Summary
An all-Indigenous reimagining of the musical Grease. This “Reservation sensation” fuses 50s rock and roll with Indigenous culture, humor, and music.
Saturday, July 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM Jul 5, 2025, 8:00 PM
The kind of thing you go to with friends, laugh, praise unspecifically on 46th St, and do not write a self-serious review on the internet about your personal connection to the material. (I was briefly starstruck to find out that this was directed and scored by the little girl from “3 Ninjas Knuckle Up” which I liked when I was 5. There it is. There’s the angle, baby.)
“Bear Grease!” was fun and weird and pretty scattered. (And inexpensive at TKTS!) It’s an indigenous musical parody of “Grease” with an unexpected, like, behind-the-scenes reality show element? A lot of prerecorded and animated connective tissue between the songs, which span from direct parodies of the source material to some extra jukebox inclusions and original hip hop tracks.
I always try to appreciate the offbeat stuff, and this is definitely that. There’s a protracted segment about 80% of the way into the show where they list off almost every member of the Wu-Tang Clan and what it means if that’s your favorite member. It’s funny and clearly reflects some serious hip hop fandom—my favorite is Raekwon, but “Liquid Swords” is the best solo record—and a complete digression from the rest of the show.
That’s what kind of thing this is, and the commitment is admirable. A clear-if-bizarre labor of love, or, more cynically, manatees picking idea balls. For me, a good time, but not everyone will find the humor in it.