A Brand-New Stage Production of 'Grease' Will Electrify Australian Audiences in 2024
Musical fans, this is the one you want: a new multimillion-dollar production of the 50s-set, five-decade-old show touring the country.
Prepare to get hopelessly devoted — again — to Rydell High, summer lovers reuniting at school, leather jackets and Pink Ladies, all across Australia's stages in 2024. Because giving Grease a prequel streaming series isn't enough, the 50s-set musical is returning to its original home, with a brand-new multimillion-dollar theatre production of the five-decade-old show set to be the one that local audiences want next year.
Grease is shaping up to be Melbourne's big summer hit, zipping into the Victorian capital's Her Majesty's Theatre like lightening in January. Then, from March, it'll take its retro stylings to Sydney's Capitol Theatre. If you live elsewhere in the country, cross your fingers that these two initial seasons are only the beginning.
Everyone knows Grease's plot by now, given how popular the 1978 movie adaptation of the musical rom-com still is, especially Down Under. It is about an Australian transfer student, after all, who falls in love with an American high schooler in California. After it sped from the stage to become a silver-screen classic, it spawned a 1982 Michelle Pfeiffer-starring sequel, too, then this year's Paramount+ show Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.
Exactly who'll be slipping into John Travolta (Paradise City) and the late, great Olivia Newton-John's (The Very Excellent Mr Crocodile Dundee) leathers as Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson in the new Aussie production has yet to be revealed, nor has any casting — T-Birds, Pink Ladies and teachers alike. But whoever gets the gig, obviously they'll be belting out all the famous tunes, including the titular 'Grease' and fellow earworms 'Summer Nights', 'Sandy', 'Hopelessly Devoted to You', 'You're The One That I Want', 'Greased Lightnin' and 'Beauty School Dropout'.
"I am thrilled that Grease, one of the world's all-time favourite musicals, is returning to Australia in a brand-new production featuring an all-Australian creative team," said producer John Frost announcing the new tour, which is presented by John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia.
"Grease has always been about having fun and, coupled with the much-loved songs and choreography, I know that this will be the party musical that everyone is talking about for a long time to come."
GREASE 2024 AUSTRALIAN TOUR:
From January 2024 — Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne
From March 2024 — Capitol Theatre, Sydney
Grease will tour Australia in 2024, starting in Melbourne in January. For more information or to sign up for the ticket waitlist, head to the musical's website.