Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to and that's what you were in this podcast.
Speaker 1: Hi Kevin, Hi Jenna. How's it going.
Speaker 2: It's pretty good.
Speaker 1: How's New York?
Speaker 2: It's so good.
Speaker 1: I'm so jealous, so good.
Speaker 2: I still can't believe I'm here.
Speaker 1: You're doing it your New York dreams in a theater
Speaker 1: and doing a live musical. I had a dream last
Speaker 1: night I was doing the same musical as you, but
Speaker 1: not in the same musical as you. We were doing
Speaker 1: it at the same time, but we were in different productions.
Speaker 2: We were in different productions of Spelling Bee or was
Speaker 2: it a different show?
Speaker 1: No, it's spelling be Wow. Really yeah, So.
Speaker 2: Who would you want to be in Spelling Being? Oh?
Speaker 1: I had a dream last night. It was Marcy Park,
Speaker 1: But obviously all it is like a big dream of
Speaker 1: mine too.
Speaker 2: I would like to see you do both, gunning for
Speaker 2: you to do like a An Olive.
Speaker 1: I love Olive. I mean, nobody can beat Celia Kanan Moodrew,
Speaker 1: but I'm very excited for your your guys.
Speaker 2: Person, Jasmine is really damn good. Of course she is
Speaker 2: in rehearsal today. Literally, I looked over here and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna cry looking at you, I know, because
Speaker 2: she's so good. She's so good. Today. I came back
Speaker 2: from lunch actually, and I was like, who is this
Speaker 2: in the rehearsal room. Just Lin Manuel.
Speaker 1: Hanging out? Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, no, he's working on something in the same rehearsal Yeah,
Speaker 2: in the next room.
Speaker 1: And so wait, that's so exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we like he just popped in and someone was like,
Speaker 2: you have to come be a guest speller.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: For those of you who don't know, so, Spelling Beat
Speaker 2: is a musical comedy that's an actual spelling beat of
Speaker 2: middle schoolers. And every single show there are four audience volunteers,
Speaker 2: and so we have audience members come and spell and
Speaker 2: join the Spelling Beat. So, you know, we're always trying
Speaker 2: to get people to come up and be speller. So
Speaker 2: we asked Lin Manuel.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that would be so epic, and he said.
Speaker 2: He would do it. You knew who came in last
Speaker 2: week was Robbie Malick? What And he said he'd be
Speaker 2: a guest.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Kevin, this is going to be so exciting.
Speaker 2: Also, rehearsing in the same studio. Oh Tom Hanks for
Speaker 2: a play. I didn't see him, but yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, everybody's thinking it to the theater, isn't it crazy?
Speaker 1: Oh cool? Oh my gosh, that's the fun. And then
Speaker 1: Lily Cooper, who is also in your production, who was
Speaker 1: Spring Awakening with both Lee and Groff and Skyler. She
Speaker 1: was the original Marches. She's who I replaced when I
Speaker 1: came to Broadway, and she's doing it with you now,
Speaker 1: and I literally she sent me a photo on Friday
Speaker 1: of the two of you, and I gasped. And the
Speaker 1: jealousy and envy that you guys get to hang out
Speaker 1: together and do a show together is beyond. Lily was
Speaker 1: my girl in Spring Wakening. At least don't order Sushie
Speaker 1: before the show. Oh we just we vibe. And I
Speaker 1: know you.
Speaker 2: Should be jealous of She's so good at this.
Speaker 1: I know, why wouldn't she be. She is a Tony
Speaker 1: word nominee.
Speaker 2: She's such a good rona. Of course, it's weird for
Speaker 2: me because she's like, you know, I'm playing a child,
Speaker 2: she's playing an adult.
Speaker 1: She's actually younger than me in real life. Yes, well
Speaker 1: of course, yes, yeah, but she must have. She just
Speaker 1: is so graceful with like her mood, like how she
Speaker 1: moves and how she sings.
Speaker 2: She's also so funny. Oh she sounds, she has. Her
Speaker 2: songs are obviously insane.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're crazy, right, they're.
Speaker 2: Crazy, and she's finding all this comedy and smart. I
Speaker 2: have really enjoyed about the theater is in the rehearsal process,
Speaker 2: Like you get to watch everybody's process and everybody's just
Speaker 2: a little different, and like watching her and like the
Speaker 2: question she comes up with to ask, like she's just
Speaker 2: so smart.
Speaker 1: She's so smart A veteran. Yeah, Wow, are you enjoying
Speaker 1: the rehearsal process?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's so much fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like you'd like the parsal process a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really enjoying it because when we did it
Speaker 2: last year, I mean it's it's a different production. There's
Speaker 2: only three of us that are the same, right, but yeah,
Speaker 2: same director. Yeah, yeah, so we have we've had time
Speaker 2: to think about it for the past year.
Speaker 1: Is your version going to be different this time around
Speaker 1: because of everybody else, like the like the chemistry you're
Speaker 1: in or is it similar?
Speaker 2: It's a little different, very exciting, There's there's there's definitely
Speaker 2: a few differences, but yeah, you know, it's like you
Speaker 2: get to find and be more nuanced and like your
Speaker 2: understanding of these characters when you have.
