All the news from the Cool Rider CD launch

Aaron Sidwell in the studio for the CD recording of Cool Rider. Picture: Matt Crockett

Earlier this week saw the launch of the original studio recording of Cool Rider. For musical theatre aficionados, Cool Rider is the reworking of the movie Grease 2 for a concert staging, which gained much critical and commercial success last April at the Duchess Theatre. The brainchild of producers Christopher D Clegg and James DP Drury, the album represents a life-long love of the original movie and the culmination of a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised nearly £13,000 to make the project happen.

Grease 2 is regarded as a notorious flop movie musical which was rushed into production following the massive worldwide success of Grease. This 1982 movie, which starred Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield, bombed dramatically, but through video and DVD releases gained an underground following verging on cult status. It is this popularity that led to a two-day concert performance staring Ashleigh Gray and Aaron Sidwell at the Lyric, with a score lovingly re-created by musical director Lee Freeman. The response was tremendous, resulting in the fleeting but sell-out transfer to the Duchess and finally this studio album.

At the themed launch party at Guanabara bar and restaurant in Covent Garden, Malibu cocktails were served to hundreds of guests, many of them backers of the Kickstarter campaign, who were festooned in leis or sported tinted visors, akin to the party scene in the original movie. The atmosphere had a real buzz about it, with guests chatting about the movie, while the real fans boasted catching both concert productions and debated whether or not it would ever become a fully staged West End show.

Certainly the high-point of the evening were the live performances including Josh Dowen belting out ‘Do It For Our Country’ and leading man Aaron Sidwell (later this month opening in American Idiot at the Arts Theatre) singing ‘Who’s That Girl?’ Niall Sheehy brought the house down with a crowd pleasing ‘Prowlin’’ but kudos to Niki Evans, who filled the dance floor with the lively ‘Rock-a-Hula Luau’.

Clegg and Drury and musical director Freeman certainly have cause to celebrate as Cool Rider is an infectiously entertaining piece of kitsch that is rapidly gaining popularity. As for the future of the show and its transfer to a full production all we can say is “Watch this space!”

Paul Vale

* On its first day of release the original studio recording of Cool Rider went straight into the Top 10 iTunes Soundtrack Chart.

Also in principal roles are: Reece Shearsmith, Mark Anderson, Bronté Barbé, Daniel Buckley, Lucinda Lawrence and Hannah Levane. They are joined by Melissa Allan, Rachel Flynn, Robine Landi, Geraldine Allen, Felipe Bejarano and Jack Feureisen.