Line #29 Trivia/Grease


1	----
2	!!The play
3	* CutSong: The Broadway production itself cut or altered musical numbers for timing purposes. Most of the below examples were reinstated for [[https://www.theatreinchicago.com/the-original-grease/4582/the 2011 ''Original Grease'' production]] in Chicago:
4	** "Foster Beach" was changed to "Summer Nights", as Broadway producers felt audiences would not be familiar with the beach (a Chicago-specific locale on Lake Michigan).
5	** Patty and Miss Lynch originally had solo numbers, but both were cut.
6	** Before the movie would have its own titular song, there was an Act II number called "Grease" that was dropped (it would also be reprised as the final musical number). Another song called "Boogie Man Boogie" was cut and replaced with "Born To Hand Jive".
7	** Besides "It's Raining On Prom Night", Sandy had a solo number called "Kiss It" (in the ''Original Grease'', this comes before "All Choked Up", the song created to replace it in the Broadway script).
8	** Doody's song was originally in Act II and titled "Rock Progression", but it was moved to Act I and rewritten to be "Those Magic Changes". "Rock N' Roll Party Queen" was created for the second act instead.
9	** The Burger Palace Boys were to have two songs entitled "The Tattoo Song" and "Comin' At Ya", but these were cut before the Kingston Mines premiere.
10	** "How Big I'm Gonna Be" was a song cut before rehearsals of the Kingston Mines production began. It explored a greaser's idea of success in life and became Danny's solo in the American Theater Company's 2011 stage remake of the original Grease. The song is used as a response to Sandy's challenge that Danny do something with his life.
11	** The "[[AbridgedForChildren School Version]]" omits "There Are Worse Things I Could Do".
12	* FilmedStageProduction: In 2016, Creator/{{Fox}} aired a live production of the musical, modeled after [[FollowTheLeader the live musical productions that had succeeded on NBC]]. It blended elements from both the original musical and the more popular film adaptation, and incorporated a live audience to capture the essence of a live theatrical performance.
13	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Rydell High School is named after the teen idol pop singer Bobby Rydell.
14	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Most of the characters are based on teens whom lyricist and book writer Jim Jacobs knew in his own his own 1950s high school years. The characters of Doody and Roger are [[DecompositeCharacter both based]] on different aspects of [[AuthorAvatar Jacobs himself]] when he was a teen, Doody on his more naïve side and Roger on his mischievous side.
15
16	!!The 1978 film
17	* ActingForTwo: Creator/StockardChanning and Dinah Madoff play Rizzo and Marty respectively, and also appear as two of the dancers during the "Beauty School Dropout" number.
18	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/MichaelBiehn originally read for the role of Tom Chisum, but lost out to Lorenzo Lamas. He did get a much smaller role in the film.
19	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Spanish, the title translated to ''Grasa'', or "fat". The film was released as ''Vaselina'' in Hispanic America and ''Brillantina'' in Italy and Spain.
20	* CutSong: Several musical numbers from the stage version were not used in the film, including "Freddy, My Love", "Those Magic Changes", and "It's Raining on Prom Night." They appear as jukebox tunes or band numbers at the high school dance.
21	* DawsonCasting: Most blatantly with Music/OliviaNewtonJohn (Sandy) and Creator/StockardChanning (Rizzo). By the time the film came out, Channing was 34 (and actually old enough to have been in high school in 1959 [[note]] Though as a freshman, not a senior. [[/note]]) and Newton-John was pushing 30. At least those two have fairly youthful faces -- Annette Charles (Cha-Cha), with her chiseled facial features, looks to be in her ''late'' thirties (or even early forties) and is in no way credible as a high school student (she was 29 when the film came out).
22	** Other examples include Creator/JohnTravolta (24) as Danny, Creator/JeffConaway (28) as Kenickie, Barry Pearl (28) as Doodie, Michael Tucci (32) as Sonny, Kelly Ward (22) as Putzie, Didi Conn (27) as Frenchie, Jamie Donnelly (31) as Jan, Dinah Manoff (22) as Marty, Eddie Deezen (21) as Eugene, Susan Buckner (25) as Patty Simcox, Lorenzo Lamas (20) as Tom Chism, and Dennis C. Stewart (29) as Leo "Craterface" Balmudo.
