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.
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. 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.
Film series[]
| Film | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriters | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main series | ||||
| Grease | June 16th, 1978 | Randal Kleiser | Bronte Woodard | Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr |
| Grease 2 | August 11th, 1982 | Patricia Birch | Ken Finkleman | |
| Premaloka | May 5th, 1987 | V. Ravichandran | V. Ravichandran and Panchu Arunachalam | V. Ravichandran and N. Veeraswamy |
| Grease: Live | January 1st, 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 |
Main films[]
Grease (1978)[]
- Main article: Grease (film)
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)[]
- Main article: Grease 2
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)[]
- Main article: Premaloka
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). For the lead actress, Ravichandran rejected 52 actresses before choosing Juhi Chawla for the role originally played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Apart from composing music, Hamsalekha additionally wrote the lyrics for all songs and dialogues for the film.
Future[]
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." In 2008, it was reported that Paramount was planning a new sequel to Grease that would debut straight to DVD. 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. By July 2020, Brett Haley was hired to serve as director with the most recent draft of the script being written by Leah McKendrick.
Television special[]
Grease: Live (2016)[]
- Main article: Grease: Live
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.
Television series[]
Grease: It's You and Me (2007–2009)[]
- Main article: Grease: It's You and Me
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, 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.
ICB: It Can't Be! (2011)[]
- Main article: ICB: It Can't Be!
In August 2009, Boomerang announced that Vladimir Perez, the creator of Grease: It's You and Me, 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!.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2021)[]
- Main article: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies
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. By April 2020, Annabel Oakes was hired as writer and executive producer for the series. In October 2020, the series' title was changed to Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and was moved from HBO Max to Paramount+.
Release[]
Box office performance[]
| Film | Release date | Box office gross | Box office ranking | Worldwide income | Budget | References | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | Other territories | Worldwide | US and Canada | Worldwide | |||||
| Main series | |||||||||
| Grease | June 16th, 1978 | $159,978,870 | $206,200,000 | $366,178,870 | 223 | 290 | $392,426,530 | $6,000,000 | |
| Grease 2 | June 11th, 1982 | $14,297,083 | $874,393 | $15,171,476 | 4,283 | 5,735 | $15,171,476 | $11,200,000 | |
| Totals | $ | $ | $ | x̄ #2,253 | x̄ #3,012.5 | $ | $ | ||
List indicator(s)
| |||||||||
Critical and public reception[]
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| Film series | ||
| Grease | 75% (73 reviews) | 70 (15 reviews) |
| Grease 2 | 37% (35 reviews) | 52 (11 reviews) |
| Television special | ||
| Grease: Live | 92% (36 reviews) | 75 (23 reviews) |
Academy Awards[]
| Award | Grease | Grease 2 | Premaloka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original Song | Nominated | Template:None | Template:None |
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 | rowspan="3" Template:TBA | 2007 – 2009 | 2011 | 2021 | 2016 | |
| Daniel M. "Danny" Zuko Leader of the T-Birds |
John Travolta | Víctor Drija (as Victor Rodríguez) |
rowspan="4" Template: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 | rowspan="4" Template: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 | rowspan="2" Template: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[]
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. 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.
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.
Reality series[]
- Grease: You're the One That I Want!
- Grease Is the Word
- Grease: The School Musical
External links[]
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