Grease Live! Official Thread- Page 38

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 12:22pm

The Sandra Dee reference also goes a bit deeper than that and provides a little foreshadowing,be jock is part of what makes the song so clever. Sandra Dee's public person may have been sunshine and wholesomeness, but her life was not exactly that, foreshadowing that Sandy Dumbrowski has some bite and grit under her layers of goodness. In the original stage version, this is first really expressed when Samdy and Rizzo get into a scrap immediately after the song, but rally points toward the transformation at the end of the show, which is not Sandy selling herself out as the movie and later watered down stagings give us, but rather Sandy and Danny realizing that they both fall somewhere in the middle and they meet there, rather that trying to put on the guise of the good girl and the bad boy - being a good girl doesn't mean that Sandy can't be hot and have a little fun, and being a troublemaker doesn't mean that Danny doesn't have a good heart.

(it's also why changing Sandy's surname to Olsen or Young is an insult to the show and the song. She needs to have a surname beginning with "D" and Dumbrowski is meant to reflect her Polish heritage, defining her as a blue collar girl of not a lot of means when Polish people were often the brunt of jokes (All in the Family, anyone?), and somewhat explaining Sandy's strong desire to be the good girl and overcome...)

[newintown]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 12:35pm

"...but rally points toward the transformation at the end of the show, which is not Sandy selling herself out as the movie and later watered down stagings give us, but rather Sandy and Danny realizing that they both fall somewhere in the middle and they meet there, rather that trying to put on the guise of the good girl and the bad boy - being a good girl doesn't mean that Sandy can't be hot and have a little fun, and being a troublemaker doesn't mean that Danny doesn't have a good heart."

 

I've worked on 4 productions of the show, and seen tons more, and I've never seen the ending presented this way. As written, Sandy takes on at least a heavy veneer of an uber-bad girl at the end, if not turning entirely into the real thing. Danny doesn't change at all. Nor does he need to - the show is a two-dimensional cartoon, a hazy memory of and valentine to one very definite aspect of the 50s.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 12:45pm

It IS a hazy valentine, but for it to work, you have to ground the characters even while going broad, and a lot is in the hands of the actor and director.

i have never taken it as Sandy going full bad girl. Look at the film, not my favorite example but still valid, Sandy has no idea what to do with a cigarette. She is embracing the naughty, but that doesn't mean that she has gone full uber bad girl. I don't think Danny "changes" drastically, perhaps not was faulty word choice, but I think he certainly becomes more comfortable in the balance between who is with Samdy versus his Rydell friends. 

I think the worst thing you can do to Greas or any similar such show, is to write them off as two dimensional fluff. It is what leads to shallow, terrible productions. As an actor, director, etc, you have to approach it and find the fully fleshed elements. That is how you give it heart, that is how you hook the audience. Grease now works from a disadvantage because we have been trained to view it as slight... And I do not mean to hint that it is high drama whatsoever.

[Petralicious]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 1:56pm

Thanks for the Insight,  Very Interesting.  I did notice how she didnt know what to do with the Cigarette.  Plus she needed Frenchie and Rizzo to her with her make over. If she was Full Bad Girl, I think she wouldnt have needed their help. If you think about it.  Danny totally changed more than she did.  All she really did was take a puff of a cigarette, and put on tight pants.  He took up sport for the whole year!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 5:15pm

Has anyone figured out the Grease Lightning car change out yet? 

 

Camera pans away to Kenickie singing his verse so car switch is happening at that point.  Kenickie finishes verse then camera pans to 3 dancers doing their thing, thus giving more time for car switch and now letting Kenickie and others do their quick change.  Camera then pans from the 3 dancers to the red car and cast in blue jumpsuits.  Same idea for when the car (and guys) go back to their regular forms: camera stays on dancers so switch is happening off-camera.   

 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 2/8/16 at 5:30pm

As far as how they did it, they didn't switch out cars or anything... they were large magnetic overlay panels that literally would get slapped on and off for the changes.

