Last night FOX aired its live musical version of the classic movie Grease. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of it. Was it going to be an exact rendition? A new take on it? Something in between? How would it differ being broadcast live with a studio audience? It ended up being a quite the fun ride. Read below for more!

The show started out with not a cast member, but singer Jessie J singing the title song, Grease. While other live shows kept strictly to the stage, FOX did no such thing and instead had Jessie J skipping through the backstage, outside-even though it was still raining-and showing everyone the bones of this operation. I thought that was a one off, but instead we also got a sort of host in Mario Lopez (who also played the surprise part of Vince Fontaine) and had him talking about social media and showing the cast break character to run in between sets. It was a big change from how NBC has done its previous live musicals and it was fun to see.

The actors cast were well done. They were a good mix of movie and television vets along with singers and dancers and a few who can do all three. Julianne Hough is best known for being on Dancing with the Stars, played Sandy. Vanessa Hudgens played Rizzo and became known for her role in the many High School Musicals. Keke Palmer was saucy Marty and you’ve most recently seen on the new hit Scream Queens. Kether Donohue played loveable Jan and you’ve seen her on You’re the Worst. Rounding up the pink ladies is Carly Rae Jepson as Frenchy and she’s better known for her singing career than acting. They definitely called her at any rate for this part!

The T-Birds consisted of Aaron Tveit as our Danny Zuko and is known for his roles on Gossip Girl and Graceland. Carlos PenaVega played Kenicki and he was on the huge show Big Time Rush. Jordan Fisher was Doody and you’ve most recently watched him on Teen Wolf. David Del Rio is known for Pitch Perfect but played a great Putzie. Last but not least is Andrew Call who has recently came back to acting after a break and played Sonny. He is in the upcoming movie Geezer.

Other amazing cast members were the ‘nerds’ Elle McLemore (Army Wives) as Patty and Noah Robbins (Indignation) as Eugene. Rydell’s faculty also deserve a huge nod as they had me rolling laughing the entire night. Ana Gasteyer (a famous SNL cast member) was Principal McGee. Haneefah Wood played her secretary Blanche and I’m pretty sure she deserves some kind of award for the comedy gold she created without speaking a word. There was also Wendell Pierce (Suits, The Odd Couple) as the wonderfully sarcastic Coach Calhoun.

The cast wasn’t the only stars on Grease Live! Behind the scenes were some major players too. It was directed by Thomas Kail of Hamilton fame. Also from Hamilton was David Korins who did the sets. Music supervisor was Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and costume designer William Ivey Long (Cabaret).

That’s a lot of names to take in, but they’re all important names and most of all, they all did a fantastic job on this musical. I was very impressed with the way the cast went through their scenes. The sets were well made and large. Some of which even took place outside! Changing sets was also a smooth transition as well as costume changes. Keke Palmer once changed from a nightie to a full length gown back to a nightie during her solo performance of “Freddy My Love.” This was also while seamlessly changing between two different sets. Pretty damn awesome.

https://youtu.be/gKqcRzxp7sY

I’ve tried to think of how I can compare this with the original version, but really its apples and oranges when you do. While it is the same story the fact that this was a live musical changes a lot of criteria. A movie you can redo scenes over and over until their perfect, a musical only has one chance. A movie has sound guys all over and another in the back remastering it before we ever hear it. A musical can’t do that; especially a live one. So while I found the original to be more polished; in a way that can’t be helped because it was a movie. This isn’t to knock the musical, it did great. I loved seeing the spontaneity of the cast that you can never have with a movie. I just keep seeing people complaining about how it was different from the movie and of course it was-it was a totally different animal!

There were some noticeable differences in the main story. While all the major plot points are kept in place, this time there were added musical numbers as well as bits of rewritten dialogue. The dialogue was my favorite as most of it was added in jokes of the dick and boob variety. They were sly and the cast slid them in without a hitch, it was hilarious. My two favorite was one from Principal McGee mentioning that, “Nothing makes a cheerleader more nervous than being late!” and one of the T-Birds mentioning that he had to “flog his log.”

The two new musical numbers were a mixed bag. Carly Rae Jepson (Frenchy) performed the new, “All I Need is an Angel” after she admits to the waitress that she couldn’t do beauty school and felt lost. There was a nice surprise when I realized the waitress was none other than Didi Conn, the original Frenchy. That warm and fuzzy feeling was cut short when Jepson’s solo while well sung felt long and a bit tedious as it was then immediately overshadowed by the well-known “Beauty School Dropout” now performed by Boyz II Men. While I loved them singing that song, they may need to work on that choreography a bit more.

