Background
Casey was born on April 20, 1935 in Yonkers, New York to Peter L., a steamfitter, and Signe, a nurse, (Ginman) Casey.
(Full Length, Musical/ Characters: 9m, 9f / ABRIDGED VERSI...)
Full Length, Musical/ Characters: 9m, 9f / ABRIDGED VERSION FOR SCHOOL PRODUCTIONS Groups who perform for young audiences or produce musicals with young actors now have an ideal version of GREASE for their needs. Shorter and more suitable in content for teens and subteens, this abridged version retains the fun-loving spirit and immortal songs that make GREASE a favorite among rock and roll fans of all ages. Here is Rydell High's senior class of 1959: duck-tailed, hot-rodding "Burger Palace Boys" and their gum-snapping, hip-shaking "Pink Ladies" in bobby sox and pedal pushers, evoking the look and sound of the 1950s in this rollicking musical. Head "greaser" Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their "Summer Nights" as the rest of the gang sings and dances its way through such songs as "Greased Lightnin'", "It's Raining on Prom Night", "Alone at the Drive-In Movie" recalling the music of Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Elvis Presley that became the soundtrack of a generation. An 8-year run on Broadway and two subsequent revivals along with innumerable school and community productions place Grease among the world's most popular musicals. "A lively and funny musical--as well as the dancingest one in town...it's a winner...the songs are dandies that portray the early rockers with zip and charm...the sheer energy of Grease carries all before it."---N.Y. Daily News
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Actor composer playwright author
Casey was born on April 20, 1935 in Yonkers, New York to Peter L., a steamfitter, and Signe, a nurse, (Ginman) Casey.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, 1957.
He is best known for being the writer and composer, with Jim Jacobs, of the stage and film musical Grease. Casey received his Fine Arts Degree from the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts in 1957. Grease
In the mid-1960s, Casey met Jim Jacobs while acting with the Chicago Stage Guild, and the two began collaborating on a play with music about high-school life during the golden age of rock "n" roll in the 1950s.
Entitled Grease, it premiered in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theater, one of the pioneering companies of Chicago"s off-Loop theater movement, in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago.
Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox saw the show and suggested to the playwrights that it might work better as a musical, and told them if the creative partners were willing to rework it and they liked the end result, they would produce it off-Broadway. The show went on to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film (for which he and Jacobs wrote additional songs), and a staple of regional theatre, summer stock, community theatre, and high school drama groups.
Later career
Casey"s acting credits include the original production of David Mamet"s Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 1974 at the Organic Theater Company. Under Stuart Gordon"s direction, Casey created the role of foul-mouthed self-styled makeout artist Bernie Litko, delivering a comically outrageous performance tinged with pathos.
In the same year he fronted $1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.
In 1976, he wrote Mudgett. He wrote (with Jim Jacobs) Island of Lost Coeds, a two-act musical, produced at Columbia College Chicago under the direction of Sheldon Patinkin. He also contributed incidental music to Twelfth Night in 1976 and new lyrics to June Moon in 1977.
In addition, Casey worked in the musical Cats.
Casey died of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-related complications in Chicago at the age of 53. At the time of his death he was writing a musical with the Brazilian performer Valucha deCastro.
(Full Length, Musical / Characters: 9m, 8f Here is Rydell ...)
(Full Length, Musical/ Characters: 9m, 9f / ABRIDGED VERSI...)
Member Dramatists Guild, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Joseph Jefferson Committee, Sigma Nu.