Grease is a 1972 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.
The show takes its name from the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School (loosely based on William Howard Taft High School (Chicago)), follows ten working-class kids as they navigate the complexities of love, cars, and drive-ins. The score attempts to re-create the sounds of early rock and roll. In its record-breaking original Broadway production, Grease was a raunchy, raw, aggressive, vulgar show which has since been sanitized and tamed down by subsequent productions.
The show tackles such social issues as teenage pregnancy and gang violence; its themes include love, friendship, teenage rebellion, sexual exploration during adolescence and, to some extent, class consciousness/class conflict.
At the time it closed in 1980, Grease 's 3,388-performance run was the longest yet in Broadway history, although surpassed by A Chorus Line a few years later. It went on to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film, a popular 1994 Broadway revival, and a staple of regional theatre, summer stock, community theatre, and high school and middle school drama groups. It remains Broadway's twelfth longest-running show.
Production history
Original 1971 production
The show's original, grittier 1971 incarnation has been described as either a musical from the start or a play with incidental music. In either case, it was first staged under the name Grease Lightning at the original location of the Kingston Mines in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. The script was based on Jim Jacobs' experience at Chicago's William Howard Taft High School (Chicago). Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox saw it and suggested to the playwrights it might work better as a full-scale musical, and told them if they were willing to rework it and if they liked the result, they would produce it off-Broadway. The team headed to New York City and after additional collaboration and refinements, Grease opened at the Eden Theatre in downtown Manhattan on February 14, 1972. Excellent reviews and brisk box-office business prompted the producers to move it to Broadway.
1972 Broadway premiere
The Broadway production, directed by Tom Moore and choreographed by Patricia Birch (who later directed the ill-fated sequel of the film adaptation of Grease ), opened on June 7, 1972 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it ran for five months before transferring to the Royale Theatre. It remained there for more than seven years before moving to the Majestic Theatre to complete its record-setting 3,388-performance run. The original cast included Barry Bostwick as Danny and Carole Demas as Sandy, with Adrienne Barbeau, Timothy Meyers, Alan Paul, and Walter Bobbie in supporting roles. Replacements later in the run included Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner, Peter Gallagher, Ilene Graff, Judy Kaye, Patrick Swayze, John Travolta, Jerry Zaks, and Treat Williams. Richard Gere was an understudy for many roles in this production, including Danny Zuko, Teen Angel, and Vince Fontaine.
1973 London premiere
The original London production opened at the New London Theatre in June 1973 with a cast that included a then-unknown Richard Gere as Danny and Kim Braden as Sandy. Later Paul Nicholas and Elaine Paige who had been in the London production of Hair took over the leads. It was revived in London at the Astoria in 1979 with Su Pollard and Tracey Ullman.
1993 London revival
In 1993, a London revival ran for six years beginning on July 15, 1993, at the Dominion Theatre and transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in October 1996, where it ran until September 11, 1999. Directed by David Gilmore, the opening cast included Craig McLachlan (Danny), Debbie Gibson (Sandy), Shane Ritchie (Kenickie) and Sally Ann Triplett (Rizzo). ( Variety , Review Abroad Grease, 8/2/93-8/8/93) Other performers who played Danny were Luke Goss, Ian Kelsey, and Darren Day.
1994 Broadway revival
After twenty previews, a Broadway revival directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun opened on May 11, 1994 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 1,505 performances. Featured were Ricky Paull Goldin (Danny), Brooke Shields and Rosie O'Donnell (Rizzo), Susan Wood (Sandy), Megan Mullally (Marty), Hunter Foster (Roger), and Billy Porter (Teen Angel).
1994 US Tour
A U.S. national tour of the 1994 production started in September 1994 in New Haven, Connecticut, and ran for several years. The opening tour cast included Sally Struthers (Miss Lynch), who stayed with the tour for several years, Angela Pupello (Rizzo), Rex Smith (Danny), Trisha M. Gorman (Sandy), and Davy Jones (Vince Fontaine). Brooke Shields (Rizzo) started on the tour in November 1994 before joining the Broadway cast. Other notable performers on the tour were Mickey Dolenz (Vince Fontaine), Adrian Zmed (Danny), Debbie Gibson, Heather Stokes, Mackenzie Phillips and Jasmine Guy (Rizzo), Sutton Foster (Sandy) and Marissa Jaret Winokur (Jan), and Lucy Lawless (Rizzo, 1997).
