film firmly established “Grease” as a pop-culture legend. “Rocky does not begin to describe it,” Moore says. And then came the first preview at the Eden Theater on Second Avenue. Rehearsals were “delightful,” Moore recalls. Moore and Birch assembled a cast of young and unknown actors, including Alan Paul, who thought he was auditioning for a musical about “Greece, the country,” he says in the book. And number two, and this is what Jim and Warren understood, the show is about everybody’s first experience: Your first time in a new school the first time you become part of a group your first kiss your first love.” ![]() “Number one: the characters are prototypes for everybody you knew in high school. “There are two reasons why ‘Grease’ has been so successful,” Moore says. “Your first time in a new school the first time you become part of a group your first kiss your first love.” Moore, he thought, would bring the kind of authenticity to the acting that Birch would bring to the dancing.Ĩ “The show is about everybody’s first experience,” says Moore. Waissman had seen the play and was struck by how real the characters were. It would be too polished for “Grease.” He went instead with choreographer Patricia Birch, who had a reputation for teaching non-dancing actors how to dance.įor his director, he turned to Tom Moore, a recent Yale graduate who had one New York credit to his name: “Welcome to Andromeda,” a two-character play about a quadriplegic who wants to kill himself and a nurse who urges him to go on living. ![]() Bennett’s work was slick and depended on trained dancers. An agent urged him to hire Michael Bennett, just a few years away from creating “A Chorus Line,” to stage the show, but he balked. The actors would have to look like they really were in high school. Waissman believed that, for the show to work in New York, it had to retain its authenticity and ragged edge. What worked was his performance in the movie, which to date has grossed $400 million.Ĩ Liz Taylor and Richard Burton - who was starring in “Equus” down the block - were big early fans of “Grease” and took the cast to dinner at Sardi’s. “I got to observe three to five Zuckos and got to see exactly what worked and what didn’t,” he recalls in “GREASE: Tell Me More, Tell Me More: Stories from the Broadway Phenomenon That Started It All” (Chicago Review Press), a new oral history of the show. Travolta toured with the show for two years. “So we made him Doody, a goofy character who got kind of thrown away in the movie.” “He was too young for the part,” Moore says. Moore cast him in the show, but not as Danny. “His audition was completely unfocused,” recalls Tom Moore, who directed the original Broadway production. He slicked back his hair and sang Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.” ![]() In Los Angeles, an 18-year-old actor just breaking into the business auditioned for the part of Danny Zucko, clad in a black motorcycle jacket and a white T-shirt. In 1972, the hit Broadway musical “Grease” was ready to go on the road, which meant that a new cast had to be put together. ‘Succession’ Emmy winner Sarah Snook will make her Broadway debutīroadway eyes musical based on life of legendary televangelist Tammy Faye ‘The Queen of Versailles’ seeks to sell her NYC penthouse for $19.5M - see inside Meghan McCain blasts ‘gross’ new musical about her father John McCain living in Trump’s brain
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