Moonlight acting duo bringing their own teen memories to ‘Grease’

Anthony Carro and Camie Del Rosario play Danny and Sandy in Moonlight Stage Productions’ “Grease,” opening April 30. (Allison Tester)

UPDATED: April 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM PDT

So identifiable is the late Olivia Newton-John with the role of Sandy Dumbrowski, the blonde good-girl heroine of “Grease” in the much-loved 1978 movie, that one might forget that in the original Broadway production Sandy was a brunette portrayed by Carole Demas.

Fifty-three years later, not only a brunette but a Filipina, Camie Del Rosario, is playing Sandy in Moonlight Stage Productions’ season-opening staging of “Grease.”

“I’m incredibly grateful that I get an opportunity to play a role that typically wouldn’t be played by someone who looks like me,” said Del Rosario. “I see so much of myself in Sandy in the way that I’ve grown up and sometimes felt like an outsider in a new environment. I feel like a lot of my cultural upbringing I can integrate in bringing Sandy to the stage.”

Bringing Sandy’s swaggering suitor, Danny Zuko, to the stage at Moonlight is Anthony Carro, so memorable as Four Seasons guitarist/co-founder Tommy DeVito last year in CCAE Theatricals’ production of “Jersey Boys.”

“From a distance he’s (Danny) the ‘cool guy,’ but then you learn more about him you realize he’s an insecure kid who likes a girl and wants to impress his buddies,” said Carro. “There’s a lot going on for him — a whole whirlwind of teenage hormones and emotions.”

Both Carro and Del Rosario believe those relatable teen years, in part, for the longtime popularity of “Grease,” not only the stage musical and subsequent film but the popular “Grease Live!” television special starring Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit that was broadcast on Fox TV in 2016.

“It’s a true encapsulation of the adolescent experience in a way that is lighthearted but also so honest,” said Del Rosario. “A beautiful hodgepodge of what it’s like to have those feelings — about growing up, experiencing friendship and experiencing love. Everyone can find at least one character or moment in the show they can relate to.”

Echoed Carro: “What’s not fun about the music and the dancing? But what gives it longevity are the characters. It’s like why people still like ‘Friends’ so much, because those characters are so distinct. ‘Grease’ is the same.”

At Moonlight, “Grease” is being directed and choreographed by Nikki Snelson with music direction by Lyndon Pugeda. The cast of more than 25 also includes Giovanna Martinez as Betty Rizzo, head of the Pink Ladies, and John Cardenas as Sonny Latierri of the Burger Palace Boys.

Del Rosario spent last summer playing a middle-school student in Lamb’s Players Theatre’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Nearly a year later, she’s stepping into Newton-John’s open-toed dancing shoes.

“What I ire so greatly and what made Olivia’s interpretation of Sandy so special is that she came at it with an honesty that we don’t always get to see from the ingenue-type character,” Del Rosario said. “You can really relate to her. There’s nothing but the screen between us and holding us back from her world.”

Carro, who has some John Travolta-sized shoes of his own to fill, agreed that “everybody thinks of Sandy as Olivia Newton-John. Whatever she brought to it, I can’t really put into words. She made that role her own.”