By Megan Ruge Asst. living and arts editor
It’s November, which means the holiday season is in full swing. It is time to start looking forward to Thanksgiving, a holiday known for its special events. Thanksgiving is filled with parades, television specials and live musical events.
One of the most important entertainment events of the holiday season is the live musical event. This event usually occurs between Thanksgiving and the holiday tree lighting in Rockefeller Plaza.
Last year, Fox premiered its first live musical event, “Grease: Live.” The event is currently available on Netflix.
“Grease: Live” is the first of Fox’s musicals. The remake of classic musicals began with the premiere of “The Sound of Music Live” in 2013 on NBC. The tradition continued with “Peter Pan Live” in 2014 and “The Wiz Live” in 2015.
“Grease: Live” premiered in January. When the event was announced, fans were skeptical.
The stage production of “Grease” was not as well received with audiences as the movie production of “Grease” from 1978, which starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton- John. The musical event displayed a star-studded cast that had many people fearing that they would be unable to produce a show up to par with the film performance.
“Grease” takes place in 1959. It is the story of a girl named Sandy, whose heart is broken after the bittersweet end of a summer romance.
Sandy returns from a summer of love to find out that she is moving to California and starting at a new school. She meets a group of “rough and tumble” girls, some of whom are welcoming and some who are not so fond of her.
All these events lead up to the big meeting with her summer love, Danny Zuko, and she realizes he’s not who she thought he was.
These two teenagers from different worlds must decide if they can transcend the boundaries placed around them or if their summer love is best left in the storybooks.
The live production, produced by Fox, made the event into a more close to home version. Sandy originally lives in Salt Lake City, Utah instead of California. This changes the plot slightly, but not by much. Also in the live version, viewers see Sandy’s cheerleader tryout.
The opening gives the audience a unique experience where the viewer is able to see the audience, set and behind-the-scenes production. The opening, which was originally performed by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, was sung by Jessie J.
Throughout the live event, viewers see the audience become part of the production in many parts of the show.
The way they move through sets and scenes was very well orchestrated and the event wowed critics overall.
The classic introduction of the two groups, The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies, was an iconic moment. The use of the opening sequence to introduce the two groups was a very creative and well thought-out way to start the live production.
The iconic Sandy is played by Julianne Hough. She starred in “Rock of Ages.”
The bad boy, Danny Zuko, is played by Aaron Tveit.
The use of set design and the ability to show the viewer backstage creates a unique experience. It is an interesting use of the production’s live element.
There are many ways that the producers used the live element to their advantage to make the performance similar to an actual on-stage production in a theater.
The use of the light design to include the on-set audience was a creative decision to make the project original. The lighting design and the director’s ability to recognize the use of lighting make the situation unique.
I give “Grease: Live” 5 out of 5 stars.
