"Grease: Live!' Review
I know that I am in the minority here, but I do not like "Grease" very much. I do enjoy the show's score, the story isn't very good. The characters aren't very well written and I just can't get past the shows horrible message..."CHANGE YOURSELF FOR THE GUY YOU LIKE!" I just don't know were the self respect is in that. Anyways, despite my feelings about "Grease", FOX's live televised production was FANTASTIC.
Unless you've been living underneath a rock, you know that NBC has produced three other live musicals on television (The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz). "Grease" was FOX's first live musical, and they blew NBC out of the water! Most of this production's success not only goes to the strong cast, but to director of the show, Thomas Kail (Director of "Hamilton" and "In the Heights"). You can tell that he took a look at all of the things NBC did wrong, and he did it right. For example, adding the live studio audience, which NBC desperately needed. Kail did the show more in the style of a movie, than the style of the past NBC musicals. Also, Kail took more risks than NBC has taken, shooting it on two soundstages and outside, rain or shine, is pretty insane for a live broadcast.
This production was very well cast. Aaron Tveit did a really great job as Danny Zuko and Julianne Hough got off to a good start as Sandy, but she didn't hold up. While she sounded great on all of her songs, her acting was at a near Carrie Underwood level. That's pretty low.
Out of the entire cast, it was the supporting characters who were the strongest. Vanessa Hudgens was very fightsy as Rizzo and she did really amazing given her tragic circumstances . Carly Rae Jepsen also really killed it as Frenchy, as did Keke Palmer as Marty. Elle McLemore, who specializes in playing cheerleaders (Eva in "Bring it On: The Musical" and Heather McNamara in "Heathers the Musical") was very delightful as Patty Simcox and it was fun to watch her. We all know that the real stars of the show were Ana Gasteyer and Haneefah Wood in the roles of Principal McGee and her assistant, Blanche. Every single one of their scene's absolutely STOLE THE SHOW. Wood was an absolute scene stealer, and she probably only had one line in the entire broadcast. Everyone give it up for America's greatest new duo, Principal McGee and Blanche!
The set by David Korins (Set Designer of "Hamilton") looked really awesome and expensive, I loved it. The sound design by Bruce Aldredge Jr. was quite good, but there were points where the music drowned out the performers. William Ivey Long (Costume designer of the recent production of "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella") did the costumes, so naturally there was a clothing transformation and it was really cool.
As you may have heard, there is a new song for the character of Frenchy in this version of "Grease" called "All I Need Is An Angel" (Written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey). As I figured, it was really out of place with the rest of the songs from "Grease". It wasn't a bad song, it just didn't fit in with the songs in the show.
I was expecting to see a trainwreck, but "Grease: Live!" really exceeded my expectations and BLEW ME AWAY! I am still not a fan of the story, but I love the music and I might just have to buy the soundtrack for this production. I am going to get shot for this, but I think it was better than the movie version. Okay, I just said that so I will be hiding in my room while the angry mob outside of my house is ready to kill me.
Unless you've been living underneath a rock, you know that NBC has produced three other live musicals on television (The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz). "Grease" was FOX's first live musical, and they blew NBC out of the water! Most of this production's success not only goes to the strong cast, but to director of the show, Thomas Kail (Director of "Hamilton" and "In the Heights"). You can tell that he took a look at all of the things NBC did wrong, and he did it right. For example, adding the live studio audience, which NBC desperately needed. Kail did the show more in the style of a movie, than the style of the past NBC musicals. Also, Kail took more risks than NBC has taken, shooting it on two soundstages and outside, rain or shine, is pretty insane for a live broadcast.
This production was very well cast. Aaron Tveit did a really great job as Danny Zuko and Julianne Hough got off to a good start as Sandy, but she didn't hold up. While she sounded great on all of her songs, her acting was at a near Carrie Underwood level. That's pretty low.
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| Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit as Sandy Young and Danny Zuko |
Out of the entire cast, it was the supporting characters who were the strongest. Vanessa Hudgens was very fightsy as Rizzo and she did really amazing given her tragic circumstances . Carly Rae Jepsen also really killed it as Frenchy, as did Keke Palmer as Marty. Elle McLemore, who specializes in playing cheerleaders (Eva in "Bring it On: The Musical" and Heather McNamara in "Heathers the Musical") was very delightful as Patty Simcox and it was fun to watch her. We all know that the real stars of the show were Ana Gasteyer and Haneefah Wood in the roles of Principal McGee and her assistant, Blanche. Every single one of their scene's absolutely STOLE THE SHOW. Wood was an absolute scene stealer, and she probably only had one line in the entire broadcast. Everyone give it up for America's greatest new duo, Principal McGee and Blanche!
The set by David Korins (Set Designer of "Hamilton") looked really awesome and expensive, I loved it. The sound design by Bruce Aldredge Jr. was quite good, but there were points where the music drowned out the performers. William Ivey Long (Costume designer of the recent production of "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella") did the costumes, so naturally there was a clothing transformation and it was really cool.
As you may have heard, there is a new song for the character of Frenchy in this version of "Grease" called "All I Need Is An Angel" (Written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey). As I figured, it was really out of place with the rest of the songs from "Grease". It wasn't a bad song, it just didn't fit in with the songs in the show.
I was expecting to see a trainwreck, but "Grease: Live!" really exceeded my expectations and BLEW ME AWAY! I am still not a fan of the story, but I love the music and I might just have to buy the soundtrack for this production. I am going to get shot for this, but I think it was better than the movie version. Okay, I just said that so I will be hiding in my room while the angry mob outside of my house is ready to kill me.
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