Grease Posts Closing Notices at Piccadilly, 30 Apr

Grease has posted closing notices at the West End’s Piccadilly Theatre, where it will now finish on 30 April 2011 before embarking on an immediate UK tour next spring. Grease’s closure leaves the door open for several other musicals vying for a West End transfer, amongst them the screen-to-stage adaptation of Ghost, which has been previously tipped for the Piccadilly.

Grease opened at the Piccadilly on 8 August 2007 (previews from 25 July) and had been taking bookings through to 11 September 2011. It will now finish after nearly four years in the West End and having broken the record as the longest running show in the Piccadilly’s history.

The class at Rydell High is led by Over the Rainbow finalist Lauren Samuels as Sandy and, from 27 September, Matthew Goodgame as her sweetheart and T-Birds leader Danny. They’re joined in the cast by Siubhan Harrison, Lucas Rush, Hayley Gallivan, Faye Brookes, Bennett Andrews and Robyn Mellor.

Grease is directed by David Gilmore, choreographed by Arlene Phillips, and produced by David Ian and Paul Nicholas, by arrangement with Robert Stigwood. The 1972 Broadway musical was immortalised by the 1979 film version, in which John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John played Danny and Sandy. The musical originally ran for six years in the West End, first at the Dominion and then at the Cambridge Theatre, returning to London for a short run back at the Dominion in 2001 and at the Victoria Palace in 2002/3. In between, it toured the UK extensively, produced since 1993 by Ian.

Grease has book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. It’s now-famous songs include “Summer Nights”, “Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee”, “We Go Together”, “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, “Beauty School Dropout”, “You’re the One That I Want”, “Greased Lightnin’” and “Grease Is the Word”.

Ghost receives its world premiere next year at the Manchester Opera House, opening for a limited seven-week season there, from 28 March to 14 May 2011, prior to a West End transfer.