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The costars sang and danced
- John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John enjoyed an enduring friendship over the years since making Grease together. The costars sang and danced opposite each other as Danny and Sandy in the classic 1978 movie musical.
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Aug 9, 2022 · Did Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta date in real life? Despite numerous rumours to the contrary – and some steamy pictures of the pair kissing at a party in 1978 (below) – there has been no romance between the two stars.
Apr 14, 2023 · A choreographer threw the final scene together on the spot and the entire dance routine between Olivia Newton-John and her co-star John Travolta was shot in just seven hours. Picture: Alamy John Farrar also revealed that superstar actor John Travolta was nervous to be singing in a recording studio with his co-star.
Stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John gave a dance lesson to Variety ‘s Marc Malkin on the red carpet for a screening honoring the 40th anniversary of the hit musical. Travolta...
Aug 8, 2022 · 16 photos show how 'Grease' costars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John's friendship evolved over the last 44 years. Claudia Willen and Olivia Singh. Updated. Aug 8, 2022, 2:13 PM PDT. On the ...
- Overview
- Summary
- Source material
- Production and casting
- Legacy
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
Grease, American musical film released in 1978 starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta that follows the adventures of a group of high-school students in the late 1950s. Grease is the highest-grossing musical film of the 20th century and is based on, but differs significantly from, the Broadway musical of the same name.
Teenagers Sandy Olsson (Newton-John) and Danny Zuko (Travolta) meet at the beach in the summer of 1958 and fall in love while Sandy’s family is visiting California on vacation from Australia. When they have to part at the end of the summer, Danny assures a fretful Sandy that “it’s only the beginning.”
A lively animated title sequence by British animator John Wilson of Fine Art Films follows, underscored by the film’s iconic eponymous song (“Grease”), written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by Frankie Valli, lead singer of the Four Seasons. “Grease” expertly combines Valli’s doo-wop crooning with a funky 1970s beat, a nod to both the decade in which the movie is set and the decade in which it was produced. While the song plays, the animation introduces the film’s main characters by depicting their morning routines as they get ready for school.
Back in the live-action world of the film, it’s the first day of school at Rydell High School, where Danny and his crew of greasers, who call themselves the T-Birds, prepare to start their senior year. The other T-Birds, Kenickie (Jeff Conaway), Doody (Barry Pearl), Sonny (Michael Tucci), and Putzie (Kelly Ward), joke with one another about what they did over their summer break. Danny tells them he met a girl at the beach. At lunchtime, Sandy, now also a student at Rydell, as her parents decided to stay in California, meets the Pink Ladies, a clique of girls that includes Frenchy (Didi Conn), Jan (Jamie Donnelly), and Marty (Dinah Manoff) and is led by the sharp-tongued Rizzo (Stockard Channing); the group exclusively socializes with the T-Birds.
Both the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds demand to hear about Sandy’s and Danny’s summer romances, which they detail in the song “Summer Nights.” Sandy tells the Pink Ladies the name of her summer fling, and they burst into laughter, not telling her that Danny is also a student at Rydell. Later that night at a school pep rally, Rizzo arranges a surprise meeting between Danny and Sandy. Torn between his excitement at seeing Sandy again and his need to protect his tough-guy reputation in front of his friends, Danny publicly snubs Sandy. Frenchy consoles a tearful Sandy and invites her to the Pink Ladies’ sleepover that night to cheer her up.
At the sleepover, Sandy becomes ill from smoking a cigarette, sipping wine, and having Frenchy, an aspiring beautician, pierce her ears. While Sandy is in the bathroom, Rizzo and the other Pink Ladies make fun of her, singing the song “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee.” Sandy catches them mocking her and steps out to the porch to lament her crush on Danny, which she now assumes is unrequited, singing “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
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The film is based on the stage musical of the same name written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical premiered at the Kingston Mines Theatre in Chicago in 1971 before opening Off-Broadway in 1972 and moving to Broadway later the same year. Grease was nominated for seven Tony Awards in 1972, including those for best musical, best book of a musical, best choreography, and best costume design. Both Conaway and Travolta performed in the Broadway cast of Grease prior to the musical closing in 1980. Conaway starred as Danny and Travolta played Doody.
Ten of the stage show’s 20 songs were cut or reduced to background music in the film adaptation. Some of those involved in making the show and/or its film adaptation thought that the film turned out to be a sanitized version of the grittier, raunchier stage play.
Grease was directed by Randal Kleiser and filmed during 15 weeks in the summer of 1977 with a $6 million budget. In a 2023 article in The Guardian, actor Kelly Ward, who played T-Bird Putzie, remembered shooting the film as “a summer-long party.” Henry Winkler, who played Fonzie on the popular TV sitcom Happy Days, was originally selected to play D...
Although Grease initially received mixed reviews, the film was a huge commercial success. It was the highest-grossing film of 1978 and the highest-grossing musical film of the entire 20th century, bringing in $182 million domestically and $387 million worldwide. In addition, the stage show has spawned more than 123,000 productions worldwide, cementing its status as a global cultural phenomenon. The stage show returned to Broadway in 1994 and 2007.
The soundtrack for Grease became one of the most popular original film soundtrack albums of all time, eventually selling more than 30 million copies worldwide. The hit songs “Grease” and “You’re the One That I Want” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Summer Nights” peaked at number three and five, respectively. The film spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982), which is directed by Patricia Birch (who served as the choreographer for Grease and its original stage production) and stars Michelle Pfeiffer. Grease also inspired the musical television series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2023), which is set four years before the events in Grease.
•Studio: Paramount Pictures
•Director: Randal Kleiser
•Producers: Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood
•Screenplay: Bronte Woodard
•Based on the original musical by: Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
•Running time: 110 minutes
•John Travolta (Danny)
•Olivia Newton-John (Sandy)
•Stockard Channing (Rizzo)
•Jeff Conaway (Kenickie)
•Barry Pearl (Doody)
•Michael Tucci (Sonny)
- Jordana Rosenfeld
Jun 14, 2018 · John Travolta and Jimmy Fallon Recreate Iconic 'Grease' Dance for 40th Anniversary. Move over, Olivia Newton-John — John Travolta has a new "You're the One That I Want" dance...
Aug 8, 2022 · Published on August 8, 2022 04:34PM EDT. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John enjoyed an enduring friendship over the years since making Grease together. The costars sang and danced...
