By Staff
Grease was certainly the word last weekend as members of the T.R. Miller High School senior class performed.
As a benefit of my job, I get opportunities to see our young people in action in a variety of settings. As I sat in the auditorium last Sunday afternoon, I was certainly entertained.
For those of you who may not be aware, there are some mighty talented young people in our community. I wasn’t surprised at the amount of talent found on last weekend’s stage, but I will say I was in awe of how wonderfully these students performed.
My hat is off to Amy Dullard who did a wonderful job of corralling the students into action. With such a large cast, the task couldn’t have been all roses. Mrs. Dullard’s abilities came through as a polished performance by the cast of the show.
It’s hard not to compare the stage production of last week’s show to the original screen version we’re all familiar with, but I can see John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John haven’t got a thing on Grant DeFrancisco and Lindsey Ward.
I think the part of the show that gave me the most pleasant surprise is the quality of the singing from the actors and actresses on the stage. I knew there were plenty of talented young people in Brewton, but the singing just blew me away.
So many characters got my attention and made me laugh. One particular character that stood out was “Eugene.” I realize that Malcolm McMillan didn’t have what anyone would call a major roll, but his part was vital to the show and made a lasting impression on me. How a nice looking young man could pull of the part of a geeky-looking nerd is beyond me. For that reason, my hat is also off to whomever was responsible for  makeup for the actors.
As far as dancing in the show, my wish is that I could move like that again.
I was completely in awe of the dancing of Joseph Billy. What a stand out! I’ve seen Joseph in some of the Brewton Community Theatre productions and knew that he was a wonderful actor, but I didn’t know he could move so well.
Ellen Johnson as Rizzo was wonderful and Melissa Perry was fabulous as ChaCha. Ellen can certainly sing and Melissa proved she knows how to ChaCha.
Another student that impressed me was Jonathan McElwee. I had no idea a young man could belt out a tune about a beauty school drop out that way. With such a wonderful voice, Jonathan may have a future in singing. I wonder when the next American Idol tryouts will be?
I would certainly love to mention each actor or actress by name, but space will not permit me to do that.
If you didn’t see the show, you certainly missed a treat. It’s one show that proves the young people in Brewton are talented and hardworking.
I wonder if they could do an encore performance?
Lisa Tindell is the news editor for The Brewton Standard. She can be reached by email at lisa.tindell@brewtonstandard.com.