Reviews of Grease (1978) and related work
- Sequel: Grease 2 (1982)
Grease (1978
) – previously
Rewatching Grease was my sister’s 35th-birthday present to me. Seeing it as a child I was oblivious to its poisonous post-Vietnam nostalgia and finely tuned camp sensibility, where none of the various coteries are sympathetic and only one person of colour is ever seen on campus. When filming began in June 1977, Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 33, Michael Tucci (T-Bird Sonny) was 31, Dennis Stewart (rival greaser Leo) and Jamie Donnelly (Pink Ladies baby Jan) were 30, Annette Charles (Cha Cha) was 29, Olivia Newton-John was 28 etc. These people were all playing high-school kids, more or less. I am grateful such productions are no longer viable, but Annette Charles, Didi Conn and John Travolta are all fun to watch.