Grease on Musicals Season!
What is it about a karaoke machine that makes you throw out any inhibitions, grab the mike with a forceful, misplaced confidence and start crooning Summer Lovin' to a group of drunken mates who are trying to scream their own version of the love song as loudly as possible into their pint glass?
It's the same mysterious force that draws a grown woman to sway her perfume stained diary entries around the bath and tearfully hum Hopelessly Devoted to yoooou, ooooh ooooh oooooh, after an argument with her boyfriend.
And the same magical spirit that sends tuneless car mechanics, lying prostate under a Nissan Micra, into the throes of Greased Lightning, Go Greased Lightning, when they think no one's around.
It's the magic of Grease that simply refuses to die. In fact the further we drift from it's 1978 cinematic release, the deeper it embeds itself into the mould of 'classic'. In fact, 'classic' is not nearly generous enough a term.
Possibly the most frequently watched movie, the most oversung karaoke songs in the world, the most overplayed radio songs internationally, the most successful stage musical, and overall the most overwhelmingly successful movie with the most staying power and eternal appeal ever made, ever, ever in the world and the universe, since the beginning of time?
Phew...
Ok, so some of those statistics may not be 100% accurate but you get my gist?
Elusive is that woman of a certain age in the English speaking world and beyond who can't recite the entire opening scene on the beach where a windswept Olivia Newton John declares her love for John Travolta as they drown in the sorrow of her imminent departure to Oz.
It might not have won Oscars for screenplays, writing or cinematography, (although it did garner five Golden Globe nominations in 1979 and Hopelessly Devoted to You was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song,) but anyway, a movie with such staying power has no need for such paltries as golden statuettes.
It's undying fan-base, with their countless websites, clubs, merchandise sales etc is testimony to the beauty of this film about romance, teenage rebellion and that age-old moral lesson that it doesn't pay to be a geek, you gotta wear leather pants and perm your hair if you wanna get the guy - go Sandy!
Fall in love with Danny and Sandy all over again on Monday the 20th of October at 8pm on Sky Movies Modern Greats and catch Grease 2 , also on Sky Movies Modern Greats' Musicals Season.