Speaker 1: More time, and then in the performance it'll be the
Speaker 1: same thing. It'll evolve because you're in for a longer
Speaker 1: amount of time.
Speaker 2: And so it's just been really nice to like hang
Speaker 2: out with this group. Everybody's so talented, like so stupidly talented.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is really what a what a cast I am?
Speaker 1: I am green with envy.
Speaker 2: And it's nice to be able to like last thing
Speaker 2: I'll say about it, and I'll probably say this a
Speaker 2: bunch of more times on here, but it's nice to honestly,
Speaker 2: it's very similar to Glee. It's nice to not be
Speaker 2: doing like a really serious there's obviously like serious themes
Speaker 2: that come up in the show, but it is like
Speaker 2: comedy comedy, comedy, and it's so well written. It's so funny,
Speaker 2: feel good.
Speaker 1: People are feeling good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's so smart and like it's so tight,
Speaker 2: it's sort of bulletproof, like we just have to work
Speaker 2: to not mess it up.
Speaker 1: But jealous and.
Speaker 2: We have like yeah, Rachel, like the real writer is there.
Speaker 1: She's with this school.
Speaker 2: The original Have I told you any of this? The
Speaker 2: original vocal arranger is in the room with us every day.
Speaker 2: That's special rearranging some of the harmonies because she's like,
Speaker 2: oh she was twenty four when she did it, and
Speaker 2: she was like yeah, you know, she's not often you
Speaker 2: get to go back and be.
Speaker 1: Like wow, like she can change yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like a director in a film we done.
Speaker 2: We're doing that with like the o G people.
Speaker 1: Well, this is very exciting. I can't wait to hear
Speaker 1: the journey. More of the journey. But I am just
Speaker 1: here for it, and I am You're doing one of
Speaker 1: my dream shows, and so I am just so.
Speaker 2: And then I got to come home and watch Greece Too.
Speaker 1: Well, Kevin, here we are. This is Greece too.
Speaker 2: It sure is so Greece too. No premiered.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's the episode.
Speaker 2: Greece two came out June eleventh, nineteen eighty two, four years.
Speaker 1: Later to the Day of Greek Almost did the Day
Speaker 1: of Greece for me? Yes, So in the news, the
Speaker 1: number one song was Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney
Speaker 1: and ste You Wonder.
Speaker 2: The number one movie was et can you imagine being
Speaker 2: the movie that opened against et and wasn't it four
Speaker 2: years earlier when STEVENS. Pielberg did Jaws. It came out
Speaker 2: the same summer as Grease. I mean, it went on
Speaker 2: to become the highest grossing film of the entire decade,
Speaker 2: and fun fact, it actually held the all time box
Speaker 2: office record until Jurassic Park, which is also you know,
Speaker 2: Steven Spielberg, he dethroned himself.
Speaker 1: He's nice to want to himself unbelievable. Obviously, this was
Speaker 1: pretty ly, but there was some fun pop culture.
Speaker 2: Thing I love. Honestly, some of my favorite parts of
Speaker 2: the show of doing this podcast is like the pop
Speaker 2: culture moments.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the vh one, like in the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes kind of bubble things. Do you remember
Speaker 1: the I had that video sture thing, yes, pap up
Speaker 1: video Okay in nineteen eighty two. That was peak early eighties.
Speaker 1: So lots of synth, lots of pop and obviously MTV,
Speaker 1: which sadly just just closed its doors for after so
Speaker 1: many years. It is done. Goodbye.
Speaker 2: MTV's done.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, MTV is goodbye.
Speaker 2: Oh so, which is why the VMA's were like on
Speaker 2: paramount plus or CBS or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how weird.
Speaker 2: The magic of being able to like come home after
Speaker 2: school and go watch your favorite music videos.
Speaker 1: It was really special. What a gift that these kids
Speaker 1: will never understand coming home and watching TRL.
Speaker 2: You know what I wish, and those of you listening
Speaker 2: you can let us know your thoughts on this, Like
Speaker 2: I wish we could create another type of like music show.
Speaker 3: That would do similar TRL, but like talking music, talking
Speaker 3: talk talk videos, talking artists.
Speaker 2: And also like music discovery because I feel like TikTok.
Speaker 2: You know, that's such like a big part of TikTok,
Speaker 2: like making it current. So I feel like there's a
Speaker 2: current version because you can't try to make tierre al
Speaker 2: Tierra was for.
Speaker 1: That time, right, but we are to do it for
Speaker 1: twenty five.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a public We don't want the same things,
Speaker 2: so we just that's right. But what we do want
Speaker 2: is to have a connection with artists that is the same.
Speaker 1: Yes, definitely community. Uh MGB had just launched less than
Speaker 1: a year earlier, and music videos were obviously in the
Speaker 1: new frontier as we had said, So we are at
Speaker 1: the beginning of music videos, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: Other box office hits that Summer, Rocky three, Star Trek two,
Speaker 2: The Wrath of Khan, Annie, Oh my God, and Poltergeist.
Speaker 1: Okay, well we have to talk about Annie for a second,
Speaker 1: and like we have to do that movie. Yeah, would
Speaker 1: you guys want us to do Annie? Let us know,
Speaker 1: no changes.
Speaker 2: I don't care if they want us to do any
Speaker 2: We have to do Annie.
