Gavin’s Review of Grease: Live

Last night, I tweeted out that "I f***ing LOVE musicals." This is a very true statement about me. I've loved musicals for a very long time. One of my all-time favorites (because my parents raised me right) is Grease. I haven't had much interest in the NBC live musicals (Peter Pan, Sound of Music), but when I found out FOX was doing a live production of Grease, I circled it on my calendar several times (because that's how you know you are serious about remembering something).

I didn't know what to expect from the production, but I was blown away by how the show was produced. The sets were spread over 20 acres and looked fantastic. I was skeptical by how they were going to make certain aspects of the show work (American Bandstand Dance-Off, the car race at the end), but each scene was done very well. Props to the lighting techs and set designers for making Rydell High School come alive.

The cast of the show did a great job filling in the suede shoes of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Julianne Hough played Sandy and Aaron Tveit played Danny. Also on the cast were Carly Rae-Jepsen as Frenchie and  Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo. Hudgens' father passed away earlier yesterday and she gave an amazing performance despite the emotional state she was in. I give her all the love for going out and doing the damn thing when she would have rather been elsewhere (and justifiably so). The only casting choices I didn't like were Joe Jonas as Johnny Casino (and DNCE as his band) and Keke Palmer as Marty. Other than those two, I loved the cast.

Finally, the music was on point. I screamed like a manchild during Greased Lighting and waited in anticipation for the epic ending that was "You're the One that I Want." They kept in the USO song (which I've never liked) and Boys II Men singing "Beauty School Dropout" sounds better on paper than it actually was. But yeah, I was singing along and enjoying all of the other music.

Overall, FOX knocked it out of the park with their live theatre debut. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for the next one! Hopefully, it's another musical, because, you know, I f***ing love them.