“Grease” has spawned many high school-set musicals; Clay Aiken.
TODAY’S HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALS WERE BUILT ON THE NOSTALGIC HIT
Remember when “Grease” was the word for high school musicals? It was a show that hit at the heart of nostalgia for the days when the cool kids wore leather, had a cigarette tucked behind one ear and drove fast cars.
With “Grease” set to open Pittsburgh CLO’s 72nd summer season, here’s a look at the show’s place in the evolution of high school musicals — from “Grease’s” 1950s nostalgia-fest to today’s Broadway teen revolution.
It was 1971 when “greased lightning” hit Broadway and stayed for six years, then four more from 1984-88 and again for five months in 2007.
The 1978 movie only boosted the popularity and added a few songs that have since been adapted to some onstage versions of the musical — “Grease,” written by Barry Gibb and sung by Jersey boy Frankie Valli; and two John Farrar songs, the Oscar-nominated “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want,” sung by stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. The latter became one of the best-selling singles ever, with more than 15 million purchased worldwide.
“Grease” isn’t just about the good ol’ days. It deals with peer pressure, boys pressuring girls for sex, promiscuity, teen pregnancy … although they all generally take a back seat to a coming-of-age story about the loves and friendships made in high school.
Today, the things that made these kids cool are not so cool anymore. Travolta and Newton-John don’t sing “You’re the One That I Want” until she makes a complete transformation to suit his ideal. In the movie, he tries to meet her halfway until he sees how far she’ll go for him, and then all bets are off.
It would be cringeworthy if not for the fact that it represents a moment in time that holds great nostalgia for some baby boomers.
Without “Grease,” it is possible there would be no “High School Musical” movie series. Made for a more diverse audience and squeaky clean, it introduced Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Corbin Bleu, among others. The first, in 2006, was the Disney Channel’s most commercially successful original movie, and it spawned four sequels.
For many millennials, it was their introduction to non-animated musicals.
Also in 2006, Broadway was introduced to the comingof-age musical “Spring Awakening,” based on a banned German play, circa 1906, but with modern music and lyrics. Teen sex, incest, abortion, suicide … all were explicit topics, and “Spring Awakening” went on to win the best musical Tony Award.
Today on Broadway, high school musicals are all the rage and deal with topics from same-sex dating (“The Prom”) to girl power (“Wicked” and “Frozen”). Led by Tony winner “Dear Evan Hansen,” there’s
also “Mean Girls,” “Be More Chill,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and more that introduce or include characters in their teen years, often played by teenagers.
All are hits and attract young and older audiences at high Broadway prices.
Initially, it didn’t look so good for “Grease.”
The musical earned seven Tony nominations, winning none. Legendary critic Clive Barnes was not impressed. He wrote for The New York Times, circa 1972, that he recalled 1959 as a very good year for Burgundy, and probably for Coca-Cola, too.
The musical, he said, was “perhaps most successful in its suggestion of attitude and period, and there are times when ‘Grease’ catches the flavor to its time [and] the shy emergence of the new morality that made the summer of ‘59 different for teenagers from the summer of ‘42. The story is about the guy who should have been Elvis Presley getting his girl after a certain degree of misunderstanding. Not even Elvis Presley himself could ever have thought it interesting.”
Audiences begged to differ, with their wallets. “Grease” went on to what was then Broadway history — in 1979, its 3,243rd performance displaced “Fiddler on the Roof”
longest‐running as the show to grace the Great White Way.
Now it’s back in Pittsburgh, with a Broadway-caliber cast that includes Clay Aiken as Teen Angel, whose dated advice to “Beauty School Dropout” is: “If you go for your diploma you could join the steno pool / Turn in your teasin’ comb and go back to high school!”
Ah, the bad ol’ days that once looked so good, when the best a girl could hope for was romance with the most popular guy in school, or the steno pool, or both.
Makes you wonder what they will be saying about today’s high school musicals in 50 years.