Speaker 1: Change my life. Okay. On TV, we were tuning into
Speaker 1: Dallas Dynasty, Cheers and mash and.
Speaker 2: I mean we were we were too young.
Speaker 1: We were born other people were. I wasn't born yet.
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 2: The first CD player was introduced in Japan that year,
Speaker 2: changing how people listen to.
Speaker 1: Music, and Time magazine's Man of the Year that year
Speaker 1: was the computer. Can you believe that?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Sony Walkman's were everywhere. That must have
Speaker 2: accessory little cassettes on your belt.
Speaker 1: We also had early video games like pac Man, Donkey Kong,
Speaker 1: and Froger were Arcade Sensation.
Speaker 2: It's crazy how quickly all of this has progressed. Wow,
Speaker 2: Like it's just saying the Equal Rights Amendment movement was
Speaker 2: in full swing of the US.
Speaker 1: Okay, this one's going to make you all feel old.
Speaker 1: Prince William was porn on June twenty first, nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: just days after Greece two premiered.
Speaker 2: And pop culture was shifting from Go to a new waves,
Speaker 2: setting the tone for the rest of the eighties.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is Greace too. Now let me just preface
Speaker 1: this with my memory of this movie. I had beloved
Speaker 1: memories of this movie growing up.
Speaker 2: You're not alone in that.
Speaker 1: Michelle Pfeiffer was so cool. I mean, that does unchanged
Speaker 1: right my opinion there, but cool writer was like iconic
Speaker 1: in my eyes. These songs We're going to score tonight,
Speaker 1: like all of these things were so The four season
Speaker 1: song like We're so Vivid in my memory is great
Speaker 1: memories And that's just what they were, memories. Because I
Speaker 1: started watching this yesterday, I texted you, which I normally
Speaker 1: text you, and said, I cannot get through this. I
Speaker 1: had to scrub through this whole movie. I watched it,
Speaker 1: you better believe it. I watched it, but I scrubbed
Speaker 1: some of this. I got the gist of some of it.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you people, and I watched
Speaker 1: all the musical numbers. I remember a lot of it.
Speaker 1: It's very vivid. I've definitely seen this movie more than once.
Speaker 1: For sure. I know that, Like I don't remember it,
Speaker 1: but I know because it was all very vivid in
Speaker 1: my mind. But what was I thinking this was the
Speaker 1: amount of shots that they had of the entire cast
Speaker 1: just standing in a doorway or standing watching something was astounding.
Speaker 1: It was very grass it was lacking. The songs were
Speaker 1: god awful. And I did not like this film.
Speaker 2: So I don't think you're alone. And people's memory of this.
Speaker 2: Georgie who's a friend of mine and an incredible she
Speaker 2: directed The Frogs. She's a great director. She's staying with
Speaker 2: me right now. She came in while I was watching.
Speaker 2: She's like, oh my god, I love this movie.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 2: And then was sitting there watching and she's like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I guess I don't remember. And Sam, our producer,
Speaker 2: had the exact same thing. Because here, the weird thing
Speaker 2: about this movie is that it feels younger and more
Speaker 2: hyper sexualized at the same time than.
Speaker 1: Greece, like corny and campy and not as good and
Speaker 1: yet much crosser and dirtier and more mature.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and maybe this is just hindsight. When you
Speaker 2: have like the amount of stars that were in Greece,
Speaker 2: like John Travolta obviously is still successful today Luneton. John
Speaker 2: had an incredible career, and that those are only two
Speaker 2: of the people in it, right. Yeah, where Greece too,
Speaker 2: I mean, Michelle Pfeiffer is a star and did what
Speaker 2: she could with what she had.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of differences, and I think the
Speaker 2: biggest difference is is that Greece was based off of
Speaker 2: an already proven musical stage show.
Speaker 1: This is the problem with sequels, right.
Speaker 2: And it's like the sequels always fall in regardless if
Speaker 2: it's a musical or not. It's like, how much of
Speaker 2: like referencing or doing again in a slightly different way
Speaker 2: do you want from the first one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like the the best time I
Speaker 1: know how to explain is like in our day and
Speaker 1: age of like watching a really good TV show based
Speaker 1: on a really beloved book and they do one season
Speaker 1: and it's short because it's a streamer, and you do
Speaker 1: twelve episodes. Then it's excellent, right, it's so good, it's
Speaker 1: what you would hope for. And then they decide, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: it's doing really well, well we have to do right
Speaker 1: the second season then and it's like a full departure
Speaker 1: from the book, and it's a full departure from season one,
Speaker 1: and they're like, what are we going to do? And
Speaker 1: it like loses the plot a little bit.
Speaker 2: I mean, so much of the magic of Grease was
Speaker 2: obviously their chemistry, but I also think they had the chemistry.
Speaker 2: You were able to see the chemistry because of how
Speaker 2: it was written, the dynamic shooting, the characters are just
Speaker 2: not the same. And the second one, right, you also
Speaker 2: have like your two leads no offense to Michelle Fifer
Speaker 2: and and it's like a brand new Max well Callfield.
