The most important thing to remember (and the hardest thing, it turned out) while watching Fox’s production of “Grease Live!” was that it was not the original movie. It wasn’t a remake of the 1978 film produced by Paramount Pictures, featuring unforgettable performances by Olivia Newton-John as Sandy, John Travolta as Danny, Stockard Channing as Rizzo and Jeff Conaway as Kenickie. This was Fox’s reimagined, live-televised version of a cult classic.
But “Grease Live!” also wasn’t your traditional Broadway musical. This production featured 20-something sets, a cast packed with musical talent and a live studio audience. The choreography was amazing, the sets outstanding (for a live stage production) and the costumes dazzling. Yet, even with the voices of Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Vanessa Hudgens, Keke Palmer, Carly Rae Jepsen and Boyz II Men–to name a few – “Grease Live” was missing the one element that would have taken it over the top: acting.
It was very clear from the start that Fox’s production of “Grease” was not going to focus on the message the original 1971 musical by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs, which dealt with struggles and pressures faced by 1950s working class American teenagers, also known as “Greasers.” From the second Jessie J began the musical’s title track, “Grease is the Word,” I realized Fox’s production was about the music and the dancing, and that’s it.
To say the acting reminded me of an eighth grade musical seems harsh, considering “Grease” tackles some pretty mature issues such as sex, teen pregnancy and class/social conflict, but when the two main characters of a show have as much chemistry as a wet rock and a piece of yarn, it’s hard to be kind. There was nothing substantial between Danny and Sandy, or most of the other characters for that matter, that made high school feel like life or death all over again. I didn’t care when Danny joined the track team for Sandy or when Rizzo skipped a period. The dialogue and blocking of each scene felt more like a necessary segue from one musical number to the next and less like an actual progression of the storyline. There was no punch, no emotion between characters, nothing that resembled that delicious teenage rebellion you expect when you think of “Grease.” This was just an endless series of lines and cues sandwiched between stunning choreography and costume changes.
Courtesy: Michael Becker/Fox via AP
Where was the sexed up Danny Zuko, the ultimate bad-boy heartthrob who made every girl in a pleated skirt want to roll up up the waistline and expose just a bit more leg? Or the not so goody-two-shoes but innocent and intelligent Sandy who had her heart stuck on the man she believed Danny could be? Where was my quick-witted, strong willed Rizzo, or the hopelessly over-ambitious Frenchy? The a**hole with a good heart, Kenickie?
Again, I’m trying not to compare this production to the film, but at the same time, in this “Grease,” I had a hard time believing any of the characters or connecting with any of them for more than a few bars per musical number. These characters felt watered-down, almost like they couldn’t decide between developing new characterization and parroting their counterparts from 1978.
Nonetheless, “Grease Live!” was not a disaster. Hudgens, who lost her father right before performing, started off a bit shaky as Rizzo, bouncing back and forth between a tough-girl deep voice and her sing-songy Gabriella circa “High School Musical,” but she pulled through to steal the show by curtain call with “There are Worse Things I Could Do.” Jepsen’s Frenchy got her own song, “All I Need is an Angel,” featuring undoubtedly pretty vocals but sounding like a song suited for a Disney Princess, not a Pink Lady.
The best performance was “Those Magic Changes,” which consisted of not only celestial vocals by Jordan Fisher’s Doody, but the best characterization carried through a musical number in the entire show. I could actually sense real emotion in Fisher and believed him as Doody. “Greased Lightning” had perhaps the most jaw-dropping choreography I’ve ever seen in a musical, but I’m no expert.
Other numbers, like “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Sandy” were, again, pretty, but it was almost painful to watch the actors move around the set. But I suppose if you were really just banking on vocal talent to carry the show from scene to scene, then I guess Hough and Tveit did all right.
Overall, this wasn’t really a traditional musical or a made-for-TV movie. “Grease Live!” was a theatrical production of musical numbers strung together through weak acting and strong choreography. Fox didn’t do the story any justice, but at the end of the night I was still humming “You’re the One That I Want” and wondering if they had to sew Hough into that killer all-black final costume at the end of the show. (They didn’t.) I still laughed at all the corny jokes and jumped all over my couch singing, “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee!” feeling just the tiniest nostalgia for my high school days. (Which, I can honestly say, did not even come close to resembling the drama at Rydell High.)
This wasn’t the original; Fox reimagined “Grease” altogether. And while it didn’t live up to my expectations, it was still entertaining enough to sing along.
