However, this show was no ordinary student production.

One would be forgiven for expecting the ‘beats’ to be a little off, the acting clunky and singing disastrously off-pitch. But this was not the case. 

The talent on show was easily the equal of any other community production, indeed for the most part it could have been mistaken for a professional production.

Directed by Don Hillam, a veteran of musical theatre, the teenagers convincingly brought Rydell High School to life on stage. 

Leading man Jack Martin made a convincing Danny, the boy torn between love and peer pressure. Jack’s performance changed gears in an instant, echoing John Travolta’s famous screen portrayal of the character. 

Meanwhile Giorgia De Paoli’s Sandy was every bit as wholesome and perhaps even more lovable than Olivia Newton John ever was in the role. Her rendition of Hopelessly Devoted To You was a show-stopper, the crowd rapt by the emotional depth of the performance and the power of the girl’s lungs.

The stage musical differs somewhat from the film, but all of the songs were there and the moments the crowd looked forward to. Each cast member brought a truth and vitality to their role, perhaps helped by their age, that made it simply more believable than the film ever was. 

Members of the audience were very impressed on the whole after the curtain fell, but one name kept popping up again and again.

Everyone’s secret favourite character Rizzo was played by Lara Camm, whose acting and dancing were very good but were left for dead by her voice. Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee was fun in the first half but when she sang There Are Worse Things I Could Do, after the character reveals she is pregnant, the audience’s collective jaws dropped. This was a voice that belonged on Broadway, not Neville Place.

That any show should take an audience to a specific place time is a special thing. For that show to have great singers, dancers and actors is even better and for the two leads to have both talent and chemistry is remarkable. But for the performers to be kids? 

Wow.