Dubliner Kevin O'Dwyer is Associate Director of the musical Grease, which is coming to Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre in April. He talks to John Byrne about the show and his time in showbiz.
If you’re of a certain age, Grease may still be the word. Back in 1978, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John seemed to have a permanent place at the top of the pop charts as a series of hit songs from the hugely popular movie sold millions.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the musical was based on the film, but it’s actually the other way around. First performed in 1971, it went to Broadway a year later and by the time it closed in 1980, Grease's 3,388-performance run was the longest in Broadway history.
It then became a West End hit, a successful feature film (of course), enjoyed two popular Broadway revivals in 1994 and 2007, and more recently in the West End. It's been a staple of regional theatre and amateur drama groups for decades.
Now, it’s on its way back to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Directed by Nikolai Foster and choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing legend Arlene Phillips, the production will run from Tuesday April 23 to Saturday May 4.
The musical follows the fortunes of 1950s’ teenagers at the fictitious Rydell High School and features songs such as Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin’, Hopelessly Devoted To You and You’re The One That I Want.
Marley Fenton plays Danny, Hope Dawe plays Sandy, while Rizzo will be played by Rebecca Stenhouse. As for Irish involvement, well that comes in the shape of Kevin O’Dwyer, from Castleknock in Dublin, who is the show’s Associate Director.
As a performer, Kevin’s theatre credits include West Side Story, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Mary Poppins and Peter Pan. Offstage, he was Resident Director and Choreographer in Grease when it was on the West End.
He was also a backing dancer for Ryan O'Shaughnessy at The Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon in 2018. This chap’s been around – but it’s also a good place to start a conversation.
John Byrne: Hi Kevin. I see you were a dancer with Roy O'Shaughnessy at the Eurovision in 2018 and now you’re an associate director on Grease. It’s obviously been a hectic six years for you in terms of your career!
Kevin O'Dwyer: Yeah, it’s been busy. That was a great experience with Ryan, though. We had a brilliant time at the Eurovision.
How did you get from dancing to becoming an associate director? That sounds like a terribly serious job.
I worked with the show with Grease for a long time. I did my first contract then probably that was in 20, probably 2018 as well as 2019 and I worked as a dancer on the show. And so I did a UK tour of it - two UK tours actually - and then a season in London, in the West End.
And then I sort of just worked my way up but yes and became resident choreographer and director and then became associate director. Becoming an Associate Director kind of just happened, I guess. I worked my way up to this role.
So Grease isn’t just the word, it’s your world!
Yeah, it has been for the last few years anyway.
And of course, the show predates the film, which might surprise some people . . .
Yeah, the film was based on the show. It was originally written obviously in the 1950s and was based on a high school in Chicago. And then when they were making the film, they obviously moved it from Chicago, and it became a bit more sort of sunshine, I think more of a sunny place, I guess.
Hollywood, eh? I suppose they had to move it to California to make it a prettier and more palatable project.
Exactly. Our production is based on the original show, which was set in Chicago and it’s a bit more. A bit more like rough around the edges, I would say and grittier than the film was.
So we've sort of gone back to the original script. We have a few songs that were in the original show that weren't in the film, so this production goes back to the roots of the show.
But if you saw the film, you're not going to be disappointed by this. It just feels a bit edgier, I guess. A bit more real. You know, trying to make the characters and storyline or whatever a bit a bit more real and a bit more relatable.
So it'd be fair to say that it's somewhere in between the original stage production and the movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Would that be fair comment?
Exactly. It's sort of taking what the film obviously created and being true to that and keeping that, then bringing back some of the elements that were sort of lost for the film or don't work as well on film as they would on stage.
I think what's interesting as well is that people can relate to a lot of the themes in the show. So many of the themes and the stories, and the characters, I think, are still relatable now in 2024. It's still so relevant.
Finally Kevin - what do you enjoy most about being involved in show business?
I think I just enjoy how it's different all the time. Like even if you're in a show for a year and doing eight shows a week. Every performance feels different because you're working with the people and every night is different and using a different energy. There's a different vibe.
There's a difference every time, always something new to find in a show. And yeah, I think there's just like that element of excitement and obviously it's what I used to dream of doing when I was younger, to be involved in various productions and be on the stage. And so it never feels like work, I guess.
Grease is at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from Tuesday April 23 to Saturday May 4. Tickets are available now from Ticketmaster.
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