Casey acted with the Chicago Stage Guild (where he met Jim Jacobs), the Old Town Players, and the Kinston Mines Theatre. In the meantime, he taught himself how to play the guitar and began writing songs. He supported himself with jobs in retail, including working as an assistant manager of a chain of apparel stores, and as a record salesman. He appeared in dozens of productions, including creating the role of Bernie Litko in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He moved to Chicago in 1962, where he hoped to pursue an acting career. During the late ‘50s, he learned all about “greasers” while working as an art teacher in upstate New York. WARREN CASEY (Author, Composer and Lyricist) was born in Yonkers, New York, and attended Syracuse University. He currently resides in Southern California and remains active in the theatre, especially with the American Theatre Company of Chicago. Jacobs was presented with an honorary doctorate degree from Columbia College in Chicago. He is the co-author of several other plays and musicals including Island of Lost Coeds, a musical spoof of the low budget sci-fi/horror/jungle movies of the 1950s, which he wrote with Warren Casey. Originally an actor, Jacobs has been seen on television, in motion pictures, regional theatre, national tours, and on Broadway. The 1978 movie became and remains the highest grossing movie musical of all time. A year later, Grease made it to Broadway and “Greasemania” took off, resulting in one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. Grease opened in 1971 in a former trolley barn called the Kingston Mines Theatre in Chicago. Seven years later they wrote what was to become one of the greatest musicals of all time. In 1963, Jacobs met Warren Casey when they were both cast in a local theatre production of A Shot in the Dark. During the golden era of rock ‘n’ roll (1956-1960) he was a guitar-playing “greaser” student at Taft High School. ![]() Jacobs, who created Grease (in 1970) with Warren Casey, was born and raised on the mean streets of Chicago’s far northwest side. Grease is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., a Concord Theatricals Company. to high school, to summer nights, to rock ’n roll, to finding self. It’s through dynamic relationships, pushing boundaries, and questioning norms that we come into our own, clarifying who we are and who we become. those high school years where relationships––whether romantic, friendly, adversarial, or somewhere in between––significantly grow us as people. ![]() While we don’t see any of these kids fully grow up, Grease gives us a look at that refining process that shapes individual and collective identity. ![]() As friendships shift with the arrival of Sandy at Rydell, the Burger Palace Boys and Pink Ladies navigate new social and cultural dynamics and try on different personas as they subscribe to or defy the expected norms of the era. Here the constraints of 1959 definitions of femininity and masculinity are on full display in the cultural references and attitudes of the kids. In Grease we meet a group of kids who are jockeying for power in their search for identity against a world that offers extremely limited options. ![]() Each generation has created its own iteration with the 19 Broadway revivals and the current West End production, but the stage musical is closer to the original Grease and is more than just the love story of two teens. While the 1978 movie played up the romance of Sandy and Danny’s summer fling and brought us the bright, flashy world of the Pink Ladies and T-Birds, the original 1971 production was a grittier, raunchier, comedic piece commenting on the cultural shifts of the late fifties. Welcome (back) to Rydell High School and the world of Sandy, Danny, the Pink Ladies, and the Burger Palace Boys! Grease is one of those iconic musicals beloved for its big dance numbers, rock ‘n roll music, and of course, those summer nights.
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