Grease Live!

I had just graduated from high school when the movie Grease was released in 1978. I have watched the movie at least 20 times and have seen a Broadway production. This has been my favorite for so long and I am absolutely blown away by what I just watched over the last 3 hours. The talent was amazing. I feel that they paid tribute to the original, but actually made it better with a few minor changes. Vanessa Hudgens was perfect as Rizzo and Julianne Hough was a close second as Sandy. It was great to see Didi Cohn, the original Frenchy. I am giving 10 stars because I was completely amazed by the show, but I do have to mention one negative. It is my opinion that Aaron Tveit, who played Danny Zuko was miscast. His singing voice and his acting were significantly less appealing than the rest of the cast. His dancing was great, though. I also think he looked too old for the part. The sets were amazing. The choreography was sensational. I want to see it again!

If I see one more review whining about them messing with the movie I'll probably scream. The movie came a full year AFTER Grease hit the stage in Chicago in the 70's. Yes, that's right. The original didn't have John Travolta or Olivia. They were the adaptation. Get over it and stop judging the live version against the movie it inspired. This was a good showing of Grease. I've seen worse off Broadway with people who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Considering Vanessa's father passed a couple hours prior to her performance, she was amazing! She showed she can carry a character no matter what. And her voice was great as always. I agree "Danny" was to old looking. If you've never seen the live performance before, please don't make any comparisons to the movie. They even have different songs and scenes. There isn't any comparing the two.

Briefly comparing to the 1978 film, which is still hugely enjoyable now, 'Grease Live' is vastly inferior in many ways but is still very much watchable on its own merits.

As far as live TV productions of musicals go, 'Grease Live' is superior to the live TV productions of 'The Sound of Music' and particularly 'Peter Pan' while fell flat, but 'The Wiz' while uneven fares the best.

There are many good things here. Many of the songs are great, some like "Summer Nights", "We Go Together", "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Greased Lightning" are classics. The choreography is spirited and energetic, especially at the end and in "Greased Lightning". The 1950s production values are very attractive, the dialogue is mostly witty though with the odd clunker and pacing though with the odd part where it grinds to a halt (especially "Beauty School Dropout") is sprightly.

'Grease Live' also boasts some good performances. Best of the lot is surprisingly Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo, she brings sass and vulnerability to the character and successfully sheds her "Disney star" image, proving that she is much better than that. She sounds great, with her voice having come on hugely since the 'High School Musical' films with a powerhouse rendition of "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", one of the production's highlights.

Julianne Hough is far superior here than she was in the awful remake of 'Footloose', she is a very charming Sandy and has a lovely tone to her voice, with a sweet "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and doesn't hold back at the end. Jordan Fisher and Carlos PenaVega (apart from getting lost a little in "Greased Lightning" steal scenes, while Ana Gasteyer is good too. Kether Donohue and Elle McLemore prove that you can be funny and camp but also be subtle, and it was great to see Didi Conn and Barry Pearl.

On the other hand, this reviewer had mixed views on Aaron Tveit. He has a great voice, better than John Travolta's perhaps, as could be heard in 2012's 'Les Miserables' where his voice was one of the standout voices, and he is an energetic dancer, but he lacks the cockiness and charisma as Danny instead coming over as wooden and bland. Keke Palmer plays Marty far too broadly and is far too theatrical that it was painful to watch her, while Mario Lopez and particularly Haneefah Wood are supremely irritating. Carly Rae Jepsen's Frenchy sounds under-powered and strained, and she flounders with comic timing and never looks comfortable.

Not all the songs work either. "All I Need is an Angel" and particularly "Beauty School Dropout" are incredibly out of place and completely take one out of the period with too much of a present day vibe. It was nice to hear "Freddy My Love" and "Those Magic Changes" but the former also seems oddly placed, while the title song "Grease is the Word" is so dreary and the lyrics and vocals too often inaudible in a production plagued with problems with sound and balance with a lot of dipping in and out.

All in all, an uneven production and very much a mixed bag. A number of merits but some glaring flaws as well. 5/10 Bethany Cox

For the most part, Fox really got it right. The two lead actors were up to the roles. Both could really sing, dance and act. What a far cry from the lame leads on NBC's versions of The Wiz, Peter Pan and Sound of Music. The staging and sets were outstanding. The camera-work was first rate and the audio mix was very good.

Julianne Hough was absolutely outstanding. A very young 27, beautiful and talented performer, she was a perfect choice to play Sandy. I cannot think of anyone who could have done it better.

The guy playing Danny - Aaron Tveit - had the right looks and build for the role and is an excellent singer-dancer-actor.

The supporting cast was enthusiastic and well-rehearsed.

