Feature: Berkshires to Off-Broadway by Way of Atlanta

While attending North Adams’ Drury High School, Catie Hogan, then McDonough, earned recognition in soccer, basketball, and softball.  Recognizing a need amongst peers and younger folk, the 2013 graduate of Boston’s Emerson College chose to focus her career on Financial Planning and Advising.  Borrowing a page from Michelle Obama who advised that you should first get people to laugh and then get them to listen.  The strategy was successful and in early 2018 Catie gave a TEDx Presentation entitled: “Finding the Funny in Financial Literacy” in her hometown of North Adams.

Seven years later, Catie is likely to be found along with husband, Dan (a graduate of Mount Greylock Regional in Williamstown) and daughters Claire and Allyson in their Connecticut home.   She is once again earning recognition, but now on the stage.

Living in Georgia at that time (2018), Catie became part of Atlanta’s award-winning Sketchworks Comedy group.  After enjoying a local production of GREASE, Catie was encouraged to create an updated parody version of GREASE.  Thus, VAPE was born.  The original intention was a fun little piece they would mount locally.  The more they performed the piece, the more attention it received, including that from some of New York’s performance venues.  Along with it, however, came a lawsuit from those holding the rights to GREASE. 

In May 2022 the Southern District of New York declared in its ruling that VAPE was legally a protected parody of the musical GREASE and therefore constitutes fair use under copyright law, clearing the way for a number of staged readings as well as a packed house concert performance hosted by Seth Rudetsky at the 1,500 seat Town Hall in March 2025.  The cast included well known Broadway names like Ann Harada, Jackie Hoffman, and Saturday Night Live Alum, Rachel Dratch as “Teen Angel”.  

The show has been refined since the original draft.  Musical numbers were also revamped by songwriter and playwright Billy Recce, who has also composed for Pittsfield’s Barrington Stage Company’s Devised Theater Ensemble program. Catie said that "Recce specializes in parody lyrics, and he was able to elevate the parody songs in VAPE by multitudes”.  Danny Salles also contributed additional lyrics and scripting for the production.  Sketchworks Comedy has a co-writing credit for their collaboration and contributions to the production.

VAPE: The Grease Parody opened a 10-week engagement at Theatre 555 in NYC November 3.  Described as “a grandly GREASE-y spoof" by Stage and Cinema.com, VAPE is a hilariously unhinged spoof of the iconic and timeless musical Grease. The show pokes loving fun at all the wonderful moments, sexual innuendos, outrageous characters, rivalries and secret romances from the original. The hair products may have changed, but the drama, the rivalries, and the thirst for hallway clout remain timeless. It's the musical you know and love... but dragged through a cloud of strawberry-scented vapor and a TikTok filter... It's the show that you want (…Ooh! Ooh! Ooh, honey!)

Audience members and critics agree VAPE: The Grease Parody is a romp, a hoot, and an hour and a half filled with mad capped fun.  According to the NY Post: “Grease is no longer the word- the word is now VAPE”.  Original GREASE Producer, Ken Waissman, said of VAPE: “A witty, funny, and fully engaging send up of our forever popular GREASE!  The excellent cast embodies the spirit of their 50’s counterparts with absolute perfection”.