IsGrease the word? (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

IsGrease the word?

12:08pm Wednesday 21st February 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

A teenager is hoping that she will be the one the judges want as she auditions for the next round of a TV reality show.

Laura Morris, 16, from Abbey Meads, Swindon is entering the third stage of the contest Grease is the Word.

Notoriously ruthless judge Simon Cowell - best-known for his put downs on Pop Idol and X-Factor - has launched the new talent search, pitting young people against eachother for coveted Danny or Sany roles in a West End production.

The search will be screened by ITV in the summer and says the auditions will be the biggest casting the UK has ever seen.

As well as starring in the West End show, the winners will also record a Grease soundtrack.

Former Highworth Warneford pupil Laura has been attending Stagecoach performing arts school in Swindon since she was 10. She is studying performing arts at New College.

Her mother Julie Molten said: "She's been performing since she was tiny and she really wants a career in the performing arts. I am very proud of her."

In the next stage of the competition Laura will have to perform in front of the show's producers.

Laura said: "I have chosen to sing the Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee Reprise as well as Roxy from Chicago.

"Grease and Chicago are my favourite musicals and my top dream would be to be Roxy or Sandy in the West End.

"I'm nervous about performing in front of the producers but I am more excited because I got through the other stages."

Grease made its Broadway debut on Valentine's Day in 1972, where it played 3,388 performances.

The hit musical then became a blockbusting film in 1978 starring John Travolta as Danny, the handsome leader of the T-Birds, and Olivia Newton-John as Sandy, the innocent new girl in town.

It was, for a time, the third highest grossing film of all time behind only Jaws and Star Wars.

If Laura impresses the judges in London on February 27 she will be up in front of the show's judges later the same day, which include David Ian, who was a judge on How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?