know there's going to be this big hole there and then we get it and it just looks so great," Lenart said.
Helias has done some things differently with "Grease" while also keeping the core parts that everyone knows and loves.
"We've kind of incorporated some of the movie stuff and some of the stage play stuff so I'm excited for people to see what we've done with it as a group," Hood said.
Co-choreographer and featured dancer Emmie Lyskowski shared her favorite part of her roles in the production.
"Since I am a featured dancer, I get to be multiple different things. Like I get to be a cheerleader at one point, a greaser at one point, I'm even an angel, so I get to go about the characters in a different way but through dance," said Lyskowski, who is taking part in her seventh play.
Lyskowski added, "Everybody has worked so hard on the dancing and have come a really long way so I'm excited for everybody to see that."
"Grease" is made up of 45 cast members and 20 crew members who are directed by Amy Pringer.
Deven Crisostomo will be playing Danny Zuko and Claire Huntley will be playing Sandy Dumbrowski. Other cast members include Jack Callahan as Kenickie, Macy Morris as Jan, Anna Schatte as Frenchy, Alex Lewis as Doody, Hayden Kennison as Roger and Ian Jerozol as Sonny.
"I think it's a great show for everybody to see. Because it's high-schoolers playing high-schoolers, we can really relate to the characters," Echelmeyer said.
She added, "All of the guy scenes, they have so much chemistry because they're actually buddies in real life. Same with the girls, like we're all friends in real life, so the chemistry between all the characters is actually there and I think it's really important to have that and you can actually tell."
For many of these students, "Grease" is being added to a long list of musicals they have worked on together over the years.
"These musicals have been such a huge part of our lives and having this one be our senior one, it's great. And I'm so proud of everybody and the progress that they've made throughout these past couple months," Hood said.
Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased by calling the school office at 573-635-6139.
"We have a lot of people that are interested in the arts here at Helias and it's really, really great to see," Hood said.
Alexa Pfeiffer/News Tribune photo: The cast of Helias Catholic High School's production of "Grease" rehearses Tuesday at the Miller Performing Arts Center. The show will run from March 15-17.
Alexa Pfeiffer/News Tribune photo: The cast of Helias Catholic High School's production of "Grease" rehearses Tuesday at the Miller Performing Arts Center. The show will run from March 15-17.
Alexa Pfeiffer/News Tribune photo: The cast of Helias Catholic High School's production of "Grease" rehearses Tuesday at the Miller Performing Arts Center. The show will run from March 15-17.