Things like this . . .I mean, what the hell? People smoked in 1959. It was not considered evil. I guess people seeing it for the first time don’t notice one way or the other but the Pink Ladies cigarettes were part of their character. They’re supposed to be bad girls. Zuko is supposed to be a bad boy and a not so bright one, hence talking to the coach *while *smoking. Must we sanitize everything?
My daughter DVR’d it last night, and she’s watching it now. I thought Danny and Sandy had pitch issues in Summer Nights, but that could be because I was predisposed to have a negative reaction. Why was I so predisposed? I’ll tell you why:
BECAUSE FIVE MINUTES INTO THIS ABOMINATION, THEY PERFORMED THAT THRICE-DAMNED FRANKIE VALLI DISCO SONG!!!
Disco didn’t exist in 1958-1959, DAMMIT! That song has NO place in a stage performance of Grease!
To be fair, it didn’t have any business being in the movie, either.
Why is there an emcee? 
Keep watching – it gets a little meta.
My daughter just threw up in the middle of Those Magic Changes. And why can’t they just let the the guy sing the song?
No pitch problems that I noticed in Greased Lightnin’. That’s a bit of a relief, actually. That kid is supposed to be my future son-in-law, apparently.
I had it on with the sound off while I watched something else on Netflix. Shallow, eye candy oriented oaf that I am, I have to say that Hudgens and the blonde gal (once she was all tarted up) were smoking hot. That’s it, that’s all I have to offer. 
I’m a sucker for a pretty girl with short blonde hair and big hoop earrings so I found the singer at the beginning quite satisfactory as well.
That’s a valid set of opinions, but if contempt for the characters is an issue, so is contempt for the original musical.
If they’re going to do the musical, they should have committed to doing the musical. The one that was written. That song Frenchy sang before Beauty School Dropout? Totally inappropriate. And Boyz II Men singing the song in a 1990s Boyz II Men style instead of an Elvis-like crooner style is so anachronistic, it almost made me throw up.
I swear, if Didi Conn starts singing Falling in Love With Love, I’m turning it off and deleting it from the hard drive.
I think the girl playing Frenchie has an album coming out, so the new song was probably a brokered deal. Frenchy doesn’t have a solo in the show that I recall.
Mostly, I liked it. It was by far the best of these Live shows. The energy was much better, and vastly improved by incorporating a live audience and casting some actual Broadway actors.
Having Sandy run off and then getting all mopey and pissy about it didn’t work at all. But then again, I loathe “Hopelessly Devoted” with the fire of a thousand herpes lesions.
Boys II Men weren’t using melisma, they were pitchy and wobbly and horrible. Terrible stunt casting.
Even though I knew the shop teacher was Jan Brady, I still didn’t recognize her. But I noticed who Vi was right away! That was effective stunt casting.
Otherwise, it was pretty darn good. Not perfect, but much better than the others.
Not at all. It’s called “critical perspective.” One can dislike a musical. But it’s no fun when the writers sneer their own creations.
I almost feel bad admiring Rizzo’s figure so much, after finding out she was in the middle of a personal tragedy. That said, I really enjoyed the how, and can’t imagine how difficult Hudgens’ performance must have been for her. Never thought too much of her before. Just unfairly dismissed her as a spoiled Disney kid. Rethinking that because it’s hard not to admire the professionalism she displayed last night.
I might have to watch this with the sound on if they ever run it again.
I never saw the earlier Olivia Newton John version. I’m not a fan of fifties music etc.
Yes, and Jan Brady as the shop teacher too!
Watched as much as I could handle, then switched channels. Not bad, not good. But I’m not a critic so etc…
I’m not that big a fan of these live productions, at least as long as they use casts that have little stage experience. The performers too often seem too nervous about flubbing lines or missing their spots, and that was true this time too - except for Vanessa Hudgens this time, who was a revelation. Even on Broadway, opening-night jitters or hitches aren’t that important since they know they’ll get better later. I’d rather have seen an original cast or even a road-company revival cast that was used to the stage and to each other.
But it was fun to see a different approach - not another NBC mass-marketed thing shot, again, in the old Grumman factory.
I’ll agree and disagree with this.
