Grease (franchise)

Grease is a media franchise from Paramount Pictures and loosely based on Jim Jacobs's and Warren Casey's 1971 musical of the same name. It includes three films: Grease (1978), Grease 2 (1982), and remake Premaloka (1987), with a prequel film currently in development. A television special film, Grease: Live, was released in 2016.

Grease
Created by	Jim Jacobs Warren Casey
Original work	Grease (1971)
Owned by	Paramount Pictures
Films and television
Film(s)	Grease (1978) Grease 2 (1982) Premaloka (1987) Summer Lovin' (TBA)
Television series	Grease: It's You and Me (2007–2009) ICB: It Can't Be! (2011) Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2021)
Television special(s)	Grease: Live (2016)
Theatrical presentations
Musical(s)	Grease (1971) Cool Rider (2014)
Games
Video game(s)	Grease (2010) Grease Dance (2011)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)	List of songs featured in Grease List of songs featured in Grease 2 List of songs featured in Premaloka Glee: The Music Presents Glease List of songs featured in It's You and Me (It's You and Me: A New Day)

Two Venezuelan telenovelas, the romantic comedy Grease: It's You and Me (2007–2009) and the teen drama spin-off ICB: It Can't Be! (2011), have also been produced, while a sequel web television series to the first two films, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, is in development for Paramount+. Three reality series and two video games based on the series have been produced between 2007 and 2011, and a stage musical based on Grease 2, titled Cool Rider, played on Broadway and the West End for more than a year.

The series primarily focuses on the students of the secondary "high" school Rydell High, each entry usually depicting a bad-tempered greaser who ultimately enters into a relationship with a working-class immigrant associated with a rival gang, both embracing the sounds of rock and roll.

Grease was voted the best musical film series ever on Channel 4's 100 greatest musicals in 2004.[1] The series was a critical and financial success, the first film becoming the highest-grossing musical film of all time at the time of its release.[2]

Film series

Film	U.S. release date	Director	Screenwriters	Producer(s)
Main series
Grease	June 16, 1978	Randal Kleiser	Bronte Woodard	Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr
Grease 2	August 11, 1982	Patricia Birch	Ken Finkleman
Premaloka	May 11, 1987	V. Ravichandran	V. Ravichandran and Panchu Arunachalam	V. Ravichandran and N. Veeraswamy
Grease: Live	January 31, 2016	Thomas Kail and Alex Rudzinski	Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins	Greg Sills and Adam Siegel
Future
Summer Lovin'	2021	Brett Haley	John August and Leah McKendrick	Erik Feig

Grease (1978)

In 1958, wholesome Australian immigrant Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) enrolls at Rydell High School in a vaguely suburban locale, and finds herself classmates with her summer fling: Danny Zuko (John Travolta), a greaser who turns out to be much more arrogant than he was when they first met that summer. Danny and Sandy each find themselves adopting more of the other's character traits, with Danny becoming a runner for the school and Sandy slowly falling into the influence of the Pink Ladies, an all-girls greaser gang led by the cynical Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing). Several prominent subplots include Danny helping his best friend Kenickie (Jeff Conaway, who had played Danny in the Broadway musical) build his used car Greased Lightnin' into a hot rod capable of beating a rival gang's car in a street race, and bubbly Pink Lady Frenchy (Didi Conn) trying to figure out her academic future.

Grease 2 (1982)

In 1961, Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the leader of Rydell High School's Pink Ladies, a gang of girls who are counterparts of the school's group of greasers called the T-Birds. Stephanie is tired of her relationship with top T-Bird Johnny Nogerelli (Adrian Zmed), so she breaks up with him and quickly catches the eye of English exchange student Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield). Hoping to win her over, Michael tries to overcome his nerdy ways while holding off the jealous Johnny, mainly by learning how to ride a motorcycle and taking on the secret identity of the "Cool Rider."

