Grease The Immersive Movie Musical was my first experience of the Secret Cinema franchise and what better a place to ‘wop bam boom’ along to, than Battersea Park on a summers night.
Entering the funfair, we are immediately immersed in to the world of 1959, with chances to win teddy bears, ride the ferris wheel and explore the fun house before heading in to the huge warehouse (featuring Frosty’s Palace, The Beauty School, The Carnival, The Gym, The Autoshop and La Cafury Beauty School) where the fun (and the film) begins.
Whilst the film is played on huge screens, scenes are acted out, live throughout the audience. There is a stage with a live band and a large centre stage where the cast (and some lucky VIP ticket holders) enter and exit the scenes.
Speaking of these VIP’s who pay extra to be a part of the show – they are ushered up on to the stage at different times to join in with dance competitions etc. Whilst a nice idea for how to really immersive hardcore fans in the experience, it was confusing as to who all these people were and felt like a stampede of elephants, distracting from the performance.
As someone with Autism, I struggled with not knowing where to look. Characters popped up here, there and everywhere with no real indication of where they were. It didn’t help matters with the entire audience more interested in talking to each other than watching the show (this may have been due to it being Press Night and most of the audience were probably invited rather than having paid £49-£149 each to actually watch then performance).
Once I settled in to the show it was enjoyable and the finale (taking place outside at the funfair) was a lot of fun. If the show was staged in once place, with the film playing on the screen above (like the Royal Albert Hall do for live movie concerts) this would have been much more enjoyable for me and the sound and view would be much better.
I understand and appreciate the immersive nature of the show but whereas the Bridge Theatre so brilliantly managed to do Guys and Dolls, Grease The Immersive Movie Musical is difficult to see, hear and follow.
Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical features all of the songs from the film, sung live by the cast including ‘You’re The One That I Want’, ‘Beauty School Dropout’, ‘Greased Lightnin’, ‘Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee’, ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘We Go Together. The sound didn’t help some of the vocals and at times I wondered if the performers could hear themselves. Saying that though, Lucy Penrose as Rizzo was vocally flawless!
As a first experience of Secret Cinema, maybe it just isn’t for me. The crowds of people, the constant chatting around the audience and spending half the time trying to figure out where the characters were.
But it was a lot of fun and the more wine I drank, the more I could appreciate why people might love this kind of show. It has clearly had a huge amount of money spent on putting it together but I would have like to see more of the budget go in to staging and sound that on ferris wheels and cuddly toys.
★★★
West End Wilma
Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical is playing for just six weeks and so you have until Sunday 7 September to catch it at Evolution London, in Battersea Park.