I’ll agree that smoking was a big part of the the original (at least the musical) Grease and a big part of the 50s/60s/70s and for that I wish that had at least left in some kind of homage. They did have Rizzo mention it to Sandy. But maybe one or two cigarettes in some of the T-birds* ears during Greased Lightening. In that song, in the musical, one part of it was a big display Kenickie lighting a cigarette. Of course, this is also the song that refers to the car as a pussy wagon and Danny says that it’ll be the shit, we’ll get lots of tit. Also, if you catch Danny randomly playing with the saran wrap that’s an homage to the original production in which he says that you should use plastic wrap if you don’t have any condoms.
It really is a raunchy song, by any standards and it’s no surprise that they cleaned it up. But, again, a cigarette behind the ears of a few T-birds or even a pack up on the dashboard would have been a nice.
OTOH, I’ll disagree because, really, no kids station (what was this on, TBS?) is going to show them smoking. On top of that, I’ll doubt any of the singers on the show smoke to begin with, possibly would have dropped if they were required to smoke and probably would have had no interest in smoking while they were singing.
Most of the time that you see actors smoking on TV, if you look, you’ll find out that they already smoke to begin with or smoked in the past (and used this as a good excuse to un-quit).
And, again, as much as adults love this, it really is aimed, at least halfway, at kids and they’re just not going to do it.
When I was a kid, most shows had at least one ‘smoking’ episode. Roseanne had at least two (Darlene and Roseanne), Golden Girls (Dorothy), Full House (almost all the Gia episodes), Saved By The Bell And California Dreams both did it etc. I don’t think they do that anymore. You’re not going to find anyone iCarly or Jessie or (probably not) Girl Meets World trying smoking or drinking, it’s just not done anymore and be so incredibly frowned upon, if they tried it, you’d see it on your local news the next day.
I have to admit, if there were any mistakes, I missed them. The only flub I caught was camera’s colors were messed up, they switched away to a different camera and switched back a few seconds later and it was fine. Also, the audio dropped out for a few seconds. There was one time where I think a mic was off. But if the singers were off pitch or missed their marks or something, I didn’t catch it.
Nobody fell, nobody forgot their lines, nobody broke character, nobody was late getting from one scene to another (and they said they were having trouble with that in rehearsals).
I thought it was great.
I’m surprised they don’t do reruns. Same with The Wiz:Live. After the millions they poured into it, you’d think they’d rerun it a few times. But it’s just a one time shot and that’s it. I don’t quite understand that. If you didn’t see it or record it, you’re not going to. I’m sure at least part of it is because it’s more fun to see it live and they want to keep the ‘magic’ of that. I suppose they probably charged the sponsors a premium based on this being a one shot thing. Maybe they’ll show it again in a few months/years.
*Come to think of it, they could have had the Scorpions have a cigarettes behind their ears, then they could have played it off as scorpions=evil=smoking.
Fun note, Greased Lightening (the jalopy) didn’t have an engine, it was pushed around from set to set between scenes.
I didn’t see it live, but I just finished streaming it from the Fox website. All I can say is: Impressive! I kept thinking they couldn’t possibly do anything to screw it up any worse than they already have, but they managed to keep piling the wrong higher and higher. Disco music, bad SNL alum, Pet Star host, Big Time Rush, leaving out songs that belong in the show but putting in songs that don’t, and final bows that involved the cast mugging at the audience like kids in a mediocre high school performance.
Just finished watching it myself on the Fox website, and I think I had the complete opposite reaction as Doug. I thought it was really ambitious, and they nailed it. The set changes, the costume changes, it all seemed pretty seamless. Julianne Hough was great, Vanessa Hudgens was phenomenal, Carlie Rae Jepsen was a great Frenchie. My beefs: I wasn’t crazy about Boyz II Men as Teen Angel, Carlos PenaVega didn’t impress me as Kenickie, and Joe Jonas’ band stuck out like a sore thumb.
But all in all, I dug it. Good campy fun.
Yeah, it was fun. Ambitious and they pretty much pulled it off. What next though? They’re going to have to do Cats or something. Mary Poppins just won’t work after that.
Rocky Horror Picture show starring Laverne Cox. I cannot wait!
They’ve been talking about the RHPS thing for quite a while but I haven’t heard any news on it in months (other than things that popped up in the last 24 hours, because of Grease, I’m sure). In fact, they’ve been talking about it since before either of these Live shows aired so I don’t know if it’s going to be Live like The Wiz or Grease or just a movie like the ‘regular’ movie we’re all used to.
Regarding Mary Poppins, I was just thinking about that as well, but I’m not sure it’s exciting enough. I don’t even think a high school would put it on.