****/***** (four out of five stars)
Whatever you are expecting when you hear the log line “an Indigenous version of the musical Grease” . . . the new musical Bear Grease is not it. Now playing at St. Luke’s Theatre, Bear Grease is a postmodern party of a pastiche, gleefully deconstructing everyone’s problematic fave by throwing everything out the window and inviting it back in again, interpreting this bizarre but beloved text through the perspective of Indigenous peoples. Using various media in conversation with song, dance, and hip-hop performances, Bear Grease remixes its source until it is nearly unrecognizable, showcasing the vibrancy of First Nations culture and the exuberance of unbridled imagination. More a multimedia variety show than a straightforward Grease revival, it might be the best party you can find off-Broadway.
The show’s creators, Crystle Lightning (who also directed) and Henry Cloud Andrade, known jointly as LightningCloud, take the basic form of Grease (Sandy, Danny, and a handful of catchy songs) and make it completely their own, transposing culturally specific language into the lyrics of “Summer Lovin’” (here “Summer Snaggin’,” in which our lovers meet at a powwow) or translating entire songs into the Cree language (“Wichihin” for “Stand By Me”). If that were all Bear Grease did, it would still be an interesting project, but it is far more expansive and ambitious, incorporating freestyle rap, TV commercial parodies, doo-wop and girl group performances, Tarantino-esque discussions of hip-hop culture, questionable accent-based humor, breakdancing, multiple showmances “captured” by backstage cameras, raunchy anecdotes, seventies-style animation breaks, shout-outs to An American Tail, and absurdist comedy threaded throughout. If the movie Grease has sentimental appreciation for a vanishing world of drive-ins and virgins, Bear Grease takes it to the next level, evincing nostalgia for a world that might have been . . . if, for example, Columbus had been headed off at the pass by a hail of fiery arrows.
Though it is just now making its New York debut, this delightful musical has been touring North America for four years now, and the cast has over 200 performances under their belts. The experience shows—both in the onstage camaraderie and in the ease with which the actors inhabit their characters. Melody McArthur and Bryce Morin easily don Sandy and Danny’s sweet-natured charisma while switching into performing themselves, or versions of themselves, for mockumentary-style footage. Tammy Rae Lamouche, as tough “Pink Auntie” Rezzo, captures her character’s prickly defensiveness while expressing Rezzo’s longing for connection through song.
The staging is, somewhat purposefully, a little rough around the edges. When the shaggy “let’s put on a show” vibe meets the engaging performances, it’s hard to resist being utterly charmed. A projection screen is heavily used onstage, mostly to good effect, though when the altered lyrics to familiar songs appear onscreen, the impact is blunted by performers literally blocking the words from view with their bodies. One hopes that this is a technical hiccup the team can work out as they explore the possibilities of the new theater space. Pitch-perfect costumes by Skylene Gladue, aka Nipîy Iskwew (who also plays Jan, a Pink Aunty) combine candy-colored 50s kitsch with elaborate Native American-style beaded medallions and other accessories. The emphasis on bringing modern Indigenous authenticity to jazzed-up fashion tropes is emblematic of the production’s approach to its source material.
Bear Grease. Through September 7 at St. Luke’s Theatre (308 West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues). www.beargreaselive.com
