Two Royal Caribbean ships have removed their Broadway musical, but a replacement is on the way.
Grease has been shown on both Harmony of the Seas and Independence of the Seas for many years, but the curtain has closed on that production.
After a few readers reported hearing the show has been removed, we reached out to the cruise line to confirm the change.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed that Grease is no longer being performed on either ship.
Grease was performed for almost 10 years
Royal Caribbean had a production of Grease on two of its ships since July 2016.
Both Independence of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas had the show as its featured production show in the Royal Theater.
Harmony debuted with Grease, whereas it was added to Independence of the Seas during a ship upgrade.
Royal Caribbean chose Grease for its broad appeal, calling it a fun, high-energy musical that gets the whole audience singing and dancing. That popularity is why the line made the unusual decision to debut the show on two ships.
The story follows Sandy Dumbrowski, a sweet, new-to-town girl, and Danny Zuko, the school’s resident cool guy, who shared a secret summer romance.
Once the school year starts, Sandy struggles to fit into the social world of Rydell High and win back Danny’s attention, while Danny tries to protect his tough-guy image.
Even before Grease, Royal Caribbean had invested in Broadway musicals for years. When Hairspray was initially announced for Royal Caribbean, it generated a lot of attention because it was the first time a full Broadway show was going to be performed at sea.
Why Royal Caribbean retired the show
No reason has been provided why Grease has been removed, but cruisers have their own opinions.
Any Broadway show performed on a cruise ship has to be licensed, and those licenses cost money.
In addition, Harmony of the Seas is scheduled for a major upgrade in 2026. Perhaps the timing of that amplification ties into the decision to let the license lapse.
Baltodave posted on the Royal Caribbean message boards, "Apparently it has to do with the contract for Grease and the fact that Harmony is going to dry dock in a few months."
What's coming next
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson said, "we will have an update soon on the next production" for what will replace Grease.
Looking at a recent Cruise Compass from Harmony of the Seas, the cruise line has put in its place (at least temporarily) Voices.
Voices is an original production created by the cruise line that first debuted on Wonder of the Seas. It has been replicated on a few other ships since.
The description of Voice is as follows:
A completely new style of musical production that brings together the world-class vocal talents and live performance skills of our most experienced singers and dancers with the virtual technology that we have all become so accustomed to using over recent years.
It's not known yet what Royal Caribbean may replace the show with in the future. It could be another Broadway musical, a jukebox-style production, or a custom original show.
How Royal Caribbean picked Grease as a show for its cruise ships
As we bid adieu to Grease, I wanted to share the story of how Royal Caribbean picked this show.
Former head of entertainment for the cruise line shared the story of picking this musical, in 2017.
On the Anthem of the Seas, sitting in Chops (one of my fave restaurants), and having dinner with Tony Edge (Director of We Will Rock You), he asked me “So what’s your next Broadway show gonna be?”
With the recent success of Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, the selection of our next Broadway offering had been weighing on my mind for many months. This is the question I have been avoiding from everybody. What on earth could follow the energy and fun of our last two fabulous shows?
“Have you ever thought of Grease?” he asked…and the penny dropped. Grease would be perfect!
A complicated deal to make, especially if you want to include the hit songs from the 1978 motion picture, (and the license holder is extremely particular and specific about production quality), but as you will see, the final result is absolutely superb.
Our version of Grease is totally unique, making excellent use of our state-of-the-art lighting technology and automation systems, and our audiences are on their feet every night. (Thanks Tony, I owe you one.)
One more note of interest, (and a quirky requirement in the deal), is that every logo for every new production of Grease needs to be unique. So with the single direction to “use lots of pink”, our home-grown logo is proving to be very popular with the show’s worldwide legion of fans. I describe it as being energetic, fun and a bit “squishy”.