Except for a 20 second audio loss during Hand Jive, there was no major technical glitch. Unlike NBC, the cameramen did not wind up in each other's shots. The movie was virtually all white as fit the setting of 1959. This Grease version tried a little too hard to integrate the cast and with the exception of the Coach, that really didn't work. It was the equivalent of sticking a bunch of Whites or Asians in The Wiz or Purlie. However, the forced diversity wasn't too glaring and didn't hurt the show overall.

Fox's Grease Live sets a new standard for live TV musicals. Congrats to all - cast, crew, producers.

Overall, Grease: Live! was a success in my eyes. I thought Aaron Tveit, Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens were outstanding in their respective roles as Danny, Sandy and Rizzo. They acted well and sang even better, which is all I can ask for in a musical like this.

The staging was well done and, all in all, I really enjoyed the show. My gripes are few and far between, but there were a few blips on the radar. The sound went out shortly and the sound issues carried over into another song number, but that didn't bother me terribly.

I really only had an issue with one section of the show. The section with Frenchy in the Frosty Palace. Frenchy, played by Carly Rae Jepsen, was alright. I wasn't blown away by her performance, but I hadn't really noticed it either by this point. Then she sang a song I read was written for her just for this production... and it showed. The song, "All I Need is an Angel" completely conflicted with the period of the other songs and of the show. It sounded like a teenager wrote it that morning and they threw it in. A 2016 pop song thrown into a musical set in 1959 and every bit as unfitting as it sounds. The song was so repetitive and dull that Idon't think there was much to it apart from the chorus.

Then the show is brought to an even more agonizing halt when Boys II Men shows up to sing "Beauty School Dropout". Their rendition, again, didn't fit the period the show was written for. You're telling me you couldn't get Johnny Mathis or someone else still living from the era? You couldn't even get someone who could at least sound like it? Boys II Men could have done a better job trying a Platters style rendition at the very least! I suppose you could tell me Boys II Men is a bigger draw than some nostalgic singer from the era, or close to it, but to that I'd ask you, how many viewers tuned in for Boys II Men? Really. How many? I'd like to know. Because I'm guessing nobody. I didn't know who they were. I had no idea. I'm 23. Who was the intended audience? I don't understand it.

Then we come to my real sore point of the evening, the hypocrisy of the censoring. I couldn't help but notice that, every time they returned from commercial break, the little rating box would appear in the corner of my screen. It claimed the show was "TV 14", which, in of itself, is a bit of a surprise, but it begs the question, what does "TV 14" really mean? What's appropriate for 14 year olds to watch? Apparently, the show couldn't quite make up its mind...

The words of "Greased Lightnin'" were too vulgar for the show, so they were changed. On the surface of it, I don't mind. I've heard these lyrics changed before. I do take issue with the fact that THEY changed while the rest of the show stayed the same (and in some cases got WORSE)! Several wholesome lines remained like, "Where ya going'? To flog your log?", "Bite the weenie, Rizz." and a reference about how cheerleaders hate to be "late". There were a slough of others, I just can't think of them at the moment.

Don't get me wrong. Innuendo is fine. It's funny, particularly in Grease, as it is so well done.

My problem is the absurd notion that cleaning up "Greased Lightin'" suddenly makes the show "family friendly". I fail to see the difference between the lines above and "Chick'll cream" and "She's a real pussy wagon" differ in their vulgarity. If somebody understands it better than I, please let me know. I'd like to understand.

I suppose you could argue that, when the soundtrack is released, kids will sing a clean version of this song and that's all well and good, but a number of them will have seen the rest of the show... the "damage" will have been done. Won't it? Just what do we really want 14 year olds to watch? The show took out all cigarettes, which is wholly unrealistic, but not show destroying. They made the lyrics of "Greased Lightin'" PG, but kept in and added sexual references and innuendo. What do people want their 14 year olds watching? What's wrong? What crosses the line and what's acceptable? I honestly have no idea after watching this production. It had no idea what it wanted to be.

You either PG the whole show or you let the thing play out in its unbridled, innuendo laden glory. Anything in between does the audience a disservice.

Either parents make a conscious decision to let their kids watch this and prepare to answer questions about what some of the dialog means or they keep their kids away from it because it isn't the kind of thing they want them to watch. As the show is in this form it doesn't properly service either side. This show left me feeling that 14 year olds were mature enough to handle, or stupid enough not to notice, the blatant sexual innuendo but were entirely too naive to understand that, even though people are doing it on screen, smoking is bad for you.

Go, have and talk about sex wildly, but for the love of God don't smoke! (Oh, and don't sing about sex! That's just vulgar and wrong.)