Premaloka (1987)

The directorial debut of V. Ravichandran, Premaloka adapted Grease 2 for an Indian audience (along with elements of The Sound of Music, on suggestion of the film's composer and unofficial co-director, Hamsalekha).[3] For the lead actress, Ravichandran rejected 52 actresses before choosing Juhi Chawla for the role originally played by Michelle Pfeiffer.[4] Apart from composing music, Hamsalekha additionally wrote the lyrics for all songs and dialogues for the film.[5][6]

Summer Lovin' (TBA)

In 2003, Olivia Newton-John confirmed that a second sequel to Grease was being developed. "They're writing it, and we'll see what happens. If the script looks good, I'll do it. But I haven't seen the script, and it has to be cleverly done." [7] In 2008, it was reported that Paramount was planning a new sequel to Grease that would debut straight to DVD.[8] In April 2019, Paramount Pictures announced that the project had been redeveloped as a prequel film titled Summer Lovin', with John August serving as screenwriter. The project will be a joint-venture production from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players, Temple Hill Productions, and Picturestart. Receiving its tile from the song, the plot will center around the summer in which Danny and Sandy met and fell in love.[9] By July 2020, Brett Haley was hired to serve as director with the most recent draft of the script being written by Leah McKendrick.[10]

Television special

Grease: Live (2016)

Grease: Live! is a television special that was originally broadcast by Fox on January 31, 2016. It was a live, televised remake of the 1978 film Grease, executive produced by Marc Platt, directed by Thomas Kail, and starring Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Vanessa Hudgens and Carlos PenaVega. Patterned on similar live television musicals that had recently been produced by NBC, the production incorporated elements and songs from both the original stage musical and the 1978 film version of Grease, as well as additional songs and a few elements (such as changing Sandy's last name to Young to reflect Hough's own background) that were not present in either. In an effort to emulate the "energy" of a theatrical setting, live audiences were incorporated into the production's stagings. Grease: Live was broadcast from Warner Bros. Studios, utilizing two soundstages and the studio's outdoor backlot—the usage of the latter was notably affected by rain in the Los Angeles area on the day of the broadcast.[11][12]

Television series

Grease: It's You and Me (2007–2009)

A co-production between Venevisión and Boomerang, the telenovela Grease: It's You and Me aired from June 27, 2007 to November 17, 2009. Its pilot episode had approximately 5.9 million viewers,[13] while the series finale had an audience of about 9.8 million, the largest audience received by any final episode of a series of Boomerang Latin America.[14][15][16][17]

ICB: It Can't Be! (2011)

In August 2009, Boomerang announced that Vladimir Perez, the creator of Grease: It's You and Me,[18] would be making a spin-off following the unprecedented worldwide success of the original series, which would cross over into a different genre, the sitcom, to bring their fans fresh adventures full of comedy and music, titled ICB: It Can't Be!.[19][20] ICB It premiered on July 22, 2011.[21]

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2021)

In September of 2019, a musical television series was announced to be in development titled, Grease: Rydell High. The show was ordered straight-to-series, and will release exclusively on HBO Max. The project will be a joint-production between Paramount Television, Picturestart, and Temple Hill Entertainment. Erik Feig will serve as producer for the show. The series will be an adaptation of the original film with returning and new characters, as well as new and old songs.[22] By April 2020, Annabel Oakes was hired as writer and executive producer for the series.[23] In October 2020, the series' title was changed to Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and was moved from HBO Max to Paramount+.[24]

Release

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office gross			Box office ranking		Worldwide income	Budget	Ref(s)
		North America	Other territories	Worldwide	US and Canada	Worldwide
Main series
Grease	June 16, 1978	$159,978,870	$206,200,000	$366,178,870	223	290	$392,426,530	$6,000,000	[25]
Grease 2	June 11, 1982	$14,297,083	$874,393	$15,171,476	4,283	5,735	$15,171,476	$11,200,000	[26]
Totals		$174,275,953	$207,074,393	$381,350,346	x̄ #2,253	x̄ #3,012.5	$407,598,006	$17,200,000
List indicator(s) ^(A) indicates the adjusted totals based on current ticket prices (calculated by Box Office Mojo).

