Olivia Newton-John Was a Classic Hollywood Star Born at the Wrong Time
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The post Olivia Newton-John Was a Classic Hollywood Star Born at the Wrong Time appeared first on Consequence.
The passing of Olivia Newton-John on August 8th at the age of 73 after a long battle with cancer, inspired a rare moment of social media unity in her memory. While the Australian singer, actress, and activist had a decades-long career that resulted in her being one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20th century, she is forever iconic thanks to her performance as Sandy in Grease.
A major hit in the ‘70s and a nostalgic beacon during its ‘90s revival, Grease was a knowing pastiche of ‘50s teen comedies that loved the genre it mocked so mercilessly. Populated by a cast of tax-paying adults playing high-school kids who sing about sex and yearning, it’s a giddy mess that has stuck around long after the fads it parodied.
What holds it together, amid the dirty gags and endlessly toe-tapping numbers, is Newton-John. As Sandy, the Aussie good girl who falls in with the primping cool kids of Rydell High, she’s achingly earnest, too green for the Pink Ladies yet easy to warm to. Sandy is no fool either, even when those around her roll their eyes at her seeming naivety: Danny’s groveling for her attention is frequently rebuffed with the smirk of a woman who’s oft-underestimated by guys like him (it didn’t hurt that she and John Travolta had world class chemistry).
Grease (Paramount)
She might get mocked by Rizzo’s comparisons to Doris Day, but it’s a parallel that emphasized Newton-John’s type: Women who didn’t accept second best and were misunderstood by the cynics as bores and shrews. Sandy can be kind of a pill and her shyness towards sex goes out the window just in time for that leather-jacketed finale, but Newton-John sells every second with her wide eyes and clear-as-a-bell voice. Whether you preferred “Good Sandy” or “Bad Sandy,” the transformation works because Olivia is in control. Songs like “Hopelessly Devoted to You” are deceptively tough to sing but she made it seem effortless, a display of unfettered adolescent yearning.
Newton-John often felt like a star out of time, a performer born for big studio musicals when that genre had petered out to make way for New Hollywood. There wasn’t an ounce of cynicism in her most beloved performances, even when those around her aimed for a more acidic presence. If she’d been born a couple of decades earlier, MGM would have crafted epic set pieces for her to take front and center in, the potential of which is on display in Xanadu.
The 1980 film was a notorious flop that helped to inspire the creation of the Razzies. But while it put the brakes on Newton-John’s acting career, it soon found its audience and is rightly a cult hit. She plays Kira, one of the ancient Greek muses, who inexplicably is brought to Earth to convince a sad-sack artist to create a roller-rink disco venue. It’s a transparently flimsy concept to connect a bunch of great ELO songs and an opportunity to allow Newton-John to sparkle alongside one of old Hollywood’s most beloved dancers.
It’s a testament to Newton-John’s gregariousness and old-school charm that she was able to hold her own against the legendary Gene Kelly. Watching them dance is pure magic, a lightning-in-a-bottle meeting of old and new that feels like a passing of the baton to someone who should have been on the path to grandeur.
Like the musical stars before her, Newton-John makes it all look so easy, even when she’s moving backward in roller skates. When she sings the title song in the throw-everything-at-the-wall finale, it’s a moment of such expansive joy that the iciest of hearts are doomed to melt. As he makes Xanadu seem like the most wonderful place, the kind of musical muse who would have made all of Vincente Minnelli’s dreams come true. But by the time Xanadu flopped, Hollywood had generally given up not only on musicals but the earnest rom-coms and good girl-driven films that would have made Newton-John a cinematic mainstay.
That’s not to say that Newton-John was out of step with her own generation. Her pop hits are pure ‘80s kitsch, all synths and innuendo and eager camp. Songs like “Physical” and “Twist of Fate” were born for a time of post-disco queer joy, and it’s no wonder she became a gay icon. She may have been born for feathers and kick lines but she did a damn fine job with leg warmers.
Like Sandy herself, her ability to reinvent her image and sound allowed her a kind of longevity in the charts that most singers would kill for. She did country, disco, Christmas songs, even Eurovision numbers. Moreover, she was a long-time charity supporter, helping to raise millions for cancer research causes and animal welfare. She fought.
So much of watching Olivia Newton-John in both Grease and Xanadu is to think of the potential that never came to fruition thanks to an industry in flux, but none of that diminishes her truly iconic standing. You may think you don’t know all the words to “You’re the One That I Want” but you totally do. If “Xanadu” comes on in a bar, you’re definitely going to dance. No movie makeover has ever topped Sandy’s, and no voice has ever soared like hers did. There was no place for cynicism with Olivia Newton-John, and dammit if we didn’t need more like her on and off-screen.
Olivia Newton-John Was a Classic Hollywood Star Born at the Wrong Time
Kayleigh Donaldson
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