Speaker 2: But they were the weakest singers in the entire thing, right,
Speaker 2: and you have them like leading it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we had some recurring players, but most of
Speaker 1: the cast was brand new. It's like bringing in a
Speaker 1: new class like on Glee, like but like and expecting
Speaker 1: people to like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And like this is why reboots often do not work,
Speaker 2: or like spinoffs, because like, yeah, you have some of
Speaker 2: your anchor characters, but like those aren't Frenchy, yes, but
Speaker 2: like yes, and as good as all the people who
Speaker 2: are in the in Greece one are and are in
Speaker 2: Greece too, Like we're not coming back necessarily for them,
Speaker 2: Oh I know, and none of them, not a single song,
Speaker 2: not a single song is as good as the worst
Speaker 2: song in Grease one, even your beloved cool writer that everyone,
Speaker 2: even Georgie. Georgie was like, oh cool writer was a Jams.
Speaker 2: I'm like, go back and listen.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 2: I mean there's there's like an almost sexual assault and
Speaker 2: a bunker and he has a gun, he lives, he
Speaker 2: lost her, and a bunker and then it's seemed to
Speaker 2: her with a gun trying to get her to sleep
Speaker 2: with him. I was like, I know it was a
Speaker 2: different time, but damn, damn. Yeah, Like it's not cute
Speaker 2: seeing funny when you're like locked to this girl and
Speaker 2: this bunker and you have a gun.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 2: There's just none of the charm.
Speaker 1: And I think they were really going for like getting
Speaker 1: back to like the grit of the original and like
Speaker 1: yelling grittier, but it just didn't didn't quite. The mixture
Speaker 1: wasn't right like the you know, it was like it's
Speaker 1: like a banking experiment, just like the ingredients were not,
Speaker 1: the measurements were off.
Speaker 2: No, and it's like you know, you started off with
Speaker 2: having I mean Maxwell Cawfield beautiful, Oh my gosh, beautiful,
Speaker 2: great actor. Yeah, but like oh Cousins, oh God, like
Speaker 2: Cousins of the Living and job, but he's British and
Speaker 2: not Australian, and like you're literally doing the same thing,
Speaker 2: but it's a guy with blonde hair instead of a
Speaker 2: girl with blonde hair and not from America.
Speaker 1: I know it's not great.
Speaker 2: There's so many issues. And you mentioned it about like
Speaker 2: some of the directing and look, I think Patricia Birch
Speaker 2: in Greece one who who choreographed it, and she choreographed
Speaker 2: the original stage production. Incredible job. Yeah, yeah, this was
Speaker 2: her directorial debut. From the outset, this movie is over choreographed. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's deeply like every number is a huge production number.
Speaker 2: You know how many numbers in that in Greece were
Speaker 2: just one person just sort of standing there and it
Speaker 2: was great and you got to you got to be
Speaker 2: with the character a little bit. That doesn't happen in
Speaker 2: this movie.
Speaker 1: Like even the opening number as they like go into
Speaker 1: the classrooms and all everybody's filing in the song kind
Speaker 1: of like tapers, and it's like everybody's still just dancing
Speaker 1: versus like people in their own world living this like
Speaker 1: you know, elevated imaginary world thing through song, but everybody's
Speaker 1: in it, and it's like, oh, it takes you so
Speaker 1: deeply out of it where people are like rocking and
Speaker 1: a roll on the on the flagpole.
Speaker 2: It made me, It made me realize, you know, how
Speaker 2: hard it is to do like a really great musical,
Speaker 2: And it made me realize how Greece won was able
Speaker 2: to do those things where yes, like you're breaking into
Speaker 2: song and how do you make it feel natural? Or
Speaker 2: there's like a dream sequence, how do you make that
Speaker 2: feel natural that we like we're buying into that. And
Speaker 2: it was like the opening of the of Greece too,
Speaker 2: there's like a phantom singer. You don't know who's singing
Speaker 2: the lead vocals of this. He is not, actually he's
Speaker 2: not in this. Then Maxwell Coffield does this song later on, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 2: like who's singing? And then it okay in any thing, Yeah,
Speaker 2: And like those things just do not work, no, I
Speaker 2: know in this at least, like I think there's obviously
Speaker 2: a world in which those things could work, but I
Speaker 2: know it, so it would almost be better if they
Speaker 2: tried to make it if it was like a lot
Speaker 2: more different, because it looked like they were. It looked
Speaker 2: like these were all like reject songs from the original,
Speaker 2: and like, oh, let's just throw more on it. Let's
Speaker 2: add eighty more dancers and do a bigger shot.
Speaker 1: I know. Here's here's the thing. So this is how
Speaker 1: the sequel actually happened. So Grease became a global hit
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, and Alan Carr struck a deal
Speaker 1: with Paramount to make a sequel with a five million
Speaker 1: dollar production fee and a total budget of eleven Now
Speaker 1: that's double the first film. Ironically, Car tapped Patricia Birch
Speaker 1: we would choreographed both the stage and film versions of Greased,
Speaker 1: to direct, and Birch was hesitant at first since Jim
Speaker 1: Jacobs and Warren Casey, who wrote the original stage show,
Speaker 1: and John jabaldin oliving Newton John were not returning. So
Speaker 1: there was definitely hesitancy there, which makes sense. And I
Speaker 1: feel like it was almost like overcompensating for it, Like
Speaker 1: we were overcompensating for the fact that like this was
Speaker 1: in Greece, right, So, and then also we had Bronte
Speaker 1: wood Woodard, who adapted the first film, had also sadly
Speaker 1: passed away, so Paramount hired a Canadian writer, Ken Finkleman,
Speaker 1: who was also writing another film, Airplane Too, to write
Speaker 1: a new script, almost from scratch. So like there were
Speaker 1: a lot of things like working against them. It sounds like,
Speaker 1: and then this, like what I had mentioned, Burch's goal
Speaker 1: was to bring the story back to gritty or more
Speaker 1: rebellious tone, to the original Chicago stage musical something she
Speaker 1: had built and stopping in the glossy California set grease.