Critical and public reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic
Film series
Grease	75% (73 reviews)[27]	70 (15 reviews)[28]
Grease 2	37% (35 reviews)[29]	52 (11 reviews)[30]
Television special
Grease: Live	92% (36 reviews)[31]	75 (23 reviews)[32]

Academy Awards

Award	Grease	Grease 2	Premaloka
Original Song	Nominated

Cast and characters

Characters	Feature films				Television series			Television special
	Grease	Grease 2	Premaloka	Summer Lovin'	Grease: It's You and Me	ICB: It Can't Be!	Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies	Grease: Live
	1978	1982	1987	TBA	2007 – 2009	2011	2021	2016
Daniel M. "Danny" Zuko Leader of the T-Birds	John Travolta				Víctor Drija (as Victor Rodríguez)		TBA	Aaron Tveit
Sandra Dee "Sandy" Olsson	Olivia Newton-John	Mentioned			Sheryl Rubio (as Sheryl Sánchez)			Julianne Hough (as Sandy Young)
Francesca Alicia "Frenchy" Facciano	Didi Conn		Leelavathi Manorama		Rosmeri Marval (as Rosmeri Rivas)			Carly Rae Jepsen
Principal Greta McGee	Eve Arden		Prabhakar Cho Ramaswamy		Yuvanna Montalvo (as Yuvanna)			Ana Gasteyer
Coach Vince Calhoun	Sid Caesar		Urvashi		Gabriel Coronel (as Gabo)			Wendell Pierce
Secretary Blanche Hodel	Dody Goodman		Mukhyamantri Chandru Poornam Vishwanathan					Haneefah Wood
Mr. Rudie Spears	Dick Patterson		Vishnuvardhan					Barry Pearl (as Mr. Stan Weaver)
Eugene Felsnick	Eddie Deezen							Noah Robbins
Kenickie Murdoch	Jeff Conaway				Arán de las Casas (as Aran Gutiérrez)			Carlos PenaVega
Leo Balmudo Scorpion Leader Crater-Face	Dennis C. Stewart
Betty Rizzo	Stockard Channing							Vanessa Hudgens
Martina Helena "Marty" Maraschino	Dinah Manoff							Keke Palmer
Janice "Jan" Fellopa	Jamie Donnelly							Kether Donohue
Anthony "Doody" DelFuego	Barry Pearl							Jordan Fisher
Sonny LaTierri	Michael Tucci							Andrew Call
Roger "Putzie" Jacobs	Kelly Ward							David Del Rio
Patricia "Patty" Simcox	Susan Buckner							Elle McLemore
Thomas "Tom" Chisum	Lorenzo Lamas							Jon Robert Hall
Charlene "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio	Annette Charles							Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer
Mrs. Murdock	Alice Ghostley							Eve Plumb
Vi	Joan Blondell							Didi Conn
Teen Angel	Frankie Avalon							Jessie J and Boyz II Men
Vince Fontaine	Edd Byrnes							Mario Lopez
Johnny Casino and the Gamblers	Johnny Contardo and Sha Na Na							Joe Jonas and DNCE
Mr. Lynch	Darrell Zwerling
Nurse Wilkins	Fannie Flagg
Waitress	Ellen Travolta
Michael Carrington The Cool Rider		Maxwell Caulfield	V. Ravichandran
Stephanie Zinone		Michelle Pfeiffer	Juhi
Johnny Nogerelli		Adrian Zmed	Thyagu
Sharon Cooper		Maureen Teefy	Jayachitra
Goose McKenzie		Christopher McDonald
Louis DiMucci		Peter Frechette
Davey Jaworski		Leif Green
Sharon Cooper		Maureen Teefy
Paulette Rebchuck		Lorna Luft
Dolores Rebchuck		Pamela Segall
Mr. Stuart		Tab Hunter
Miss Yvette Mason		Connie Stevens
Mr. Carrington			Lokesh Jai Shankar
Mrs. Carrington			K. Vijaya Vadivukkarasi
Mrs. Zinone (née Olsson)			Srinath Delhi Ganesh
Hotel Supplier			Ambareesh Thengai Srinivasan
Hendrick Welles					Hendrick Bages
Rosangela Rojas						Rosangélica Piscitelli
Tina Martínez						Corina Smith
Joshua Welles						Joshua García

