IF YOU GOWhat: "Grease!"When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.Admission: $20-$28.50.Phone: 425-4269.Website: www.cdoorent.com.
To take on the role of Betty Rizzo, the brash and brassy leader of the Pink Ladies in Closed Door Entertainment's production of "Grease," Morgan Gentry had to learn how to be a bad girl.
"She's a lot different than (I am)," Gentry said. "I just have to tell myself to be mean."
Of course, anyone who has ever seen a production of "Grease" or the 1978 film knows Rizzo's bad-girl act is just that, an act.
"Rizzo likes to pretend she's bad, but really on the inside, she's not," Gentry said. "She's really very vulnerable but doesn't know how to show it."
Gentry said her own personality is "a little bit sweeter" than Rizzo's.
Set in 1958 at the fictional Rydell High School, "Grease" tells the romance of high school hood Danny Zuko and good-girl exchange student Sandy Dumbrowski, during senior year.
Other characters include Danny's friends, The T-Birds, and the Pink Ladies, a group of wisecracking girls who want to rule the school.
The leader of the Pink Ladies is Rizzo, who might just be as vulnerable on the inside as pretty blonde Sandy is on the outside. And the sweet new girl might just have a little wild child inside her as well.
Gentry, a mezzo-soprano who calls herself more of a singer than an actress, auditioned with a song that gives the audience a glimpse of Rizzo's inner self, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do."
Other hit numbers from the production include "Summer Nights," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee," "Greased Lightning" and "You're the One That I Want."