The 45th anniversary showing of “Grease” came and went, and I almost missed it. “Almost” is the keyword here.
Three or four days before the movie came to town, an email reminder from Fathom Events dropped into my inbox. I clicked on the email and there they were: Olivia Newton John and John Travolta, cheek-to-cheek, smiling at me from the iconic poster.
The second their eyes met mine, the soundtrack downloaded into my head.
“Summer Nights”
“Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee”
“Hopelessly Devoted to You”
“Beauty School Dropout”
“You’re the One that I Want”
“We Go Together”
I could hear Frankie Valli: “Grease is the word, is the word that you heard. It’s got groove, it’s got meaning ….” Do you hear the music? Is your body starting to sway — just a little?
I do. Mine is.
The success of that 1978 film had everything to do with covering all bases. If the content didn’t grab you, the music most definitely did. For those who enjoyed both, it was an enduring win.
I am in the “win” category. I wish I had counted the number of times I’ve seen “Grease.” But I didn’t; “many” will have to suffice.
There’s a good chance I bought a ticket the first weekend it was released. I was all about musicals — still am.
In the years after the film came out, three of my close friends and I held several “Grease” parties. That means we made popcorn and snacks and watched the movie at home.
Later, I took my middle-school-aged daughters for a special showing of Grease at the local theatre. I was shocked to discover a few things that had not registered with my innocent teenage self, and I’m not referring to the 30-year-old actors who were portraying teenagers.
Flanked by my children, and I do mean “children,” I felt like I was seeing the movie for the first time. There were sexual undertones — and overtones — and a subplot dealing with a possible teenage pregnancy.
“How,” my mind raced, “had I missed all of this?”
I meant what I said earlier; I was a naïve teen. It could be that I did not “get” some of the phrases and terminology the first time around. And some of it would have been edited in the TV version.
What is it they say? “That was then; this is now.”
Maybe the music and my cheering for Sandy and Danny masked the things I didn’t want to see. Any or all of the above may have contributed to my selective viewing.
But that day with my girls? Everything I had missed hit me with the same kind of jolt Danny experienced when Sandy showed up at his high school. Afterward, I waited for the questions I had hoped I could put off for another year, maybe two, to answer.
The interrogation never came. Jordan and Kristen were all about the music. They were thrilled Sandy and Danny wound up together. Like their mother were my daughters — in a lucky kind of way, I guess.
After that bit of a scare, I was more careful about screening movies — even those I had seen — before assuming the kids were old enough to go with me.
Once, also as an adult, I went to yet another “Grease” anniversary — this time with my mom, her best friend, and her daughters (two of my “Grease” party friends of old). We took advantage of being the only patrons in the theater that night by dancing and singing up and down the aisles.
Why do I pay to see a movie I’ve seen countless times?
Well … “Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion. Now Grease is the way we are feeling ….”
Email comments and questions to Genny McCutcheon at genrmac@gmail.com.
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