Residents can ride a wave of greased lightning over to Musical Theatre West’s (MTW) upcoming reimagined production of “Grease.”
The iconic broadway production will receive a modern, more inclusive makeover for its 50th anniversary—one complete with a pair of performances from the multi-talented drag queen Jackie Cox, otherwise known as Darius Rose.
Cox appeared on season 12 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” as the first queen of Iranian descent and placed fourth during her season. Before her life in drag however, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from UCLA and performed in a number of theater productions across Southern California such as “Light in the Piazza,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Big River,” “Les Miserables,” and “Godspell.”
Cox will adorn the stage as Teen Angel, telling Frenchie to stay in school and avoid being a “dropout” in one scene, then return as the strict English teacher Mrs. Lynch, who hopelessly tries to enforce rules at the school dance.
As no stranger to the stage, Cox said she will be drawing inspiration from some of her favorite divas of the ‘50s for her Teen Angel performance, as well as her own personal struggles. Some of her influences include Jane Russel, Roasalind Russel, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, “just to keep Frenchy on her toes,” Cox said.
She recalled her first year living in New York after growing up in Southern California as “difficult, confusing and sometimes lonely,” until finding her place in the drag community.
“Drag rescued me from that and I have to thank the queens who showed me the ropes and taught me so much about art, passion, drag, and what being a member of an artistic community means,” Cox said. “I remember seeing [drag queen] Peppermint at my very first drag show I attended in New York City and being completely blown away by the way she could command an audience, plus she sang her own songs. It was incredible and hugely inspiring to me.”
MTW will attempt to create a similar environment of acceptance for patrons through an entire cast that was carefully selected to diverge from the original production’s all-white portrayal of Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko’s love story.
While the show will follow the broadway production’s storyline and feature songs from the 1978 motion picture, the characters will be “inclusive and reflective of our world,” said Snehal Desai, director of the show.
“I think what often happens with things set in early and specific eras in this country is that we forget the diversity that existed. So Asian Americans, here on the West Coast, in Southern California, in the ‘50s and ‘60s [had] a pretty big presence,” Desai said. “I wanted to make sure that we reflected the community.”
Desai explained that most of the company comes from multicultural backgrounds and some identify as nonbinary. He said the “very gendered” world that the play is set in will be revisited through “a little bit of a modern lens.”
His goal to make the production more inclusive is what led him to casting Cox as two separate characters in the show.
“I love this idea of having Jackie play the two tracks. To be Miss Lynch, this kind of dowdy teacher, and then to contrast that with a very beautiful, glamorous look in the Teen Angel,” Desai said. “And she was very game when we reached out.”
Cox’s role in “Grease” will be a homecoming of sorts for her after many years of being in New York. In between crooning words of tough love to Frenchie, she said she looks forward to revisiting Executive Suites and Hamburger Mary’s, two restaurants in Long Beach that feature drag performances.
She also looks forward to being back in the city where she said she attended her first pride celebration as a high school student.
“I remember feeling embraced by such a beautiful vibrant queer community,” Cox said. “I remember as a young person how important it was for me to see that diversity somewhere other than a gay bar … so I hope this production will be another beacon to young people. I want them to know they belong in this city and this community no matter who they are or who they love.”
MTW’s production of “Grease” will run from July 8 to July 24 on selected dates and times at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the Cal State Long Beach campus. Tickets range from $20 to $96 and can be purchased by visiting https://musical.org/upcoming-events/ or calling 562-856-1999.