The other song was “Those Magic Changes” performed by Jordan Fisher aka Doody. By the way the original Doody (Barry Pearl) also showed up in this movie as Mr. Weaver. At the beginning, Doody kept carrying around a guitar and asking if people wanted to hear his song. Everyone ignored him, but he finally got his chance to shine and boy did he! Jordan Fisher nearly stole the show with his solo. I had no idea Fisher could be such a crooner, but he proved himself in a big way. Let’s all hope this isn’t the last time we hear him sing!

Another big stand out was when Vanessa Hudgens performed “There are Worse Things I Could Do.” That is one of my favorite songs from the original and probably the deepest one of the movie. Sandy and Danny’s romance takes center stage, but it is a mostly silly romance full of misunderstandings and goofy antics on their parts. Rizzo had a much more serious story line and I think that always resonated with a lot people. This song was important to the musicals overall success and Hudgens nailed it.

https://youtu.be/wKsXNyb44Jw

The duets between Danny and Sandy were also well done, but I feel as if they weren’t the stand outs of the night. I did enjoy them and happily sang along. Much of the time I couldn’t tell if Hough and Tveit were trying to imitate Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta being the characters or trying to put their own spin on the characters. It sometimes felt like they were trying too hard for that chemistry that came naturally for the movie. Luckily they made up for this through sheer enthusiasm and having fun with the songs.

The show wasn’t quite done with the surprises yet. When it came time for the dance contest, not only did we get a Mario Lopez playing the role of Vince Fontaine and creepily hitting on Marty (No Slater!), but Joe Jonas brother also showed up to play the musical talent as Johnny Casino. It also didn’t pass me by that Joe Jones was a musician playing a musician while on a live television show playing a live television show. We all got to sing and dance along to the famous, “Born to Hand Jive Baby” but it did feel cut short. Not to mention the one big snafu of the night when the sound cut out for about 30 seconds.

Sadly, there was no live mooning on stage and instead the show changed it to the boys getting in trouble for spiking the punch. I think this also undercut the tension between Danny and Sandy. Not the mooning part but the part where it was supposed to happen. At the dance they play “Blue Moon” and instead of dancing with Sandy, Danny continues to dance with ChaCha.

The last big scene before the end was the race between the T-Birds and the Scorpions. I was wondering how they would do an actual race during a musical, but I found out the answer is they won’t. Instead they used some lighting tricks to make it seem like the cars were speeding along while in reality they never moved. This felt a bit like a cheap trick, but there is no way the show would be able to really race the cars or even have stunt driver’s jump in to do it for the actors. They worked with what they had and made the best of it.

While I have never been a big fan of the message Grease sends to girls, I do have to mention that I felt this addition actually made it worse. There has always been the argument that Sandy’s transformation in the end wasn’t about changing for people and especially a boy to like you, but for herself. While I can see that, I also think Sandy only wanted to change herself after the group kept calling her a wet blanket and square throughout the entire film/musical. The musical I felt made this worse with the addition of nerd Eugene who was at first also called names for being different than them, but then was accepted AS HE WAS by the end. He didn’t have to change one thing about himself and yet Sandy is still forced through her makeover. Sigh.

The end of the three hour event was up next (and it only felt like that long once or twice) and I was pleasantly surprised with how well I liked the ending. The songs “You’re the One that I Want” and “We Go Together” were not only well performed but so much fun that you almost forgive any and all past mistakes. The show again takes us off the stage and we see the cast jump onto golf carts and drive through Warner Bros. studios to their set up fair grounds. There the entire ensemble dances and give the most enthusiastic bows I’ve ever seen from these live musicals.

Also my favorite part was that they entirely skipped that strange scene where Danny and Sandy fly off in his car. I never understood that and I’m happy to see it leave the story.

Overall I did like this new production of Grease. It could use some fine tuning and direction, but it captured what the original was about-being with your friends, having fun and growing up. I would definitely watch this again if it came up and you can too. You can go to FOX.com and pre-order the DVD today! Also the entire soundtrack is already on iTunes. You know I will be getting “Those Magic Changes” by Jordan Fisher.

Other mentions I have to make:

• Condolences to Vanessa Hudgens whose father passed away the day before and she was still able to perform.
• I also call everyone on their BS saying this cast is ‘too old’ to be playing their parts. Not only is that the norm and the blame shouldn’t fall squarely on Grease Live’s shoulders, but generally the original cast was older when they filmed than this one is now. Seriously Olivia Newton-John was 30 and Stockard Channing 34. Aaron Tveit who I have seen the most complaints about is 31. So really people, lay off and find something else to complain about.
• I also loved how diverse the cast was, something the original was sorely lacking.

What did you think of Grease Live? Tell us in the comments below or go over to twitter and follow us @thenerdygirlexp or on my personal account @quietlikeastorm.