Grease is still the word
Can you believe it has been almost 40 years since this iconic John Travolta and Olivia Newton John musical first hit screens? Even though it does make us feel old, we take a look at why Grease has endured
“Grease” is still the word.
Nearly 40 years after
Grease arrived in theaters, there’s no stopping the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John pop-culture classic. Really, is there anyone, anywhere, of any age, who hasn’t seen the candy-coated musical saga of first love, first cars and h***y teenagers? In advance of its actual 40th anniversary on June 13, the film returned to theaters for a few days in April. This month fans will gather at the Hollywood Bowl for the annual
Grease sing-along. Most notable, on April 24 Paramount Home Media released a 40thanniversary edition of Grease on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital. It will feature a full restoration of the print, improved sound, loads of previously released material and a handful of fresh extras, including interviews, the original song to which the title sequence was animated and an alternate ending salvaged from the original black-and-white, 16-millimeter work print discovered by director Randal Kleiser. The director, now 71, also made
The Blue Lagoon (1980), Big Top PeeWee (1988), the personal favourites
Getting It Right (1989) and It’s My Party (1996), and Honey, I Blew Up
the Kid (1992). His current projects include a virtual-reality show called
Defrost and several possible features, but he readily accepts that it’s Grease that one day will top his obituary.
An endearing musical
“It feels like normal,” Kleiser said, speaking by telephone from his home in Los Angeles. “It feels like going back to high-school reunions and having a yearbook that you fluff up ever so often. I’ve seen it so many times now, but I will tell you that the most exciting time I’ve had watching it was at the Hollywood Bowl for one of the sing-alongs.”
“Didi Conn, our Frenchy, hosted, and they had 17,000 people dressed in the costumes,” the director recalled, “and I got to stand onstage and say hello and have them all cheer. That was an amazing moment. I don’t know how many directors ever get to experience something like that.”
So what was it that first got Kleiser interested in Grease, based on a stage musical first performed at a Chicago nightclub in 1971, at a time when Hollywood musicals were few and far between? “The first number I saw that I got excited about was
Summer Loving, because I envisioned the boys were on the left side of the screen, the girls on the right,” the director said. “I started imagining cutting back and forth, and they came together. It was so natural in my head to have a split screen at the end where they both sang, and that worked out exactly the way I imag- ined it when I first saw it.”
Kleiser realised that something special might be happening when he witnessed the chemistry between Travolta and Newton-John as Danny and Sandy. Pretty much the entire cast - which also included Stockard Channing as Rizzo, Jeff Conaway as Kenickie and Eddie Deezen as Eugene - had gathered together to shoot the frenetic dance contest, and all eyes were on Travolta and Newton-John.
“There was electricity in that gymnasium, even though it was hot and smelly because of the pork factory next door,” Kleiser said. “Everybody respected and looked up to John and Olivia as the stars of the movie. It was very powerful in the room that everybody felt they were really clicking.”
Terrific cast
Kleiser also showcased a great supporting cast of veteran actors that included Eve Arden, Frankie Avalon, Joan Blondell, Edd Byrnes, Sid Caesar and Alice Ghostley. “I was excited by Frankie Avalon,” the director said. “I was an extra in a movie called Fireball 500 (1966), where I was behind him doing crosses while he did his thing. So to, 10 years later, direct him on the soundstage at Paramount was surreal. I grew up watching Our Miss Brooks (1952-1956) with Eve Arden and Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) with Sid Caesar, so it was surreal also to work with them.”
“I don’t think there’s anybody that turned down Grease that I can remember,” he added. “I know that Allan Carr, the producer, wanted Harry Reems, the porn star, to play the coach, but the studio said no (and hired Caesar).”
Conn, the high-energy actress who played Frenchy, the beautyschool dropout, readily accepts her eternal Grease connection, despite a list of other memorable credits that includes You Light Up My Life (1977), Benson (1981-1984) and Shining Time Station (1989-1995). Conn hosts the annual Hollywood Bowl sing-alongs and also appeared in Grease: Live (2016), during which she shared a sweet scene with that production’s Frenchy, Carly Rae Jepsen.
“I had a taste of what that 40-year block of time means when they asked me to do Grease: Live,” the 66-yearold said in her distinctive squeaky voice, speaking by telephone from upstate New York, where she was visiting her son. “That was really something, to come in and see everybody rehearsing. Carly comes up to me, and I just started crying and she started crying, though I think we were crying for different reasons.”
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Is it 40 years? I could be her mother. I could be her grandmother!,’” she said. “It was just a great experience. It made me think about how it took Moses 40 years to get to the Promised Land. I’m looking forward to celebrating and moving on.”
Audiences haven’t seen much of Conn in recent years beyond Grease: Live and a 2014 Hartford Stage production of The Underpants. That may be about to change, if Conn has her way.
“I’ve written a play about a middle-aged woman - guess who? who has suffered from knockdowns, but rehabilitates herself by learning how to box,” Conn said. “I’ve been boxing for the last few years, and this play has taken me eight years to write. There’s a draft. I want to keep it going until I’m on the stage again.”
“I have a son who is autistic,” she added.
“As much as I wanted to work, his disability presented in such a way that it was a full-time job. Now he’s 25 and living and working on a beautiful farm up in the Catskills that’s a school and a home. It’s called the Center for Discovery, and they don’t look at the disability there, they look at the ability. Everybody does something on the farm.”
“It’s a remarkable blessing that he’s there,” Conn added.
“It means that mommy Didi can now be actress Didi again.” Ian Spelling, The New York Times Syndicate
I was like, ‘Oh my God. Is it 40 years? I could be Frenchy’s mother. I could be her grandmother!” Didi Conn It feels like going back to high-school reunions and having a yearbook that you fluff up ever so often.” Director Randall Kleiser