A few summers ago my family saw a version of "Grease" in a theatre in northern Michigan that was really raunchy. I couldn't believe it. We took the whole family because we thought we all knew what "Grease" would be like. The show being put on by our local Catholic high school is very clean-cut. And yet, it's essentially the same story.The summer version we saw was, of course, not the school version these kids are putting on. Still, the actual story is not very different. All I can say about the one we saw up North was that it was sleazed up as much as it could possibly be. Every vague innuendo was exaggerated. The whole show was dripping with oversexualization. They ruined it. We considered walking out. Afterwards, the kids themselves said they were surprised that we hadn't walked out.
I found myself wondering what on earth was the point of distorting such a nice little musical. We left with a bad taste in our mouths. It was just a yucky show-- and it didn't need to be. It was all the added raunchiness. I know it is said that sex sells. But this was so unattractive I can't imagine who would have thought it was improved by all the sleaze.
Anyway, the "Grease" being performed by Gabriel Richard High School is as nice as you would imagine in the pictures above. :-)
The first picture of the boys with the cokes includes our own Ruthann's Teddy on the right. And the boy dancing with the red tie on in the last picture is my Jim!
12 comments:
I have to admit that several years ago when they re-released Grease in the movie theater (maybe 10 years ago-ish?), I was really shocked. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and I didn't realize how sexual the movie was. Kind of ruined my memories of enjoying it as a kid.
Grease is funny. The true original production was pretty raunchy. Then they toned it down for the movie and future productions. Sounds like the one you saw up north was based off the original--would have been nice if they'd had a little warning. People are used to the movie version, that's what they expect.
I agree, the original is pretty raunchy, it depends on what you hilight (and what you get)
Interesting. So it started out raunchy and was later cleaned up....
I didn't know the history of "Grease," so I would have been surprised, too.
Rosemary, your story reminds me of the time we ended up seeing a "modernized" version of "Swan Lake." The plot tension was not caused by the male protagonist (his name escapes me) falling for Odette and mistakenly promising himself to her look-alike, Odile. The tension in the "updated" version was the protagonist struggling with his sexual preferences. At the time, the storyline was above the heads of my youngsters; they just knew it wasn't what they were expecting and disliked it. Not at all what I had been expecting, either!
Your story reminds me of when we saw a production of Kiss Me, Kate where they sexed it up as much as possible. It really detracted from the experience.
I once got the "book (script)" for the play Grease out of the library - I was really surprised how raunchy it is. I'm sure that many high school productions clean it up.
Also - when I first saw the movie at age 11 or 12 I'm sure there were a lot of references that went way over my head.
I gues it is a sign of the times that so many plays/movies are oversexualized...It's too bad.
great photo..my children's school did a nice production with my daughter rizzo..it was lovely..
Like Angie, I loved Grease when it first came out. I had the album, saw the movie a few times. I was shocked at the crude language when I watched it again recently. Yet, it is still being foisted to young kids on ABC Family Channel.
Mrs. Jackie, it must have been fun seeing your daughter play Rizzo. What a fun part. Esther, I know. Everything looks different as a parent, doesn't it.
Oh, it looks so cute and so fun. I'm sure they did a great job!
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