Last night, millions of people gathered around their TVs to see if Fox could do justice to one of the most beloved musicals of all time: Grease. As somebody who grew up watching the movie on repeat, feeling as if I was born to play the role of Sandy, I tried to keep an open-mind; however, Fox had me screaming at my TV all night.
Before I go in to what was so wrong about Grease: Live, I just want to start off by saying I KNOW this interpretation was based upon the stage musical not the 1978 film with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. That being said, unlike many others, the “new” scene placements and songs we did not recognize was not what bothered me about the performance; it was pretty much everything else that did.
First off, I would like to pay my respect to Vanessa Hudgens, who pretty much made the whole thing worth watching, slaying the role of Rizzo hours after her father passed away. Right from the start, her acting was so spot on in this iconic role, I am sure even Stockard Channing (the original Rizzo in the film) was blown away. I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say I was actually impressed at how perfectly she nailed it all the way from “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” to “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” proving she has come a long way from singing in the halls of High School Musical.
As for the rest of the cast, I was terribly dissatisfied. Julianne Hough was a perfect match in terms of being an aesthetically-pleasing Sandy, but her performance was nothing special to me. In her defense, I would not want to be the one trying to live up to the great Olivia Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You” either. She did save herself during the dance competition, which I felt stayed pretty true to replicating the original dances and even most outfits shown in the film, so touché on that, Fox. Before I give them too much credit though, let me just add that they ruined the role of Cha-Cha. Sandy totally showed her up in this version. I thought she was supposed to be the best dancer at St. Bernadette’s???
Also, can we talk about those cheerleading tryouts? Sandy was supposed to be an almost hilariously horrible cheerleader, but I felt like I was watching Hough jump around for half the opening. Newsflash: nobody cared to watch more than 15 seconds of cheer tryouts, even if it was in the original script, and that’s coming from a former cheerleader herself. That whole scene was just awkward.
When it comes down to it, there was one main feature that stood out to me as ruining the whole show and that was the casting of the T-Birds. Not ONE actor was a convincing greaser to me, and you pretty much stand no chance interpreting Grease, film or play, when you don’t even have a believable Danny Zuko. Doody turned out to be a bigger heartthrob. I wish I could think of something positive to say about the guys, but I couldn’t get past the fact that it looked like I was watching a boy-band take over what was supposed to be a group of hard bad-boys. You know who was the best male in the whole show? Mario Lopez.
Speaking of ruining the bad boy image, I do not recall Danny ever having such deep emotions about his parents. The whole conversation at the drive-in was a buzzkill to the raunchiness of the scene, which seemed to be a common occurrence throughout the show. Is that due to restrictions of what can be shown on live television? It felt a little Disney Channel to me and took a lot of spirit away from the story. If that was in the original script, it shouldn’t have been.
The whole show closed with a real-life carnival, which they did not even use to perform “You’re the One That I Want.” I won’t even bother going into how weak the vocals in that were. I felt as though that song along with “We Go Together,” probably the two most popular songs from the musical, were blown over completely. The best part of the ending was when I got a little laugh from one of the carts hitting the curb and almost tipping over (anyone else see that or am I just being picky now??”)
In the end, everyone’s a critic when it comes to a different attempt at a classic that was done so flawlessly the first time around. There were some great moments; Boys II Men were adorable as Teen Angels, Joe Jonas was a nice touch, Keke Palmer played a great Marty, and I think we all felt some type of way over Didi Conn (the original Frenchy) and Barry Pearl (the original Doody) returning to join in on the cast.
Television networks that keep trying to make all of these live musicals work never come close to the original, but instead let us revisit classics we all know and love. Grease, especially, just holds a special place in my heart, personally. So let’s not revisit that. Just play the original, please.