Grease Live! followed The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, and The Wiz in the recent wave of stage musicals to be revived as live TV events. Aired on January 31, 2016, Grease Live! adapts the 1971 stage musical, incorporating elements from the 1978 film version (including three songs composed for the movie) while also adding new songs. The basic plot follows the courtship of leather-jacket tough guy Danny Zuko (Aaron Tveit) and naïve good girl Sandy (Julianne Hough) over the course of their senior year of high school, with the stories of other students playing out beside them. The show is filled with songs written and performed in the manner of 1950s rock ‘n' roll and features elaborate set pieces and dance choreography, filmed on multiple sets with mobile cameras swooping through and around the stages in key scenes. Vanessa Hudgens, a veteran of her own high school musicals, stands out in a fine cast as bad girl Rizzo, pop star Carly Rae Jepsen is very good as beauty school drop-out Frenchy, and the adult cast includes Ana Gasteyer, Wendell Pierce, Grease movie veterans Didi Conn and Barry Pearl, Brady Bunch star Eve Plumb, Mario Lopez, Boys II Men, and Joe Jonas. Presented in Dolby Digital stereo, extras include behind-the-scene featurettes. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Grease Live!
(2016) 132 min. DVD: $21.99. Paramount Home Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. Volume 31, Issue 3
Grease Live!
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