Guilty Pleasure: Grease 2

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the release of Grease 2. Yes, I can hardly believe it folks but it's true. I saw Grease 2 when it first came out in the movie theater. I went with a group of friends from my trip the previous summer to London. This being the 80's, one of the friends felt the need to light up a doobie in the movie theater. Yup, you could smoke at the movies back then. Plus, the theater was almost empty.

Which was a shame because Grease 2 is a an out and out hoot and a half. I can't tell you how much I love this movie and Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie in it. Forget all her dramatic roles, to me, this was one of her best performances, plus she got to sing in it too. Who can forget her singing 'Cool Rider'? where she describes her perfect guy.

And then there's Maxwell Caulfield, the brooding new kid, Michael Carrington, in school from England. The man who just wants to be Stephanie's cool rider. Sigh! I had a huge crush on Maxwell Caulfield. I even watched The Colby's, the horrible spin-off of Dynasty that was only notable for Stephanie Beacham as Sable.

The rest of the cast weren't slouches either, Adrien Zmed, Lorna Luft. How can you not love a movie that has a whole song and dance number in a bowling alley? Or in biology class? Plus, the final production number, during the Calendar Girls number when Stephanie thinks Michael Carrington is dead, but she sees him a dream, is awesome.

Personally I think that instead of another pointless rival of Grease on Broadway, which always ends up being a mish-mash of the movie and the original stage production, they should do Grease 2 instead. I mean why not? So far on Broadway, we have Tarzan, Mary Poppins, Legally Blonde, and now Xanadu, all movies. And Xanadu is another craptastic movie from the 80's. If they can turn that into a Broadway musical, they can certainly do Grease 2.

Thanks for reading,

EKM