Grease Live! shines despite detours

GREASE: LIVE: (L-R): Keke Palmer, Kether Donohue, Julianne Hough, Andrew Call, Carly Rae Jespen, Carlos PenaVega Aaron Tveit, David Del Rio, Jordan Fisher and Vanessa Hudgens in GREASE: LIVE. Cr: Tommy Garcia/FOX

Reach to the heavens and praise all that is good: “Grease Live!” wasn’t a disappointment.

For longtime fans of the original movie released in 1978 starring Olivia Newton John and John Travolta, “Grease Live!” on FOX should have been a great experience. The live televised play was nearly the same as the 1978 movie – in fact, so much so, that the producers seemed to add content rather than take away from the original.

This decision was… questionable, at best. The first time they veered from the movie script was Keke Palmer’s performance of “Freddy My Love” during the sleepover scene. Now, I have the soundtrack for “Grease” on Vinyl, so I was familiar with the song. But, bottom line, it’s not in the movie, and it threw me off. Also to be noted is the fact that Palmer was cast in a role (originally) with no music, but she is a singer – this leads me to believe the producers added this scene in so that Palmer could have her chance in the spotlight, which kind of bums me out, ’cause I’d like to think they would choose quality over making sure everyone had their solo. But I suppose that’s how it goes.

Another example of this is the atrocity that is the new original song created for Carly Rae Jepsen, “All I need is an Angel.” Basically, it was put in so she had a song to sing in the performance and to preface “Beauty School Drop Out,” sung by Boys II Men. The thing with this, though, was that it was literally horrible. It didn’t fit with the existing soundtrack, it felt weak (I’ve read that the techs had issues with audio levels, so her mic could’ve very well been lowered), and she was pitchy. I didn’t like it. Frenchy wouldn’t sing a song like that; this was definitely Carly Rae Jepsen on stage and not the character Frenchy.

Despite that, though, Jepsen did well in her role as Frenchy. The whole cast did well in their roles, in fact. Vanessa Hudgens played a great Rizzo; the T-Birds were a well-rounded and talented group; the Pink Ladies all shined in their own way. I was completely pleased with the performance.

Julianne Hough takes the figurative cake, though – she was the best recreation of Sandra Dee I could ask for. When she sang songs like “Hopelessly Devoted to You” or “Summer Nights,” it almost seemed like she trained her voice to sound like Olivia Newton John’s performances of those tracks. I got chills when I saw Hough perform.

“Grease Live!” was performed on Hollywood’s iconic Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, which is over 20 acres of sets and studios. This changed the performance, and created a wonderful hybrid of typical Broadway style theater and television. If I had to pit New York and Los Angeles against each other (comparing this production with those such as “The Wiz Live!” or “The Sound of Music Live!”), it’s clear that L.A. wins. The crew was able to do outside scenes, had more fluid continuity from one set to another, and fully constructed sets that looked like real-life structures.

There is so much more I haven’t included, and all I can recommend is to turn on the TV and watch it for yourself. Overall, I give “Grease Live!” a 4.8/5 on the Grease scale.

Advocate Staff