Speaker 1: But like we already said that, so like let's not
Speaker 1: go back on that tone, Like let's just let's lean
Speaker 1: back into the tone that worked, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that was just some of like how the sequel,
Speaker 1: the history behind how the sequel came to be, I mean.
Speaker 2: And like Birch had ideas, like for she was hoping
Speaker 2: she would get cameos from Travolta and Olivan John and
Speaker 2: Jeff Conaway and Soccer Channing, and I think like even
Speaker 2: she had ideas like Danny and Sandy were a married
Speaker 2: couple running a gas station with Travolta singing a new
Speaker 2: song called gas Pump Jockey. Like I just think these
Speaker 2: ideas were just not not right. In the early script,
Speaker 2: titled Summer School, would have centered around Kaniki and Rizzo
Speaker 2: getting married, but once that fell through, Birch rebuilt the
Speaker 2: story around the new Pink Ladies and Tea Birds. And
Speaker 2: here's the thing, It's like the t birds and what
Speaker 2: world were the tea Birds auditioned willingly and wanted to
Speaker 2: be in like a any sort of stage production of
Speaker 2: it for the high School. It's like none of it felt.
Speaker 1: Or organic to like the original story, and you.
Speaker 2: Did already set the thing and had a really successful movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so much so that like this was supposed to be
Speaker 2: part of like a bigger Grease like universe. They were
Speaker 2: gonna have spin offs and TV shows and then this
Speaker 2: movie like didn't do well, so then they scrapped all
Speaker 2: of it. But it sounds like like they didn't have
Speaker 2: like the I mean, it is easy to say for us,
Speaker 2: you know, with how many years hindsight, where it's like
Speaker 2: the magic of this movie wasn't the things that they
Speaker 2: think it was. Producer Alan Carr and Birch tested Andy
Speaker 2: Gibb and Timothy Hutton for the lead before casting Maxwell Cawfield.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, I liked Maxwell.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, Birch, I guess Burch said at some
Speaker 2: point like they were all in love with maxwelltick.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, obviously beautiful. Wait, this is funny. So
Speaker 1: like on set there was some notes in like the
Speaker 1: movie opens with the big back to School number, and
Speaker 1: the cast recalled the choreography as grueling but joyous for
Speaker 1: the week of rehearsal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. The bowling alley scene for Score Tonight was
Speaker 2: a highlight, but also a hazard. The sub three floors
Speaker 2: caused several injuries, and Fifer had to hide a black
Speaker 2: eye behind sunglasses were falling off a dock between shoot days.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Well and then also Fifer's ladder climbing
Speaker 1: became obviously iconic. It's like the thing we all talk about, right,
Speaker 1: but she later admitted she was mortified at first. I thought, really,
Speaker 1: you want me to get up on a gyrate on
Speaker 1: a ladder? But I trusted Pat and honestly best part
Speaker 1: of the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, cool rider. I thought Homeboy died. George and
Speaker 2: I were like, wait, did he die? I'm like, there's
Speaker 2: still twenty five minutes after this movie. Did he just die? Like,
Speaker 2: no explanation. They didn't even show the cliff how it
Speaker 2: was shot, like you couldn't even sty like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: it's really far down there, Like what are you looking at?
Speaker 2: Because we're not we're not getting a view of it.
Speaker 2: The Rock of.
Speaker 1: Hula No no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Wrong, for so many reasons, was filmed. It was freezing
Speaker 2: out and the cast shivered through tropical costumes and joked
Speaker 2: that their smiles froze midtake. Yea believing Newton John came
Speaker 2: and visited set during that.
Speaker 1: Oh that's cute. Yeah, okay, So the critics weren't kind
Speaker 1: Kevin Yeah. New York Times called it dizzy and slight.
Speaker 1: Variety praised the inventive choreography but said it lacked the
Speaker 1: magic of the first Yes, that's correct, and Ebert said
Speaker 1: it recycled Grease without the stars, without the energy, without
Speaker 1: the freshness.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Even co creator Jim Jacobs called it awful. The pits,
Speaker 1: but Fifer earned ray reviews and Fifer was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's taking away. Yeah, I don't think there was
Speaker 2: any problem with anybody's performance, Like, I think everyone was great.
Speaker 1: No, no, for sure, everybody was really great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I think it was just sort of like
Speaker 2: the behind the scenes, yeah, whether Yeah, like everyone showed
Speaker 2: up and was doing it and doing a great job.
