The best ‘Grease’ ever.
Better than ‘Grease 2’
When did you realizeGrease: Livewas killing it?
Live events are the thing now, they say.
Credit: Kevin Estrada/Fox
But theres a big gap between something happening right now and something thatshappening.
There were the Pink Ladies: Vanessa Hudgens, Palmer, Jepsen,Youre the Worsts Kether Donohue.
Hudgens held up a smartphone and they posed for a selfie.
The camera moved on, restless, out into the rain.
El Nino couldnt stop this beat.
The dancers carried umbrellas; hey, it worked for Gene Kelly.
I knew thatGrease: Livewould incorporate elements of the movie and the original stage production.
(Everyones always overreacting; barely anything happens.)
But Kail and his thrill-drunk collaborators energized the material at every turn.
Danny Zuko and Sandy Young are sweet bores.
As Danny, Aaron Tveit couldnt touch Travoltas goofy-sexy grace.
As Sandy, Julianne Hough was the opposite of expressive an inheritor of Olivia Newton-Johns energetic blandness.
Former Nick kid Carlos PenaVega and current Disney kid Jordan Fisher had standout moments as T-Birds.
But enough of the guys: Tell me more about the Pink Ladies!
Together, they were like a superteam: The Avengers, with better clothes.
And thats not to mention Ana Gasteyer as the beleaguered Principal.
Or Didi Conn the film versions Frenchy!
as a rueful-giddy waitress.
(Greases vision of high school is so abstract, it makesHigh School Musicallook like social anthropology.)
Under Kails democratic vision, everyone got a star moment.
Some worked better than others.
A better idea wouldve been just letting Jepsensing any track off her latest album.
AlthoughGrease: Livepaid lovely homage to all its source materials, it was also playfully self-aware.
(Its up for debate whether the point ofGreaseis be yourself or dont be yourself.)
There was a scene set at a drive-in theater.
The movie playing onscreen wasThe Monster of Piedras Blancas, a budget ripoff ofCreature From the Black Lagoon.
ButGrease: Livedefied modesty, transcended nostalgia, served up cheese as a ten-course gourmet meal.
In this moment overrun with must-see TV events,Greasewasnt just live.
