All-School Musical: Grease

Kinder HSPVA is bringing Grease to the Denney Theatre this October, and it's the big all-school musical of the term. The show runs October 16 through 18 and then returns October 23 and 24, with evening performances from 6:30 to 9:00 PM and one matinee on Sunday, October 18, from 1:30 to 4:00 PM.

It's a full-school production, which is what makes these HSPVA shows different from a typical school play. More than 100 students are involved, coming from all six art departments: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Vocal Music. That means the music, the choreography, the sets, and the costumes are all handled in-house by the students themselves. The story takes you back to Rydell High in 1959, with leather jackets, poodle skirts, and the music of a generation setting the scene for the classic story of love and friendship you already know.

Directing the production is Kevin Cahoon, an HSPVA alumnus who graduated from the theatre program in 1989. He's a Broadway regular, having been in the original casts of The Lion King, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Wedding Singer, and Shucked—the latter earned him a 2023 Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. This is a homecoming for him, returning to Houston to lead the school's biggest show of the term.

It's staged in the Denney Theatre, the largest performance venue on campus, which seats around 800 and has five stories of fly space above the proscenium. The show runs October 16, 17, and 18, and October 23 and 24, with evening performances from 6:30 to 9:00 PM and a Sunday matinee on October 18 from 1:30 to 4:00 PM. You can find the theatre at 790 Austin Street in Houston.