Speaker 1: No, for sure, and also like it obviously didn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't well received, but midnight screenings being popping up, so
Speaker 1: we're seeing that rocky horror vibe of like the cults
Speaker 1: picking it up, the groups kind of appreciating it in
Speaker 1: the way that they did, and obviously new generations kept
Speaker 1: discovering it through VHS and cable and shioming like us,
Speaker 1: and it's a cold classic to this day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where cold
Speaker 2: classic a lot of time means not good, flop flop. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I had never seen this before. Oh wow, I thought
Speaker 2: I had. I was like, surely I've seen.
Speaker 1: This, okay, And what was your feeling going into it
Speaker 1: versus when you started watching it?
Speaker 2: Well, I think most of my life I had heard
Speaker 2: that it was really bad and like, you know, there's
Speaker 2: always jokes about it. Yeah, and then someone told me
Speaker 2: recently they're like they're like, we talked about Greece too,
Speaker 2: I don't remember before we started doing this version of
Speaker 2: the podcast. Yeah, and they told me, like, you know what,
Speaker 2: it's really actually good, Like I think it's just as good,
Speaker 2: in some parts better than the original stop. And I'm
Speaker 2: thinking now, either one that person is insane or two
Speaker 2: they haven't seen it since they were a kid, because
Speaker 2: they probably thought it was great.
Speaker 1: As a kid. Fair Enough, it's hard.
Speaker 2: I think I understand. You know that because of the
Speaker 2: success of the first one, you get a big check
Speaker 2: to make another one, and you want to do it,
Speaker 2: and you want it to be bigger and better, and
Speaker 2: sometimes or a lot of times, less is more. The
Speaker 2: first one was really simple and just had incredible music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't like I don't like poo pooing on
Speaker 1: art like people are gonna love it and whatever. It
Speaker 1: just wasn't for me, Like I my memory should have
Speaker 1: stayed in my memory the way it stayed, because now
Speaker 1: I'm sad that it's not what I remembered of Greece too.
Speaker 2: Look, if you love this movie and have a great
Speaker 2: time watching it, that is great. But I think watching
Speaker 2: this back to back, as we've done with Greece and
Speaker 2: the rest, I think they're just not of the same universe.
Speaker 2: This feels like a TV movie, and Greece feels like
Speaker 2: it is. Had been the biggest grossing musical movie until
Speaker 2: a year ago.
Speaker 1: It's it's also I think, in my opinion, way too long.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It was like some of those shots at the end,
Speaker 2: I'm like, you could snipping away at this cut cut cut.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it moved slow. I think that was also.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just long, it moved like the pace was wrong.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We talked about with Grease one, there's so much happens
Speaker 2: in it, but every single scene there was like rising tension,
Speaker 2: there were stakes in every single scene.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: With this, it was like a lot of just chilling.
Speaker 2: I feel it got out.
Speaker 1: Let's draw it out.
Speaker 2: It's so strange.
Speaker 1: I know. It's also when your lead character is written
Speaker 1: or maybe interpreted the way that Maxwell did it like
Speaker 1: very calm, like when your lead is Tribalta and you
Speaker 1: got that energy driving it, whereas you have this like
Speaker 1: very timid guy kind of like whispering.
Speaker 2: Well, it was like it was like gender reversal of
Speaker 2: the first.
Speaker 1: Movie, right of course, which I don't mind him trying
Speaker 1: to having to change himself for her, but like I
Speaker 1: don't think it worked, and it just it feel like
Speaker 1: a totally different movie to me, Like it wasn't great.
Speaker 2: The reason also, like we got with the with the
Speaker 2: first one Eliving Newton John was with the Pink Ladies
Speaker 2: for almost all of that movie. Either she's being made
Speaker 2: fun of or she's hanging out with she's around the
Speaker 2: girls that she eventually sort of becomes He's never He
Speaker 2: just all of a sudden becomes like a biker guy,
Speaker 2: and we don't have like if he was integrated into
Speaker 2: the Tea Birds, that would be something I know that
Speaker 2: would be more similar, but like that never happened. So
Speaker 2: he's like sort of on his own island the entire movie.
Speaker 2: And then it's like, Okay, he comes back and there's
Speaker 2: two biker gangs and then there's him as a third
Speaker 2: thing that nobody.
Speaker 1: And the additional biker ganging like enemy like outside of
Speaker 1: the groups versus like the rivalry withinside the groups. Like
Speaker 1: also just kind of like took me out of it.
Speaker 1: It didn't remind me of stand Loot a little bit.
Speaker 2: Stand Lot is a perfect movie.
Speaker 1: No, I don't touch it. Perfect.
Speaker 2: Also, if you're going to bring back Frenchie, you have
Speaker 2: d D. Khan are more. Yeah, make her the stars movie.
Speaker 1: She would have been. She was the star of Last One, Yes,
Speaker 1: she was.
Speaker 2: She is so good. Don't just Yeah, that's what worries
Speaker 2: me about. Honestly, it worries me about like a Glee reyboot.
Speaker 1: Oh. It worries me every.
