Broadway musical Grease wows crowds in Karachi

One of Broadway's longest-running musicals, Grease, has closed after a successful fortnight-long run in this Pakistani port city, where it attracted packed audiences.
"We really didn't expect such a great response because it is never an easy job to produce a broadway musical in Pakistan within our cultural and social requirements," said Nida Butt, director of Grease.
The musical was staged since January 16 at the Arts Council here till its last show yesterday. This was the first time Grease has travelled to Pakistan.
Having produced Chicago and Mamma Mia in Karachi earlier, Butt managed to put together a version of Grease that impressed the audience with its energy, choreography and strong performances by most of the cast.

The successful run of the musical underscored that despite problems like target killings, bombings and crime in Pakistan's biggest city, its cultural, arts and theatre scene is very much alive.
The last few months have seen regular plays and musicals being produced in Karachi, where the Arts Council and National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) auditoriums are located near the bustling financial centre of I I Chundrigar road.

For critic and playwright Salman Pirzada, the success of Grease is not unexpected as he described it as a play with youthful exuberance, a dash of music and a spell of dance - the perfect recipe for creating magic on stage.

The final show of the musical by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs had some moments that had the audience gleefully glued to their seats last night.
"It is great to relive a magical time and our youthful vibrant memories," said former test captain Zaheer Abbas, who was in the audience.
The two stars of the play, well-known actors Sanam Saeed and Ayesha Omar, performed the roles of Rizzo and Sandy that required live singing and dancing.
The play about a typical high school where Danny (Ahmed Ali) and Sandy fall in love and learn to change for each other was well received since its first show.

Popular television and stage actor Shakeel said he would congratulate lawyer-turned-director Butt for putting her heart and soul into the musical.
"I think the choreography was top-notch and the music by Hamza Jafri impressive. It was nice to know that the director and the producers of the play understood the undercurrents of the script," he said.
Grease has been the highest grossing musical to date in the US. A successful film version in 1978 starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. It holds an impressive stage history as its original Broadway production broke the records with a run of 3,388 performances, making it the Broadway's 14th longest running show to date.