Note: A gray cell indicates character did not appear in that medium.

Crew

Role	Main films				Television special
	Grease	Grease 2	Premaloka	Summer Lovin'	Grease: Live
	1978	1982	1987	TBA	2016
Director	Randal Kleiser	Patricia Birch	V. Ravichandran		Thomas Kail and Alex Rudzinski
Producer	Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr		V. Ravichandran and N. Veeraswamy		Greg Sills and Adam Siegel
Executive Producer	N/A				Marc Platt
Writer	Bronte Woodard	Ken Finkleman	V. Ravichandran and Panchu Arunachalam	John August	Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins
Composer	Michael Gibson	Louis St. Louis	Hamsalekha	TBA
Editor	John F. Burnett and Robert Pergament	John F. Burnett	K. Balu		Andre Champagne
Distributor	Paramount Pictures		Sri Eswari Productions	Paramount Pictures

Additional crew and production details

Film	Crew/Detail
	Composer	Cinematographer	Editor(s)	Production companies	Distributing company	Running time
Grease	Michael Gibson with songs written by Warren Casey, Jim Jacobs and John Farrar	Bill Butler	John F. Burnett & Robert Pergament	Paramount Pictures, Allan Car Production, Robert Stigwood Organization, Polydor Records	Paramount Pictures	1hr 50min
Grease 2	Louis St. Louis	Frank Stanley	John F. Burnett	Paramount Pictures, Polydor Records		1hr 54min
Summer Lovin'	TBA	TBA	TBA	Paramount Pictures, Temple Hill Productions, Picturestart Productions	Paramount Players	TBA
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies	TBA	TBA	TBA	Paramount Television Studios, Temple Hill Productions, Picturestart Productions	Paramount Plus	TBA

Video games

• Grease
• Grease Dance

Musicals

The Grease franchise is based on Grease, a 1971 musical originally written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey that originated from the Chicago theater scene. It moved to Off-Broadway and then to Broadway in 1972, where it ran until 1980. The original musical was set in urban Chicago and was based on Jacobs's own teenage years, with several of the characters having identifiably Polish-American and Italian-American ethnicities (Sandy's last name, for example, is Dumbrowski, which in addition to being a Polish surname is also a play on the insult of being a "dumb broad" to most of the Pink Ladies). The Chicago draft was more profane and less musical, with Jacobs and Casey partially sanitizing the production for Broadway audiences.[33] The first film adapted the general plot, most of the characters, and some of the script from the Broadway musical. The musical functioned more as an ensemble comedy in that subplots involving the other characters were given more development, most prominently with the character of Roger (nicknamed the "Rump"), who was almost completely written out of the film, and to a lesser extent with Doody, whose musical aspirations are briefly explored. The original musical also ends more decisively in Danny's favor, as he reverts to his old ways while Sandy does all of the transformation—an inversion of a common trope in 1950s film where it was usually the man that became softer and more sensitive to win over the woman.[34]

Due to the popularity of the 1978 film adaptation, which made several changes to the original Grease musical's songs and themes (many to accommodate its casting choice for singer Olivia Newton-John as Sandy), and the involvement of film producer Robert Stigwood in the West End revival in 1993, the subsequent revivals adopted several of the changes made in the film, particularly the replacement of several songs, and the renaming of the Burger Palace Boys to their film name, the T-Birds. However, in the revival, the role of Sandy Dumbrowski is not changed from the original Broadway production. John Farrar, who wrote two of the new songs, is credited alongside Jacobs and Casey for the music in these productions.

