JOYFUL, JERKY, AND
JUST WHAT OFF-BROADWAY NEEDS

There are two powerful reasons to see Bear Grease.

First: The deeply felt curtain speech by Henry Cloud Andrade, co-writer/co-creator—with Crystle Lightning—of Bear Grease. With warmth and candor, he begins by gently thanking the audience for not expecting a full Grease revival. More importantly, he shares the staggering context that Bear Grease is only the second full Indigenous production ever to play Off-Broadway. He speaks of a long history of Indigenous exclusion from the arts, referencing to the not-so-distant past when passes were required to leave reservations, and voting rights were withheld until 1965. “We’ve always been here,” he says. “And our stories deserve to shine just as brightly as anyone else’s.” The audience responded to the touching speech not only with applause but with recognition.

The Cast of Bear Grease

Second: Bryce Morin, whose electric vocals and searing passion in “Hopeless Roundie” simply stopped the show. His character Danny celebrates winning back Sandy (Melody McArthur), strikes a Round Dance hand drum, and opens his heart and vocals in his native tongue that eventually segues into “Hopelessly Devoted” in English. The performance transcends parody and lands with an emotional power, drawing the biggest applause of the night.

That said, Bear Grease arrives at the St. Luke’s Theatre with an uneven production that feels better suited to a community center stage than an Off-Broadway house. The heart is there. The soul is there. But the theatrical infrastructure is not.

Rodney McCleod, Justin Giehm, Bryce Morin, Mikey Harris, and Raven Bright

Eight raised platforms serve as the stage, set before a white screen that functions as both scenery and storytelling device. No set designer is credited. No lighting designer either—and it shows. A blow-up air mattress and a side table serve as the only props. The pre-recorded music blares over the speakers, and while the cast throws themselves into the songs with infectious energy, there’s no credited music director. The staging is mostly pulled down to the front of the stage with the actors standing in a line.

The Cast

Over a dozen choreographers are credited, and their work brings genuine electricity. “Tick Tock” and “Meet Me at the Pow Wow” are a joyous explosion of Powwow dance styles—Traditional, Grass, Chicken, Fancy—offering a cultural reframe to the original Grease. But these moments are undercut by the lack of theatre craftsmanship and creativity—as well as the crowded blocking, poor sightlines in the flat-floor seating of St. Luke’s black box, and a lack of visual cohesion.

Mikey Harris, Bryce Morin, and Melody McArthur

The show relies heavily on video. Nearly all the “book scenes” are pre-recorded and projected: Danny and Sandy quarrel backstage; the cast jokes around; the stage manager wonders if he’s taken too many mushrooms. These vignettes, produced with polish by Connor McDavid and Gerry Clarke, offer a glimpse into a fictional backstage world—but dramatically, they don’t add up to much. Their cumulative effect? A sense of disconnect. Live theater is, after all, supposed to be live. And Bear Grease too often defers to the screen.

Allyssa Trujillo, Skylene Gladue, Melody MacArthur, Haley Robinson, and Tammy Rae

That same screen is also used as a backdrop with projected lyrics—though when actors perform downstage, much of it is unseen. It’s a clever concept, inconsistently executed.

Musically, the show includes a handful of reworked Grease numbers—“Summer Nights” becomes “Summer Snaggin’,” “Greased Lightnin’” becomes “Bear Grease Lightnin’”—alongside additional material, including a Cree-language cover of “Stand By Me” (soulfully performed by Tammy Rae Lamouche as Rezzo) and several original rap numbers. Unfortunately, the Playbill fails to credit the other composers.

The Cast

Still, the cast makes the most of every beat. Allyssa Trujillo, Haley Robinson, Nipiy Iskwew, Justin Giehm, Rodney McLeod, Raven Bright, and Mikey Harris round out the cast of ten performers, hailing from across Turtle Island—Enoch Cree Nation, Beaver First Nation, Frog Lake, Muskeg Lake, Mvskoke, Navajo Nation, and beyond. Each and every cast member exudes joy, pride, and charisma. They radiate tradition, humor, and resistance. It’s their presence that elevates Bear Grease from scrappy novelty to something genuinely meaningful.

Bear Grease co-creators Crystle Lightning and Henry Cloud Andrade (aka LightningCloud)

And while the production’s shortcomings—technical, structural, and theatrical—are impossible to ignore, so is its cultural significance. To see the “I” in BIPOC represented with such authenticity and pride is a long-overdue gift to New York theatergoers.

Bear Grease may not yet be a fully realized Off-Broadway production, but it is, undeniably, a heartfelt and necessary act of Indigenous representation. For that reason alone, it deserves our support, our attention, and—most importantly—our welcome.

photos by Russ Rowland

Bear Grease
St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St
two hours with intermission
ends on September 7, 2025
for tickets ($59.99-$119.99), visit Bear Grease

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Gregory Fletcher is an author, a theater professor, a playwright, director, and stage manager. His craft book on playwriting is entitled Shorts and Briefs, and publishing credits include two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and several essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.