Grease Live is a very strange mixture of rip off and originality. They made a huge deal about the cast being racially diverse but made sure each character was a replica from the movie, down to the matching hair and outfits. Performances from Keke Palmer and Boyz II Men were breaths of fresh air where they brought new personas to their characters, despite the seemingly tight parameters of the production. Where as Julianne Hough, Aaron Tviet, and Venessa Hudgen's (yes despite her amicable performance despite the circumstances,) clear reenactments of their big screen counterparts came off cheesy (not campy, cheesy.) And not to mention the original song for Frenchy or should I say for Carly Rae Jepsen. The character Frenchy was always fully developed without singing a song and then to give her one that sounds like it came from a completely different musical felt forced and in my face. I felt no chemistry between Danny and Sandy (which admittedly I think are the most boring characters in the musical anyways.) And despite their attempts to give Sandy more depth, Julianne's performance was flatter than a pancake. Another complaint is that it felt like there was a battle of classic dialogue and new material. It often felt as though there was such a huge attempt to cram all of the classic dialogue in, the audience never gets a moment to process any of the jokes that are still funny to this day. The delivery of dialogue never used the magic of a well placed silence, and was pure sound porn (noise, after noise, after noise, to distract the viewer,) for at least the first thirty minutes. Jokes here and there but never resonated.On the contrary they added weird subplots (ie Patty and Eugene dynamic, cheerleading tryouts, Eugene joining the T-birds,) and these scenes felt so slow as if to say "YOU GET IT!? GET IT!?" where there was nothing to get; they were boring and I personally don't understand why they were added. The script to Grease is bad, it's supposed to be bad, it's a parody in and of itself. Trying to give it depth in certain components and leaving others alone leaves the viewer with a strange and lost feeling. We didn't need a slower transition of Sandy to Bad Girl Sandy, we accepted it! We never needed acceptance for Eugene by the T-birds because we accepted Eugene as a nerd. I always figured he went on to own some large company, not become a T-bird. We like Patty Simcox as a two faced bitch. The cast is very large and there's no reason to fully develop every character, because they're supposed to be 2-dimensional!Choreography was great and definitely an attempt to be original. They even added a cheerleading tryout scene to remind us all that Julianne Hough is a professional dancer, don't forget it! However a nice homage to the classic Greased Lightning would have been fully welcomed. In fact the moves the singers do during the number in the live version made it very hard for me to believe they were singing live. I'm not a professional musical theater actor but I find it very hard to believe that they could sing while doing jab, jab, arms out, jump, body roll, hair fix. And not to mention the exotic dancers during the number... Even the hand jive was changed, it was recognizable but it was not right. This was interesting because they made a point to keep so much of the movies choreography but they changed the one, the ONE, iconic move that is consistent through every production I've ever seen.Production value and camera work were impeccable, and while beautiful they are are unfortunately not what makes a musical. If the cast and dialogue isn't working, the camera work can't save it.While I think the camera work and set gives NBC a lot to think about, The Wiz still excelled in being an homage to the musical and the movie while still excelling in being it's own standout performance. There is a fine line between homage and being lazy and I don't think Grease Live fell on the right side of the line. But on that note, I think this was a good first attempt for FOX, and I would be willing to watch future live musicals on their station.
jbbartram-illu
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
janainaart
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
