FAMILY MATTERS by Jude Dobson | Auckland Home | Renting and Buying in Auckland

The other day, I saw Grease at the Civic. It really is a gorgeous venue. You feel like royalty when you walk into all that Middle Eastern opulence. Apparently, my grandmother went to the opening of the theatre back in 1929. It would have been quite an event on the back of the Roaring Twenties.

As unique as it is now (apparently, only seven buildings of its style remain worldwide), I was trying to explain to the two teenagers in tow just how amazing it must have been in its heyday. They didn't quite believe me that Freda Stark was indeed living up to her name and dancing completely starkers with only a G-string and a few layers of gold paint to keep her warm.

The Civic would have been the perfect venue for what was surely a glorious performance by Freda and all the other dancers of decades ago.

Good to know that glorious performances are still the norm inside, then, under the painted, "starlit" Arabian sky.

Grease was a great watch and, judging by the people around me, a hit with everyone from five to 75.

I didn't realise the show had been around in stage form for quite as long as it has. Starting on Broadway in 1972, it has globetrotted for almost 40 years taking 1950s' Americana with it. Each week its cast goes through 142 costume changes, 16 leather jackets, 59 wigs, and 10 jumbo-sized cans of hairspray and eight pots of hair gel. Yep, quite a production.

Productions seem to be coming out of our ears at our house. On writing a schedule of after-school comings and goings to stick on the kitchen cupboard, I realised why I'm suddenly so busy: twice a week for number one's preparations for her school show in eight weeks, one day a week for number two for his school show next month and two days a week for number three for a community theatre show in a fortnight.

Then there's the usual rugby, preseason cricket, soccer and ballet in the mix. In fact, I'm writing this at the back of the ballet class accompanied by classical music and the rhythmic "one and two" of the ballet teacher's voice.

In the madness that is the run-up to any performance you've got to remember the  complete satisfaction when it all comes together on stage.

While it may not be an international cast at the Civic, I'm sure the feeling for them is just as good as it is for kids onstage in a utilitarian school hall and us, the proud olds in the audience.

Being in a team that pulls something together that will ultimately be appreciated by the audience is all good, life-learning stuff, I reckon.

Annie, like Grease, is a 1970s' perennial that's been performed in over 20 countries. This is the first production by Acting Out, a new community theatre aimed at under 35s, at Auckland Grammar's Centennial Theatre. Our small person is one of the orphans, motivated by the thought of jumping on beds and scrubbing floors with a fellow "orphan" friend.

That will wrap, then we're off to see Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat. No sooner will we have done the biblical thing than we'll be off to yet another school hall which will be transformed into a farmyard for Honk, the musical story of The Ugly Duckling.

If you get a chance to pop along to see Grease at the majestic Civic, go and have a fun night reliving the 1950s and the 1920s at the same time. If you're off to school halls around the city for school shows, of which there are many at this time of year, you'll enjoy them just as much as you watch all the rehearsals come to life. Your inner taxi driver will evaporate.

As Vince Fountain - The Main Brain - would say, "be there or be square".