Speaker 2: Day because I think it could fall easily into the
Speaker 2: trap of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Grease too, Oh, don't say that, or you don't
Speaker 3: have the magic because you think you need to either
Speaker 3: bring in some of these old stars as opposed to
Speaker 3: just creating a really good story of new people.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I will say if there was a Grease
Speaker 1: Too in Glee, cool Writer definitely would have been a
Speaker 1: number that like Santana and Rachel would have fought over
Speaker 1: and there would have been a sing off and that
Speaker 1: would have been great. And then Girl for All Seasons
Speaker 1: actually with some of the gals would have been really fun.
Speaker 2: I thought Girl for All Seasons was one of the best,
Speaker 2: one of the best moments of this movie. As horrible
Speaker 2: like as reproduction is, I thought that was pretty funny
Speaker 2: and like, yeah, had some of the spirit that we
Speaker 2: were looking for that we needed.
Speaker 1: Yes, I also think that Rocca Luau or whatever it
Speaker 1: is and We'll Be Together, it was like, let's just
Speaker 1: think of something to recreate exactly what we made in Greece,
Speaker 1: wand and recreate it again, yeah, and not as good
Speaker 1: but worse. Yeah, Like why are we trying to like
Speaker 1: touch something that's so perfect and like recreate that and
Speaker 1: versus creating something new. It was like just a carbon
Speaker 1: copy but worse. I actually don't hate the song do
Speaker 1: it for our country. I hate the premise of it
Speaker 1: and the circumstances and how they did it, but the
Speaker 1: actual song is like it is also very sticky for me,
Speaker 1: Like it's it, I remember it. I was singing it
Speaker 1: this morning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that is one of the better songs.
Speaker 2: But like, I haven't ever listened to these songs outside
Speaker 2: of watching the movie last night, and that's my association
Speaker 2: with it. So like I also think, look, to be fair,
Speaker 2: I haven't had the time with all of this like
Speaker 2: I did with Greece. I knew that music in and
Speaker 2: out and I sent it back and I know that
Speaker 2: movie so well.
Speaker 1: So but I will say, Kevin, here's my devil's advocate.
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, in this podcast, what happens is usually we
Speaker 1: start and we don't wear iffy about it and we
Speaker 1: don't really like it, and then we turn into like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess it wasn't that bad. I don't hate that much.
Speaker 1: This is not happening. No, there's no turn of events here.
Speaker 2: No, it's just not so it's not. I get it
Speaker 2: as a cult classic. I get it as like screenings.
Speaker 2: I get it like I.
Speaker 1: Don't have time for that though.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not someone who likes bad that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: It's not like our friend Kelly probably loves this.
Speaker 1: Ah, delly, Yes, I think I feel like I watched
Speaker 1: this with Kelly at.
Speaker 2: Well likes he can really just appreciate it for what
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we love that.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that it exists for people.
Speaker 1: I wish I had that skill me too.
Speaker 2: I certainly did that trait. Do you think people thought
Speaker 2: this movie was because of the gender reversal, like this
Speaker 2: was supposed to be like a feminist tale. Oh, because
Speaker 2: it certainly feels the opposite to me, because like she
Speaker 2: doesn't even know who's under the helmet, and she's just.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, I don't. I don't even think it got
Speaker 1: that deep. Like I don't even think we got there.
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, Yeah, I just I'm just
Speaker 2: thinking about it, like it borders more on like some
Speaker 2: of these numbers, like oh, this is a bit more
Speaker 2: Rocky Horror, but Rocky Horror was like properly camp and
Speaker 2: like Rocky Horror.
Speaker 1: Yes, was true to who it was, and it was
Speaker 1: you knew exactly what it was.
Speaker 2: Like, Greece doesn't feel that if it was trying to
Speaker 2: be camp, I don't think it accomplished it.
Speaker 1: No, I don't. I actually don't think it was trying
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: And also like something about Greece ion. I was having
Speaker 2: a discussion last night with Austin and Georgie about this
Speaker 2: because we're like, like grease won are they in on it?
Speaker 2: But I don't even think so. I don't think there's
Speaker 2: anything to be in on. I think they're just like,
Speaker 2: it's deadly serious.
Speaker 1: It is, but it happens to be funny, and this
Speaker 1: is like just not funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this feels like they're self aware. Yeah, in a
Speaker 2: way that is not.
Speaker 1: Its failed. It failed. Yeah, Okay, well I think that's enough.
Speaker 1: Let's create some performances. Let's just do some of the
Speaker 1: ones we like, Let's do highlights, let's do let's leave
Speaker 1: on a positive note. So cool writer. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give it a B plus because in my memory it
Speaker 1: was an A and it was a C. So I'm
Speaker 1: giving in an.
Speaker 2: Average I'm going to need to be minus.
Speaker 1: Okay, reproduction was an f I'm giving reproduction a b okay,
Speaker 1: do it for our country and that all the circumstances
Speaker 1: aside the song itself.
Speaker 2: But this is creating the performance.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, what about the Sorry Girl for All Seasons
Speaker 1: and b okay, that's it.
Speaker 2: We'll be together. Also was so crazy, I really will
Speaker 2: be together. We go together, and we're gonna do it
Speaker 2: slower a.
Speaker 1: Carbon copy, just like Okay, TARTI takes au cheese. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, they were so really creepy. And also, wait,
Speaker 1: miss Mason, can we talk about how inappropriate that was?
Speaker 2: What was happening with Miss Mason?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I was also like such a one dimensional character.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know, I don't know Johnny
Speaker 1: and just like all the girls and like it just
Speaker 1: was like it's just like a.