23	** Some of the actors were barely younger than Creator/FrankieAvalon (38), an actual teen idol from the late 1950s who makes a guest appearance.
24	* DeletedScene:
25	** Randal Kleiser shot a scene of Kenickie and Rizzo getting into a heated argument, which explained their attitude towards each other in the diner scene (where Rizzo threw the malt at Kenickie). The fight scene was cut because it didn't match the tone of the rest of the film; it was much grittier, described by one crew member as "looking like something Creator/MartinScorsese might have directed."
26	** An extended version of the movie's ending showed more of Sandy and Danny [[FlightOfRomance flying through the clouds]], including the couple [[SealedWithAKiss kissing]], then [[ToonTransformation becoming cartoon characters]], to bring the movie full circle with the AnimatedCreditsOpening.
27	* DoingItForTheArt: Music/OliviaNewtonJohn agreed to a reduced asking price in exchange for star billing.
28	* DyeingForYourArt:
29	** Creator/JohnTravolta insisted that he have "blue-black hair like Music/ElvisPresley and Creator/RockHudson in the movies" because "it's surreal and it's very 1950s."
30	** Jamie Donnelly had prematurely grey hair, which she dyed black to play Jan. Her hair grew really quickly, so her roots had to be colored daily with a black crayon.
31	* EnforcedMethodActing:
32	** Didi Conn, who played Frenchy, was a big fan of '50s teen idol Frankie Avalon and didn't know that he was cast to sing "Beauty School Dropout" to her. Her barely contained shock and surprise are visible throughout the scene, adding to the "dream come true" vibe of the dream sequence.
33	** The rest of the cast didn't see Music/OliviaNewtonJohn in her carnival outfit until she walked into the scene. Their stunned reactions are completely genuine.
34	* FriendshipOnTheSet: Creator/JohnTravolta and Music/OliviaNewtonJohn became close friends until the latter's death in 2022.
35	* HypotheticalCasting:
36	** Creator/HenryWinkler turned down the role of Danny Zuko, as he didn't want to be typecast in [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]]-type roles.
37	** Creator/CarrieFisher was considered for Rizzo.
38	** Music/ElvisPresley turned down the role of The Guardian Angel in the "Beauty School Drop-Out" scene. When Allan Carr first bought the film rights to Grease, he envisioned Elvis as Danny and Ann-Margret as Sandy.
39	** Allan Carr wanted Creator/AndyWarhol to play the art teacher. One unnamed studio executive said he would not have "that man" in the movie, which Carr interpreted as the executive having a personal vendetta against the legendary artist.
40	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The original, theatrical edition has never received an official home video release. VHS and laserdisc releases before 1998 boasted PanAndScan pictures, while the widescreen VHS/laserdisc/DVD/Blu-Ray/digital copy versions from 1998-2017 boast updated Paramount logos and a remixed soundtrack (sourced from the 20th-anniversary theatrical re-release). Mostly rescued from limbo as the 2018 40th anniversary edition features an improved master of the movie with the classic Paramount logo and restored original 1978 audio track. However, this version still features some differences. For example, the blurred-out Coca-Cola signs at the Frosty Palace became legible, '50s-looking Pepsi ads and the scene in "Greased Lightning" where Danny is bringing down the souped-up engine for the dream car still has the 1998 sound effects sans the piano.[[labelnote:*]]If one listens closely though, they can still hear the original sound effects in the background, which was not the case for the 1998 version.[[/labelnote]]
41	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Sandy's film-only surname of "Olsson" (an AdaptationalNameChange from the stage version's "Dumbrowski") is the original surname of Creator/AnnMargret – who, appropriately, co-starred in the film version of ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'' with Bobby Rydell, the namesake of the ''Grease'' high school.
42	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: Apparently Randal Kleiser signed on to direct because he needed the money to finance a screen adaptation of ''Literature/TheBlueLagoon'', and after doing several made-for-TV feature films, Kleiser agreed with Creator/{{Paramount}} and Robert Stigwood to direct the film.
43	* OnSetInjury: An accident while filming the "Greased Lightning" number led to Creator/JeffConaway developing an addiction to painkillers.
44	* RealLifeRelative: Ellen Travolta, who portrayed a diner waitress, is the older sister of Creator/JohnTravolta.
45	* RoleReprise: Jamie Donnelly once again reprised her role as Jan from the Broadway production.
