Would you dress your toddler as "Slutty Sandy" for Halloween? (Why do families love Grease?)
The Broadway Maven (David Benkof) interprets Broadway
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Shalom!
This week, the Broadway Maven will be looking at the legacy of Hair and Grease:
• The Monday January 25 class will watch and discuss at least 2-3 clips from each show. We’ll also look at the concept of an “Eleven o’clock number.”
• I’ve uploaded a video to my YouTube channel that argues that “Hair and Grease are the same show” - or have several eerily similar songs.
• This Weekly Blast shows that despite the reputation of Grease being a fun family show, including for young kids, the content is totally inappropriate for children.
Below that, you’ll also hear me RANT about a twist on the ending of some productions of Cabaret that undermines the frankly fun ambiguity of the mysterious Emcee; and RAVE about - deal with it, I’m not embarrassed - the grossly underrated 2019 movie CATS.
Despite its reputation as a family show, Grease is wholly inappropriate for children, with its disturbing representations of vulgarity, teen pregnancy, smoking, drunk driving, and date rape:
• Crude language like “a real pussy wagon”; “you know that ain’t no shit, we’ll be gettin’ lots of tit”; “flog your log”; “what do you think this is, a gang bang?”; and “bite the weenie, Riz”;
• high school students having unprotected sex;
• a teenage girl trying cigarettes out of peer pressure;
• characters drinking IN CARS;
• Disturbing attitudes toward consent:
In “Summer Lovin,’” the T-birds approvingly ask Danny “did she put up a fight?”
Danny tries to get to “second base” despite Sandy’s explicit objections, and
Vince Fontaine apparently tries to slip Marty a roofie (“aspirin in my coke”).
Finally, the “Happy Ending” only takes place once the previously virginal Sandy dresses as a slut and presents herself to Danny as a sex object.
With all that in mind, how could parents possibly buy their five-year-olds this Halloween costume?
I mean, words cannot
There are still spots available for Monday’s class about Hair and Grease, both for the Zoom room and the YouTube livestream. If you like participating in the chat inside the Zoom room, please get there early. Everyone will have access to the class, but those who arrive a little later should plan to watch on YouTube (just search for my name and the live class should be at the top). The classes are at Noon and 8 pm ET on January 25.
The optional homework for this week’s class (and everyone can do it!) is to watch the video below and decide if you agree or disagree that Hair and Grease have several similar songs.
Put your answer in the comments below the video at YouTube and we’ll respond. (And feel free to respond to each other, too!)
The 1998 revival of Cabaret starring Alan Cumming ruins some of the most interesting parts of the show in the last moment of the show when it is revealed that the Emcee is both gay and Jewish (he’s wearing a striped uniform with a combination yellow star and pink triangle).
The Emcee being gay or bisexual is no surprise. But his being Jewish undermines one of the best moments in the show: when he says the gorilla he’s been serenading “wouldn’t look Jewish at all.” In the film and earlier Broadway productions, it’s unclear whether that line is anti-Semitic or the Emcee is “in on the joke” and making fun of anti-Semites, not Jews.
Part of the pleasure in interpreting that song is figuring out : Is he making fun of Jews, or is he making fun of people who make fun of Jews?
The ending of the 1998 Sam Mendes-directed version retroactively obviates that mystery.
For what end?
OK, I’m like the only person I know who loved 2019’s CATS movie. I had expected at best to love to hate it. Within 10 minutes, I was enthralled. Problems, yes, but the cinematic vision of the “Jellicle Cats” number blew me away and some of the acting (James Corden, Ian McKellen) was very fun to watch.
I’ve been doing some research and I now understand better some of the technical reasons the film rubbed people the wrong way (check out THIS video), but for sheer pleasure I’d watch it again in a heartbeat, and in fact I have watched the first 20 minutes more than a dozen times.
Does that mean I love musical theater TOO much?
In class, we’ve been talking about the scaffolding of Broadway shows, an important part of which is the “eleven o’clock number.” Here, Angela Lansbury introduces songs from CATS and Company that greatly improved the shows when they were inserted as eleven o’clock numbers.
Videos to Check Out:
One-minute video introduction to the course (please share widely!)
“Broadway Maven” playlist at YouTube
David Benkof’s YouTube channel
Calendar:
Wednesday, January 20 Bob Dylan 101 (8 pm ET) and Billy Joel 101 (9 pm ET)
Thursday, January 21 History of Mel Brooks Parts One and Two (Noon-2 pm ET) *repeated January 28
Monday, January 25 Hair, Grease (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Tuesday, January 26 Contemporary Jewish Broadway (Noon ET, ALL-ACCESS Passholders ONLY)
Wednesday, January 27 Carole King 101 (8 pm ET) and Debbie Friedman 101 (9 pm ET)
Thursday, January 28 History of Mel Brooks Parts One and Two (8-10 pm ET) *repeat from January 21
Monday, February 1 Annie (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, February 4 Disney’s Jews (Noon ET, with special guests)
Monday, February 1 Mary Poppins (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, February 11 Voice Actors (Noon ET)
Monday, February 1 Wicked (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, February 18 Roy Lichtenstein (Noon ET)
Monday, February 1 Hairspray (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, February 25 Schoolhouse Rock (Noon ET)
-David Benkof, The Broadway Maven
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