2007 Broadway revival
A second Broadway revival, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, began previews at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on July 24, 2007 and opened on August 19, 2007. Max Crumm and Laura Osnes were selected to portray Danny and Sandy via viewer votes cast during the run of the NBC reality series Grease: You're the One that I Want! . The original score includes four songs written for the film adaptation: "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Sandy," "You're the One That I Want," and the title number. The Burger Palace Boys' name would be the T-Birds in this revival. The production ended on January 4 , 2009 after 31 previews and 554 performances.
2008 US tour
A US National tour began on December 2, 2008 in Providence, RI and is scheduled to continue through December 20, 2009, at the Cheverlot Theatre in Wallingford, Connecticut. Taylor Hicks reprises his role as the Teen Angel, with Eric Schneider as Danny and Emily Padgett as Sandy. In the U.S. Tour, before the show begins, the DJ of WAXX, Vince Fontaine, plays music from the '50s for audience to sing. After that, he reminded safety instructions before the show begins. After the show, Vince told everyone to donate at the lobby for Broadway Cares before Taylor Hicks performed.
2007 London revival
A West End revival, with the leads similarly cast via ITV's Grease Is The Word , opened at the Piccadilly Theatre, London on August 8, 2007 to negative reviews.
2008 Asian tour
The Asian tour opened in Macau in October 2008 and has booked dates for Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Taipei, Hong Kong, Dubai, and various cities in India, and brought back the controversial cockfighting scene.
Synopsis
Act I
In 1959, Rydell High School's rebellious, happy, thrill-loving students start a new year. The "greasers" are the Burger Palace Boys and the Pink Ladies ("Alma Mater Parody"). In the revival, the play begins with the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies singing, "Grease (is the Word)". The start of the new school year means lousy food ("You want my coleslaw?") and dreaded teachers ("I got Old Lady Lynch for English again. She hates my guts."). The Pink Ladies sit on one side of the lunchroom, and the Burger Palace Boys sit on the other.
There is a new girl at school, Sandy Dumbrowski. She and the leader of the “Burger Palace Boys”, Danny Zuko, had a brief love affair the summer before, but the summer ended for them with unresolved feelings of love. In describing the fling to the Pink Ladies (Jan, Marty, Frenchy, and Betty Rizzo), Sandy focuses on the emotional attachment she and Danny had, while Danny lies to the Boys (Roger, Doody, Sonny, and Kenickie) about the physical aspects of their relationship ("Summer Nights"). Sandy and Danny soon bump into each other at school, and while Sandy is happy to see Danny, he blows her off, pretending to be too cool. Meanwhile, the kids gather in the hall as Doody, the youngest Burger Palace Boy, shows off his new guitar. Rock star wannabe Doody gives an impromptu concert in the hall ("Those Magic Changes").
At Marty’s pajama party, the girls experiment with wine, cigarettes, and pierced ears, and talk about boys. Marty tells about her long-distance courtship with a Marine ("Freddy, My Love"). Meanwhile, the Burger Palace Boys are busy stealing hubcaps and teasing Kenickie about his new (used) car ("Greased Lightning").
Danny sees Sandy again and tries to apologize for his behavior, but she is hurt to find out that he has told his friends that she is "easy." Head cheerleader Patty Simcox interrupts to prompt Sandy to join the squad and to tease Danny about his latest indiscretions ("Rydell Fight Song"). The kids take their newfangled portable radios for a rock and roll picnic in the park and plan how they will pair off at the upcoming school prom, while Roger shares his love for Jan and his favorite hobby ("Mooning"). Rizzo teases Danny for falling for a girl who resembles the excessively proper teenage ingénue, Sandra Dee ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee"). Sandy realizes that Danny is putting her off to be cool and wishes she had never met him.
Then Danny suggests that Mar
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