KUDOS FOR KIMBERLY!

The latest Broadway revival of Grease hasn't been getting very good reviews, but Blog About Town favorite Kimberly Grigsby seems to be rising above it all.

"Some of the best dancing at 'Grease' isn't on stage, but above it - in the loft where Kimberly Grigsby leads the band.

"Pelvis rocking, fingers flying - the willowy brunette isn't so much conducting the music as she is channeling it, riding with the rhythms and lip-syncing the lyrics, visible via video monitors, to the actors onstage...."
—Barbara Hoffman, New York Post (August 20, 2007)

"The real performance happens above the sanitized stage, where a tough and terrific conductor named Kimberly Grigsby leads the band from a synthesizer while tossing her pony tail and dancing as if she means it. Dare you to watch anybody else."
—Linda Winer, Newsday (August 19, 2007)

"Another positive element in the set is the perch for the cooking band under Kimberly Grigsby, a dressy conductor who dances as she directs an ensemble - whose tenor sax man, John Scarpulla, contributes eloquently to the '50s sound."
—Malcolm Johnson, Hartford Courant (August 20, 2007)

"The orchestra, conducted by Kimberly Grigsby, is perched on a catwalk above the stage. Grigsby, who also plays the synthesizer, puts on quite a show herself, particularly after the actors have taken their curtain calls at the end of the musical and she lets the band rock theatergoers out of the Brooks Atkinson."
—Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press (August 20, 1007)

This sounds a lot like what Grigsby did so wonderfully in Two Gentleman of Verona—which was also directed by Kathleen Marshall.

Photo: David Marc Fischer