‘Grease: Live’ Hits and Misses

Grease: Live aired live on Sunday, and depending on how much you love remakes of movies and/or plays, it was a huge success/not so successful. If you are a fan of the cast of the original film, the only member of the current cast you might find passable is Julianne Hough. Her portrayal of Sandy, while she is neither Australian nor Olivia Newton-John herself, is delightful, and her heavy dance background is the strongest of the cast. Plus, she can sing and act! Aaron Tveit’s Danny Zuko is less successful, which was in line with all the male roles — they just lacked the cool factor of the original cast. Casting John Travolta, aka 1978 Danny Zuko, may have proved a more successful, if stunt-y, choice. As for the lady star power, Vanessa Hudgens, who went on despite announcing just hours before air that her father had just passed away unexpectedly, paled in sass and depth to Stockard Channing’s original Betty Rizzo, and despite a beautiful singing voice, Carly Rae Jepsen turned in a largely forgettable Frenchy. That being said, it was fun to watch Didi Conn, who played the original beauty-school dropout, Frenchy, take on the role of Vi the waitress. And in perhaps the most successful modernization of the whole evening, harmonizing vocal group Boyz II Men shared the role of Teen Angel, originated by Frankie Avalon. Overall, today’s Grease: Live was a largely chaste, PG-13 version of the original.

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