[kadu335]

Posted: 2/9/16 at 7:14pm

Did anybody get the DVD? I was thinking about getting it but only if the extra features were nice enough... 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 2/9/16 at 7:44pm

DVD will not be released until March 4.  

[kadu335]

Posted: 2/9/16 at 8:28pm

Oh, I read somewhere people saying they already bought the DVD, so I thought it was already out... I guess they meant they pre-ordered it or something then

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 10:34am

It's been available since February 2nd as a digital download. It will be released on DVD on March 8th.

[Theater_Nerd]

Posted: 2/10/16 at 10:43am

I was reading a book on the making of the movie GREASE last night and in it Allan Carr expressed why there were changes made for the film version.

 

His reasons: 

 

"I based my changes on my high school in the Chicago suburbs where the kids were not all greasers, like the stage musical. They were tough but good kids, and by moving the setting to the suburbs, I made it closer to my high school memories and much more important, more resonant to a wider audience. To that end, I also cleaned up some of the raunchy language.

 

I wanted to make it your fantasy high school. Whatever your feelings were about going to school - and most people were not happy in high school - I wanted to make everyone feel this is the school they wish they had gone to."

 

I don't necessarily agree with this. I am just sharing this information for those who did not know or may have wondered why his adaptation deviated from the source material.

[Dave19]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 3:17pm

What I really miss in Grease Live is the intro of Summer Nights. In the film, during the spoken dialogue there is this wonderful melody with violins right before the normal intro starts. I've seen this in some stage versions too.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/11/16 at 3:35pm

Thanks for the quote, Theatre_Nerd. That really explains a lot about the film. I don't agree with Carr that "suburban" is more universal than urban working class, but I suppose he has a point that by the time the film was made, white kids were more likely to live in the 'burbs.

[Petralicious]

Posted: 2/12/16 at 11:04am

  "What I really miss in Grease Live is the intro of Summer Nights. In the film, during the spoken dialogue there is this wonderful melody with violins right before the normal intro starts. I've seen this in some stage versions too.

 

" The only thing i miss in Grease Live is Rizzo pushing Patty and Sandy into the Garbage Cans during Summer Nights. Her complete discuss with Patty and Sandy during that song always made me laugh

 

Updated On: 2/12/16 at 11:04 AM

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 3/5/16 at 12:21pm

www.target.com/p/grease-live-on-fox-target-exclusive/-/A-50721396#prodSlot=medium_1_2&term=grease+live

Picked this up yesterday! :)

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 3/5/16 at 6:50pm

How are the bonus tracks, Jacob? I haven't been able to go pick up a copy yet. I'm dying to hear what people think.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 3/5/16 at 7:00pm

They're fine.  One is a karaoke track and 2 are by DNCE (they are on the same label - Republic - that the soundtrack was released so this is exposure, I'm sure) from the National Bandstand scene. The other is Sandra Dee Reprise (it includes the dialogue with Rizzo). I wish there had been a recording of everything in the show like Alma Mater with Ana Gasteyer and the chorus (including the announcements dialogue would've been great), Mooning (which DNCE covered for 30 seconds that led into Hopelessly Devoted), and the dance arrangement from the Cheerleading Tryouts.

The booklet is like the ones from compilation albums; no lyrics, just credentials for everyone who performed on each track (including the band, yay!) and copyright stuff. No photos except for the cover and the Grease Live logo. The back of the booklet is a leather texture like the T-Bird jacket. I mostly bought it for the bonus tracks and just to say I have a hard copy of the album. This edition won't be around for a while so it's neat to have. Like the B&N Gypsy 2008 recording. lol.

[kadu335]

Posted: 3/6/16 at 11:39am

They should've added the Sandra Dee reprise to the digital version of the album as well so everyone outside de US could have access to it as well... bummed

 

[Wildcard]

Posted: 3/14/16 at 7:06pm

Costumes and props from Grease Live are on the auction block. Many are quite affordable

http://propstore.auctionserver.net/view-auctions/catalog/id/42/

[Petralicious]

Posted: 3/15/16 at 2:20pm

too bad they only have the mans cheerleading outfit... sandys cardigan would be amazes but way above what i can pay