http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6938284.stm

And a very poor review from the Guardian

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/d...144788,00.html

The Times are also pretty disinterested

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle2225246.ece

Compare it to the review they gave Joseph...

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle2093549.ece

...and I think Grease has been well and truly trounced for good, first in the ratings, and now in the reviews!

Thanks for that - not good for Grease at all!

The reviews I've seen have been quite shocking.
I saw the show years ago on tour in manchester with Shane Richie, it was pretty dire then even though he had buckets of charisma.

Perhaps they should employ Daniel and Rob as Danny and kenickie
Although I wouldnt really wish them into a poor show.

Well I hardly saw any of the TV show, but I do feel sorry for the leads...

Daniel did Grease years ago when it was last in London - played Doody and Roger ... sang 'Mooning' ...

Don't think he'd want to go back to this shambles.

Another bad one, this time the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main...affdrv07053100

Knowing that a lot of theatre critics don't like TV-casting, it makes me appreciate how good Lee and Connie really are to have won them over. They were probably waiting to pounce on anything sub-standard and it looks like these unfortunate souls are getting it in the neck...

Although Ben wasn't directly cast for Hairspray through the TV show, he was always be associated with ADWD, and it leaves me very worried for how the critics will treat him.

Well, they say tickets are sold for months in advance, so who cares what the critics say. They don't even agree amongst themselves sometimes - one saying Arlene Philips choreography was the only saving grace, another saying it was dire. We Will Rock You was a flop with the critics, wasn't it? And it's still going strong.

This is in the wrong forum!

It will still make loads of money and be a financial success if not a critical one.

The BBC do show they are best at these types of shows though.

I was comparing it to the reviews that Joseph got, and the fact that the critics were obviously waiting with their knives out to lay into one of these shows, and the fact that I think it shows how good Lee is that he didn't get it in the neck like these guys are. So no, I do not believe it is in the wrong forum, thanks.

Good points ^^. We also made comparisons between the two TV shows throughout their run. GITW came off pretty badly there too - it's interesting that the quality of the end production seems to have been as disappointing as the TV show that created it.

Many reviewers wouldn't get many marks for logic. There's not much point telling us that the musical is old or doesn't explore other issues and is shallow - thats true of any musical that is old and didn't explore those issues at the time. The reviewers would have people rewriting practically every musical because it wasn't up to date or didn't do what they wanted it to when it was originally written.

The reality TV stuff is nonsense too. No one has won or done well in a reality theatre casting TV show who wasn't professionally trained and its far from clear anyone else who qualified didn't turn up for whats essentially a different sort of audition. Its not as if the West End musical scene is staffed by dedicated great singers either - much of it is filled by ex pop singers, actors or even presenters who sing after a fashion and ex soap actors. Compared with some of them, the product of the ALW shows is the real thing - properly trained musical theatre people who can act and sing. I don't think many people would argue for example that the West End version of Fame is as good as the touring version which is the one with 3 people who came to it from TV shows.

Without wanting to sound really mean (I'm a nice person, honest!) I was quite pleased Grease got bad reviews. I was a HUGE fan of ADWD (and Lee's) and hoped when it came to the reviewers that Lee would win them over and Susan and Danny from Grease wouldn't. I also thought David Ian deserved a bit of a knock since he seemed quick to desert ALW in favour of hogging the limelight himself.

Rosie