Grease: Live! (I was wrong)

In a previous post, I had a lot to say about the live broadcast of Musicals on network television. I still stand behind my support and adoration for this, even as it works out some kinks. We can all agree that there is much to learn.

I was TERRIFIED when Fox announced that it was going to jump in the game with ‘Grease:Live’. I literally could not complain about it enough.

I was stone cold wrong.

I was so irritated by this idea of Grease being brought to the small screen for a lot of reasons, all of which I had mentioned, and I feel like the Fox executives read my post and said “He’s right, let's change these things”

While Grease will always be sexist AF, and it has been 9 months since I watched this event live, I want to say how wonderfully surprised I was at how much I truly enjoyed the production.

There was so much thought and care put into staging this. The sound stages and exteriors were in front a a live audience, that you COULD SEE on tv. The halls, the gym, the diner, everything looked great.

Also, for good measure, I loved the transition for Marty to singing in her room with the girls, to singing at the US show for “Freddy My Love”

Some of the more questionable lyrics were either omitted or made more family friendly, and most importantly, between Thomas Kail’s direction, and Aaron Tveit’s acting, Danny Zucko seemed like a guy who got sort of lost in a very real way, and tries to be a better guy. Its not implied, it's not awkward. Many have said that his performance in this production was bland, or lackluster (I admit, I did some research for this post) but I disagree. I remember distinctly thinking that there was a choice to soften him up during his "tough guy" Danny, and I thought it went a long way in the storyline. A fresh perspective on where Zucko was coming from. It made sense that Danny joined Doody in “Those Magic Changes”. It spoke more about their journey, particularly Danny's

The dance numbers were on point and actually focused on ALL the dancers, not just leads. That's always nice to see when the choreographer goes through so much work to have most of it scrapped in favor of “star time”

The supporting cast was amazingly well done. Vannessa Hudgens, who’s father had just passed, truly showed the meaning of the show must go on, and using your pain in your performance, Kether Donahue, an all around personal favorite, might have been the funniest thing that graced that sound stage, the boys, who were more or less forgettable, didn't irritate me as the “thunderbirds” or “Burger Palace Boys” (whichever version is your favorite) tend to do. And also, they were multi-racial, which made me very happy.

I was not a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen’s added song. I don't know why it was there. It was boring, it didn't show off her voice, we were all sad. I'm going to chalk it up to something important happening off stage...

Though I will have to gush a little about Boys II Men pulling out all the stops. I grinned ear to ear for one of my favorite numbers in this show. It was such a magical moment.

To be frank, the BEST thing was that race scene!! I appreciate they kept that intact from the film and they used every filming trick in the book to make that come alive, with literal smoke and mirrors. The imagination, and stagecraft (set craft?) behind making this pivotal moment come alive continuously blows my mind and is something that people always mention when discussing this event.

Mario Lopez was a shit show. Plain and simple. While I'm sure he's a lovely and competent man in real life, his performance was unbalanced and distracting. I really needed him to not be there.

Overall I hope this continues. I hope I continue to be surprised, and this format is enlightening children and families of all ages to how wonderful theatre can be. Cheers to the production team of Fox's Grease: Live! and cheers to all the Emmy's you won.

Next up, Hairspray: Live on NBC. will you be watching?