Grease The Musical at Crown Theatre Perth sees Annelise Hall continue to live her dream role as Sandy

While it was being cast during kindergarten as youngest orphan Molly in her primary school musical of Annie that initiated Annelise Hall to fall in love with performing, her high school musical Xanadu produced her first of many links to Australian favourite Olivia Newton-John. Playing Newton-John’s Xanadu character Kira, Hall’s efforts of learning to rollerskate for the role were rewarded when the musical’s director contacted the Aussie singing and acting icon, who filmed a video message to wish them well on opening night. “It was just a high school show, but it meant a lot to us at the time,” Hall recounts from her home in Manly on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. “What I’m doing now, and knowing that video is there, just makes it all very full circle.” Queensland Conservatorium graduate Hall would not only go on to play the role synonymous with Newton-John, Sandy from 1978 film Grease, in Grease The Musical — both with Queensland Conservatorium at Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the current touring Australian production — but the latter led to her being an official ambassador for Olivia’s Walk for Wellness at Melbourne’s Alexandra Gardens last October. Hall walked, sang You’re The One That I Want and visited the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre, which the touring production has been supporting via fundraising at its performances. “One woman said as I was walking the halls of the hospital, ‘It’s really special to feel like Olivia Newton-John is here again’, and that meant the world to me, just to be bringing something back,” Hall shares. “I’m not trying to recreate her in any way, but just to give a bit of that Grease spirit and that positive energy into the hospital has been really special for me, and really meaningful.” Hall has already booked a trip to Rottnest on her first visit to Perth, as Grease The Musical drives full throttle into Crown Theatre Perth from June 30, with an all-star cast including Patti Newton as Miss Lynch, Marcia Hines as Teen Angel, Jay Laga’aia as Vince Fontaine and Perth-raised WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate Mackenzie Dunn as Betty Rizzo. When the musical premiered in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve 2023, it became the pinnacle of Hall’s career to date. “I hadn’t even got to do an ensemble role in a big commercial show before, I’ve only ever done leads in slightly smaller scale productions, so to jump straight into a lead role of this status has been an absolute dream come true,” she says. “Mackenzie Dunn is an incredible actor and it’s been great to learn from her. Then Marcia and Patti and Jay Laga’aia bring so much comfort to the stage because they really know what they’re doing, and you really trust the work with them. It’s so fun being on stage with them because people in the audience love to see them and everyone screams when they come on.” Not only does Hall get to retain her Australian accent in this version of the musical — which is not always the case — she can relate to character Sandy Dumbrowski in many ways, as she navigates her journey at 1950s Rydell High. “She’s like the Catholic school girl, maybe had a bit of the good girl syndrome going on, but she really tries to find her identity, she tries to stand up for herself and she tries to feel empowered,” she explains. “I think that’s a storyline that so many women can resonate with. There’s the idea that, ‘Oh, she changes for the man, she changes for Danny’, but that’s not the way I see it. The way I see it, is that she wants to be one of the Pink Ladies, and she’s more about changing and becoming something greater and more free and more liberated than what she was before. “It’s almost like she’s identifying with this new version of America that’s allowing women to express themselves however they want. That’s actually quite a good storyline for women and something that we can connect with in 2024. “The music is the thing that keeps bringing people back and I don’t think the music is going to ever get old, it is iconic for a reason. Of course there’s some things that we don’t agree with now in the storyline, but at the same time, if you clean up things too much, you’re almost not respecting how far we’ve come.” Grease The Musical is at Crown Theatre Perth, June 30 to July 28. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.au.