First
off, I love Grease, it's a classic. It portrays the 1950s Romeo and Juliet
without all the suicides. Girl meets Guy, Guy has a summer fling, Girl moves to
high school where Guy is attending, Girl bumps into Guy, Guy is freaking out
but acts cool and Girl is instantly turned off then there a whole car chase and
the Girl and Guy get back together-it's best if you just watch the
original. That being said I mean you watch the 1978 Grease with John
Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
Here’s
the thing did Grease (Live) Lighting? FOX and NBC have been wanting to redo old
plays and musicals as they did in early days of television but lately its been
a flop. NBC had Sound of Music, which couldn’t live up to Julie Andrews acting
and singing in the original and they also had Peter Pan, which I lost interest
quickly in. FOX believed they could do it better but did they?
Grease
was filmed in the 1970s about the 1950s, which according to my mother they
pulled off quite well. Now we have a 2010s TV movie about the 1950s, which
equals a total catastrophe. Well the clothes were on point. They had perfect
representation of the era. It really wasn’t that it was everything else.
Aaron
Tveit to me couldn’t live up to John Travolta’s high range voice and his
incredible dancing. Aaron had the look but didn’t have John’s statuesque look.
He didn’t have the cool Fonzie appeal like John. Aaron sang beautifully and his
arms were amazing but to me and my mother he was no John Travolta.
Julianne
Hough on the other hand was Olivia Newton-John though she couldn’t hit her high
notes, Julianne could dance circles around Olivia. Her acting was perfect for
the role of Sandy, sweet and innocent but when it came to her “big change” it
wasn’t as great as Olivia’s.
Vanessa
Hudgens played Rizzo to the point that I couldn’t tell if I loved her more than
Stockard Channing. She had the look, the attitude and the singing down to where
she looked like she lost herself in the role. She made me believe that she was
Rizzo.
To
sum up the rest of the Grease Live cast, some were great and others to me
failed, but overall I think it was pretty good. Carly Rae Jepsen could never be
Frenchie and Carlos PenaVega does a great Kenickie. There’s a lack in everyone
else. They failed at their characters and their singing parts.
I
loved the surprise guests Barry Pearl and Didi Conn it was brilliant and made
me love the musical a lot more. I liked the idea of doing it in front of a live
audience but wasn’t too thrilled to see that the audience couldn’t have a
natural reaction considering they had to be on camera and play their own roles.
Overall
I think it was great for live TV and I see where FOX and NBC want to connect to
the musical theatre geeks out there like me. But it’s nothing compared to the original.
Grease Live:
C+
Grease: A+
-Em
Grease: A+
-Em
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