Grease is the Word
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GREASE, the musical, has come to town with American Idol 5 star Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel. Mr. Wonderful and I caught the action last night, which included a ’50′s sing-a-long before the curtain rose, a packed audience that sometimes sang along during the show, and a special performance by Hicks of his latest hit single after the last bow. Grease has everything you need for a hit musical – sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, great stick-in-your-head tunes, fun dance moves, costumes that I’d like to own – but it always leaves me conflicted.
Grease is the word, but peer pressure is the theme.
Plot:
Goodie-two-shoes Sandy and Bad-boy Danny meet over high school summer vacation at the beach. They hold hands. They pledge undying love. They return to school in the fall and–surprise!–Sandy is at Danny’s school Rydell High. Danny is caught between wanting to be with Sandy and to impress his friends. (Liking a girl who doesn’t put out is not de mode.) Sandy doesn’t understand why her beau is suddenly too cool to talk to her. She gets taken in, and made fun of, by a group of girls called the Pink Ladies, who hang out with Danny’s T-Birds. Danny makes an attempt to be more like Sandy by joining the track team, but quits because the coach wants him to cut his hair (ie change who he is–a greaser). After Rizzo has a pregnancy scare, Sandy realizes that she doesn’t want to be a goodie-two-shoes anymore. She wants to have pregnancy scares too! So she changes, becoming a tight leather pant wearing, smoking, drinking, bundle of fun. She is now cool enough for Danny’s friends. They kiss. They dance. They live happily ever after.
Discussion:
What happens when Sandy decides she’s tired of pretending to be someone she’s not? Just like Danny when he finally quit the track team. Rather than meeting in the middle, Sandy changes everything about herself to be with the man she loves. Gee, what a model of a healthy relationship!
The music/costumes/choreography make this a great musical, but the ending disappoints me every time. I saw a high school production once where they changed the ending. Is that cheating? Should musicals be updated for modern sensibilities, or should they be preserved as originally envisioned? The nature of theater is constant change. Every new performer and director lends their own artistic bent to a piece.
What do you think about Grease? Love it? Hate it? Is it really timeless as proponents claim?
May 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I saw it at the 5th Avenue last Thursday night. Love it, but I also owned the soundtrack “album” when I was in elementary school. Dating myself much?
I STILL can sing all the songs. However, unlike a group of ladies behind us in the theatre, I had self-control. Seriously annoying to hear them singing along. My friend and I were having the same conversation about the bad message in the plot. Although, I guess since I have such childhood memories about the original movie, I just never really paid much attention to the moral message – or lack thereof. But I totally see how bad it is. We, as writers, would never get away with a plot like that! All that aside, I loved the show, even despite Taylor Hicks’ performance (never was a favorite Idol of mine). Now they just need to make a stage production of Grease 2. Owned that album, too, and still can sing every one of those songs. LOL!
May 27th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Christina – That’s like me and the musical Peter Pan: I love it and know all the songs, but never paid attention to the misogynistic and racist messages. one of my friends won’t let her kids watch it because of objectionable content. Most current productions get rid of the racially objectionable lyrics, but not Wendy’s antifeminist character.
I never saw Grease 2…should I remedy that?
May 27th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I never quite saw the ending in that light. For me, Sandy’s makeover at the end was just that, a physical makeover, not a declaration that she’d be undergoing a complete personality change. She had a cigarette when she showed up at the end in that tight black suit, but she threw it away almost immediately with a look of horror on her face (at least in the movie – it’s my nly reference). Also, when the car left the ground, she had that same little-girl look of wonderment on her face and that same shy smile that we’d seen throughout the movie, so I took it to mean she was still the same indise. If anything, maybe the change in looks could be seen as a sign she was ready to grow up, or that after seeing Danny ready to change for her, it was a way to show him that she was ready to compromise too. But I never saw it like that either. Anyway, just my humble opinion
. I love Grease, and the “You’re the one that I want” song is probably my favorite of the whole movie.
As for updating musicals or anything considered “a classic”, I’d rather have people make NEW versions inspired by them, rather than taking the original and changing the bits that don’t please them for some reason. All musicals or plays or literature works are representative of the era they were created in, and that’s one of the thing that makes them interesting in the first place.
May 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Mary – “maybe the change in looks could be seen as a sign she was ready to grow up”
Lol. The same theme as Peter Pan! What does it mean for a woman to “grow up?” 1904 = become a wife and mother (a la Wendy). 1978 = smoke, drink and have sex? (a la Sandy?)
What coming of age lessons do we hold up now? I haven’t seen High School Musical, so I don’t know.
Do we like art for its historical reflection of the period, or its commentary on the ever-constant human condition? The last musical we saw at the 5th Avenue Theater–Sunday in the Park with George by Sondheim–dealt with this subject. What is the purpose of art?
In general, I find myself most moved by the theme of a piece. The heroic tradition of hope, redemption, love conquers all, good will triumph over evil. The method of telling changes throughout history, but the theme rarely does.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
May 27th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Taylor Hicks steals the show. He blows away the others in charisma and stage presence. And what a voice! Definitel the star of the show.