Grease (musical) - Definition and Overview

Grease is a popular musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. A film version was made in 1978 starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

The musical is based around some of the subcultures of 1950s high school America, including the "tough guy" working-class greasers from which the musical takes its name. In the film, Travolta played Danny Zuko, who is trying to win the affections of Australian exchange student Sandy (Olivia Newton-John)who was originally going back to Australia, but they had a last minute change.

The movie version sugar-coated the class aspects of the original, and subsequent stage productions have played down that aspect of the story even further and emphasised the nostalgia aspects. A sequel, Grease 2 (1982) moved the timeline forward to the early 1960s, and reversed the gender plotline (a male newcomer from England trying to woo the leader of the Pink Ladies), using motorcycles instead of cars.

In 2003, Grease was voted Best Musical of All-Time in a Channel 4 poll.

A more dramatic, harder-edged portrayal of some of the same subcultures (though slightly later) can be found in S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders.

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