46	* ScullyBox: Creator/JeffConaway, who was 6' 1½" (1.87 m), had to walk slightly stooped so Creator/JohnTravolta, who is 6' 2" (1.88 m), would appear taller.
47	* ThrowItIn:
48	** According to Didi Conn, Rizzo was initially supposed to throw her milkshake at Frenchy, not Kenickie, which would lead to Frenchy taking off her bandana and revealing her pink hair. But Creator/StockardChanning threw it at Creator/JeffConaway because she was a bit miffed at him at the time, reportedly because some of Rizzo's hickeys had become real and very visible. She kept throwing it at him in subsequent takes, which stuck for the final scene.
49	** Didi Conn blowing up the giant bubble gum bubble during the "Beauty School Dropout" number was something she did on the spur of the moment.
50	** The "blonde pineapple" line was improvised by Barry Pearl (Doody).
51	* WagTheDirector:
52	** Originally Sandy was not supposed to participate in the dance contest at all; Sandy was supposed to be sidetracked and subdued by Sonny before the match even starts; allowing Chacha to jump in and take her place, and win the contest. But Music/OliviaNewtonJohn was anxious to do some dancing in the movie; even though she was not a professionally trained dancer like Travolta. So she convinced Randall Kleiser to let her dance with Danny in the contest for a few minutes, and then for Sonny to jump in and subdue her a few minutes later.
53	** "Greased Lightning" was originally Kenickie's significant number. When Creator/JohnTravolta announced that he was taking it from Conaway/Kenickie for the movie version, everyone in the cast, including choreographer Patricia Birch, and Jeff Conaway, who complained vehemently about losing the number even years later in interviews, was very against Travolta taking it and complained about this to the producers. But Travolta had the clout to steal the number, so he did.
54	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Steven Krantz and Creator/RalphBakshi originally had the rights to the film adaptation of ''Grease'', and had wanted to do it as an animated musical. When Krantz and Bakshi's partnership fell through, Robert Stigwood acquired the film rights.
55	* WordOfGod: Creator Jim Jacobs said that whoever thought of the fan theory that the whole movie is Sandy's DyingDream after drowning on the beach must have been "on acid" and that Sandy was very much alive.
56	* WordOfSaintPaul: Creator/JohnTravolta loves the theory that Sandy drowned at the start and the whole movie is her DyingDream but always felt that Danny was exaggerating the drowning story to impress his friends.
57	* WrittenInInfirmity: During the Thunder Road scene, Annette Charles was in excruciating pain from what turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy. That's why Cha Cha frequently leans against cars.
58	* YouLookFamiliar: Danny's actor, Creator/JohnTravolta had previously played Doody in the stage show.
59
60
61	!!The 2016 live version
62	* {{Blooper}}: In the 2016 version, "We Go Together" was, as it always is, the show's closing number. The carnival took place inside the school's gym, but "We Go Together" was to finish at the town square on the Warner Bros. studio lot. The entirety of the cast ran out of the gym and hopped onto separate carts that are used to take people on tours of the lot. The main cast, with Aaron Tveit driving, hopped into the first cart. The carts had to navigate around a tight right-hand turn on their way to the square. Tveit successfully navigated the turn with no issue. The cart behind him, however, with Wendell Pierce and Eve Plumb (yes, [[Series/TheBradyBunch Jan Brady]] herself) on board, took the turn too tightly. The right rear wheel clipped the curb, and for a millisecond, the right side tires were off the ground. Luckily, the cart landed on all four wheels with no issue. If an accident had occurred, it would've greatly overshadowed a production that got great reviews and ratings.
63	* DawsonCasting: The youngest major character is Creator/JordanFisher (then 21) as Doody. Most egregiously the main cast included 32-year-old Aaron Tveit as Danny, and 30-year-old Kether Donohue (Jan), and Music/CarlyRaeJepsen (Frenchy). Also included 27-year-old Julianne Hough as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo, 26-year-old Carlos Vega as Kenickie, and 22-year-old Creator/KekePalmer as Marty.
64	* FakeAmerican: Leo, leader of the Scorpions, was played by Australian Sam Clark, who used an American accent for the role. Also, the Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen plays American Frenchie.
65	* InMemoriam: The 2016 live performance was dedicated to Vanessa Hudgens's father, Greg, who died of cancer the day before.

Context Trivia / Grease