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?