Speaker 2: Cesspool of I thought the first one had some moments.
Speaker 2: The first one is completely fine compared to this.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, Best song Girl for All Seasons? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so, Best Stand Smooth. I mean, look, the
Speaker 1: choreography in this movie is amazing. There's just like too
Speaker 1: much of it. Yeah, it's also just not trot well,
Speaker 1: and so it's just a lot of things like don't
Speaker 1: lend itself to the choreogra.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, I guess maybe back to school again. Sure,
Speaker 2: I did think and girl for all seasons. There was
Speaker 2: one of the seasons the girls were like really one
Speaker 2: point and one of them you can tell us like training.
Speaker 2: I was like, yes, yeah, some point.
Speaker 1: Prop.
Speaker 2: I don't know if this counts, but shout out to
Speaker 2: that little tire track on that little hump that it
Speaker 2: is supposed to make us all believe that he either
Speaker 2: died or went across this great divide that we've.
Speaker 1: Never seen and he landed. If the Russians can put
Speaker 1: him in in space, just imagine our young American minds
Speaker 1: can do it right out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did enjoy that. I did really like Paulette. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I like you a lot. She was original, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I thought she was a standout character and I liked her.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Thing at the end, she's I may not be the
Speaker 2: classiest chick in the school, but I'm the best you're
Speaker 2: ever going to get, So take it. Believe it like
Speaker 2: she I really liked her. And that's the thing with
Speaker 2: the first one, all all the characters were like super
Speaker 2: strong characters. They know exactly who they are. Yeah, even
Speaker 2: like French, who's trying to figure it out, she's telling
Speaker 2: you who she is, like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we don't. We don't really know or care
Speaker 1: about any of these No, they just feel like again
Speaker 1: like trying.
Speaker 2: It feels like everyone just did of her a check.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it happens, It happens. Listen, I'm not too good
Speaker 1: for a check. Yeah, performance MVP Michelle Fire for of
Speaker 1: course she's just like I mean, I thought.
Speaker 2: Michelle Fifer, Maxwell call Field and Adrian Zamed were.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah, okay, that's the thing.
Speaker 2: I thought everyone was.
Speaker 1: Were great yeah, or like everybody did great with what
Speaker 1: they had, right, we understand that. Yes, Okay, well that's that.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys don't hate us too much for
Speaker 1: going through that.
Speaker 2: But but you know how much we love Greece.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's the other thing too, is like being
Speaker 2: protective over like the legacy of Greece, and you're like,
Speaker 2: this is what you come back with. Yeah, I'm just
Speaker 2: not going a bit yeah yea, yeah, Okay, So we
Speaker 2: found on TikTok Jenna Samantha three three three there's a
Speaker 2: trend going on right now with Bees in the Trap
Speaker 2: and the song that's going on, yes, and it is
Speaker 2: these two people won dresses, shoes, her with a crazy
Speaker 2: wig and so Sylvester Sylvester is doing the Nicki Minaj part,
Speaker 2: and I just think it really fits, you know, a
Speaker 2: Glee reference. It's a mashup. I think it's something we
Speaker 2: would have done.
Speaker 1: This is a total bob. I'm into it.
Speaker 2: And I think Susilvester doing the Nicki Minaj part makes
Speaker 2: a lot of sense. And like it's Halloween, so like
Speaker 2: get in your best Glee costumes and do this.
Speaker 1: Probably yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Also, I remember Naya showed me this Nicki Minaj song
Speaker 2: on set of Glee had just come out, and she's like,
Speaker 2: you're gonna like this and.
Speaker 1: Bees into Trap that was already that was already out
Speaker 1: when Glee was still That's crazy to me, it feels
Speaker 1: like it was much more recent.
Speaker 2: Wait, let me double check, unless I'm like conflating memories.
Speaker 2: I feel like, yeah, wow, wow, yeah, I remember she Okay,
Speaker 2: I remember she told me about it. She's like, I
Speaker 2: heard this song, that's what it was. We were in
Speaker 2: Long Beach and she goes. We were in the hair
Speaker 2: making sure I heard the song You're gonna love it,
Speaker 2: and she's like, it's like Nicki Minaja saying like bees
Speaker 2: into trap. We didn't know what she meant by it.
Speaker 2: And then I was driving on like Laurel Canon I
Speaker 2: remember for some reason, like it was like one of
Speaker 2: s and it came yeah, and it came on and
Speaker 2: I called her. I was like, I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is it, this is it. If you have
Speaker 1: any Eagle Lye costumes, please send them our way. We'd
Speaker 1: love to see them. And Kevin, we have an assignment
Speaker 1: for everybody for next week.
Speaker 2: Our assignment for next week is rent.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what will I do? I'm so excited
Speaker 1: and also nervous because Red is such a staple in
Speaker 1: my mind on the stage production and the film wasn't
Speaker 1: what I remember it to be. So we'll have to
Speaker 1: see come back and check it out. And thanks for
Speaker 1: hanging out with.
Speaker 2: Us, and that's what you really miss Thanks for listening
Speaker 2: and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you
Speaker 2: really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review
Speaker 2: and leave us five stars. See you next time,