Grease 2 was additionally later adapted into a musical titled Cool Rider, with the script re-written and modified for the stage on Broadway and the West End.[35]

Reality series

• Grease: You're the One That I Want!
• Grease Is the Word
• Grease: The School Musical

References

1. "100 Greatest Musicals: Channel 4 Film". Channel4.com. Archived from the original on May 19, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
2. Hofler, Robert (2010). Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'N' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr. ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 145. ISBN 9781459600072. Despite the fact that Grease was well on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie musical in the world, and eventually grossed over $341 million...
3. "Premaloka was my acting school: Juhi Chawla – TOI Mobile – The Times of India Mobile Site".
4. "You will be dumbstruck". Bangalore Mirror.
5. "Hamsalekha to don director's hat". Bangalore Mirror.
6. "Sunday Herald entertainment » Musical musings – Deccan Herald – DailyHunt".
7. Scott Holleran (9 September 2003). "Olivia Newton-John: Grease Goddess". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
8. Sciretta, Peter (August 21, 2008). "Mean Girls 2? Naked Gun 4? Road Trip 2? Grease 3?". Slash Film. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
9. Kit, Borys (April 9, 2019). "'Grease' Prequel 'Summer Loving' in the Works With John August Writing (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
10. Kroll, Justin (July 20, 2020). "'Grease' Prequel Gains Momentum At Paramount As Brett Haley Comes On As Director". Deadline. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
11. Kreps, Daniel (January 17, 2015). "Fox Plans 'Grease' Live Musical With Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
12. Hetrick, Adam; Viagas, Robert; Gioia, Michael (May 28, 2015). "Keke Palmer Joins Cast of Fox's Grease: Live!". Playbill.com. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
13. "Boomerang estrena la nueva serie Somos tú y yo".
14. "Venevision estrena serie Somos Tú y Yo: Un Nuevo Día".
15. "Recognize the Reveler: Who's Behind the Bag?". E! Online. August 1, 2008.
16. "Things youd did not know about Somos tú y yo: Un nuevo día, the series based on the movie Grease". Noti Actual.
17. Mayorga, Francisco. "Grease and Somos tú y yo: Un nuevo día". ACN.
18. "No puede ser: nueva serie de los chicos de Somos Tu y Yo".
19. "NPS (¡No puede ser!) por Boomerang". Retrieved 20 June 2016.
20. "Boomerang estrena producción latinoaméricana "No puede ser" - Anime, Manga y TV". www.anmtvla.com.
21. "Boomerang and Venevision International's Expectations for NPS [¡No Puede Ser!]".
22. Goldberg, Lesley (October 15, 2019). "'Grease' TV Spinoff 'Rydell High' Coming to HBO Max". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
23. "'Grease: Rydell High': Annabel Oakes To Write & EP HBO Max Spinoff Series". Deadline. April 10, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
24. Hermanns, Grant (October 14, 2020). "Grease Prequel Series Shifting Gears from HBO Max to Paramount+". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
25. Grease at Box Office Mojo
26. Grease 2 at Box Office Mojo
27. "Grease (1978) reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
28. "Grease (1978): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
29. "Grease 2 (1982) reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
30. "Grease 2 (1982): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
31. "Grease: Live!". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
32. "Grease: Live! (2016): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
33. "Bring back our own, original R-rated 'Grease'". 8 January 2009. Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
34. Newmark, Judith (2014-08-01). "'Grease' gets the splashy Muny treatment | Theater reviews". Stltoday.com. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
35. "Cool Rider! The Stage Adaptation of Cult Sequel Grease 2 to Return to the West End".

External links

• Official website