Word: olivia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...disguised as the pageboy Cesario, we have Lynn Redgrave, attired in an aquamarine suit and sporting a head of short red hair. She brings a surprisingly forceful voice and a sure comic instinct. It is fun to watch her lapse from her assumed machismo--as when, on exclaiming of Olivia, "She loves me sure," she girlishly claps her hands over her face, or repeatedly swoons at the prospect of having to duel with Sir Andrew. Her performance perhaps owes something to her recent portrayal of another witty and manly woman, Shaw's Saint Joan. It is possibly no coincidence that...
Stigwood and Carr might be smarter than we all think. Grease essentially is a poor remake of a great musical, and Travolta is pretty good as Danny Zooko--by no means overshadowed by his co-star Olivia Newton-John as Sandra D. Grease is entertaining. It could possibly lighten up a dull evening, and if you haven't heard the songs (although by now you must have heard "You're the One That I Want" played ad infinitum on the radio) once or twice by now, they are kind of fun as well...
...Travolta, to feed the juke box. Her real intent, of course, is to lure Danny, who is sitting with his slippery friends at another table. Anyway, Danny manages to wander over to the juke box not-so-very casually and stammer out some excuse for his bad behavior. Olivia tries her best to act indifferent, but then again, who ever said she could act? She breezes on back to her jock friend, mumbling something about how she would "really like to see Danny run circles around 'those guys,'" and Danny is left there with a very humble and baffled look...
...little humility is supposed to be good for everyone, but it is sort of pathetic to watch Travolta try and convert his image for Olivia Newton-John, and it is totally predictable that whatever he does, he will win back sweet little Sandy. Only Sandy decides to go part of the way around to Danny's side before the marriage is complete. Unfortunately, the sight of Olivia Newton-John poured into a tight black outfit with her hair frizzed out and a cigarette rather tenuously balanced off her lower lip is too much to take...
...teen-ager existed side by side. The poignancy of Grease derived from that juxtaposition: Can sweet Sandy, representing the Sandra Dee side of the coin, find happiness with dangerous Danny, the dark, flip side of it? Kleiser simply flattens out this conflict. It is possible, of course, that Olivia Newton-John does not have it within her to portray a girl deeply tempted to break out of her square cultural mold, but we know that John Travolta has the stuff to do Danny wonderfully. It seems criminal not to use the stud's drive and energy he displayed...