Director's Note
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Book, Music and Lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey May 10 - May 25, 2019 They’re back—Danny and Sandy, the Pink Ladies and the Burger Pioneer Theatre Palace Boys—dancing and singing their way through their senior Company’s Student year. Enjoy the songs we grew up singing and dancing to, such as Matinee Program is made possible “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “Summer Nights,” “Greased Light- through the support nin’” and “You’re the One that I Want.” of Salt Lake County’s Zoo, Arts and Parks Program, Salt Lake City Arts Council/ Director’s Note Arts Learning Pro- gram, The Simmons by Karen Azenberg Family Foundation, The Meldrum Foun- There’s an inherent challenge in dation Endowment producing a show like Grease. Fund and R. Harold Everyone knows Grease, either Burton Foundation. from doing it in high school (Were you Sandy or Danny? Rizzo or Eugene?) or from the now-classic movie with John Travolta and Ol- ivia Newton-John. (Sigh.) Spotlight on Learning is provided to Yes, everyone knows Grease. students through a grant provided by the So there are expectations to be met. Artistic Director For me, those expectations are a George Q. Morris Foundation Karen Azenberg particular challenge because I like being able to offer our audiences the unexpected. So I tried very hard to focus on what I think we Approx. running time: may have forgotten about the late 2:20 hours, which includes one ’50s and maybe about Grease. It fifteen-minute intermission. was a kinder, gentler, and more naïve time, when TVs had three channels, when patent-leather Student Talk-Back: shoes might have reflected what’s There will be a Student Talk- up your skirt, and when having a Back directly after the perfor- date to the dance on Friday was of mance. utmost importance. But I wanted us to be able to enjoy the nostalgia, not make fun of it. So grab your saddle shoes, and Cast of Grease your leather jacket, and come along for the ride. This study guide is heavily assisted by the Suburban growth had had a devastat- ed an image of “cool,” i.e. a poised, StageNOTES for the 2007 Broadway produc- ing effect on urban/industrial centers disinterested disdain. tion of Grease. Both of these articles were written by Jennifer Wollerman and Sue Maccia. resulting in record high unemploy- Please see the StageNOTES for additional ment. Divisions between the wealthy Their female counterparts wore information http://stagenotes.net/wp-content/ and the working class were becom- tight-fitting sweaters and jeans - a uploads/2016/03/Stagenotes-Grease-Educa- ing more distinct and an economic stark contrast to the flouncy poodle tion-Guide.pdf recession was taking hold. skirts modeled by Sandra Dee. Teens displayed their rebellion against the The '50s through In addition, the clean-cut values ultra conservative 1950's codes of the rose-colored associated with white, middleclass behavior by experimenting with cig- lens of the '70s America were beginning to unrav- arettes, alcohol and sex. The cause el. With Communism proliferating of all this decadent behavior, accord- Grease was conceived 35 years ago, around the world, misplaced patriotic ing to horrified adults, was a new opening on Broadway in 1972. Its fervor gave way to finger-pointing at and dangerous form of music called story and characters are situated in home. Meanwhile, persistent racism Rock and Roll. the school year of 1958-59, almost and economic imbalance was begin- 50 years ago. What was it about the ning to spur overt action and unrest The music takes its name from a culture of that particular year that among black and white Americans. vernacular term for intercourse and, held such fascination for the creators In 1958 the Civil Rights Commission indeed, it became the soundtrack for of Grease? came into being. the later sexual revolution. In 1958, it represented the exciting contrast The close of the 1950s is indeed a Hand in hand with the “Communist between the wiggling of Elvis and fascinating time to revisit. Since threat,” came the specter of nuclear the swinging of Sinatra. The ubiqui- the end of World War II, the US war as development of that technol- tous music infused every aspect of had ridden high on the post-war ogy moved forward in the Soviet teen life. Piped into their lives via economic boom. Soldiers returning Union, Europe and the US. English car radios with only the sexy voices from the war started families and philosopher Bertrand Russell in- of the cool-lingo-speaking DJ’s for bought brand new homes built in the troduced a symbol for total nuclear chaperones, the music ushered in luxuriously spacious environment disarmament that ultimately became another new phenomenon - the cult of the newly invented suburbs. They of the radio personality was born. bought new cars to get themselves to Looking back through the prism of the newly invented shopping malls where their wives could choose from a dazzling assortment of new conve- niences including modern applianc- es. Energizing all this growth was a zealous patriotism and an emphasis on moral values fueled by the Allies’ victory over evil. a universal symbol for peace. America in the 1950s, by all appear- With all of this conflict in the air, ances, was an idyllic place and time. perhaps it’s not surprising that, for But by 1958, this shining era was the first time, teens emerged with a looking a bit tarnished; the values it separate identity in popular culture. had advertised were looking sus- While the conservative film studios pect; and a new war, of a much more fought hard to project a teen identity frightening sort, was looming. It that was pure and upright, of which turns out that not everyone was en- Sandra Dee was the embodiment, a joying the fruits of economic growth. rebellious youth culture was on the In fact, in 1958, annual incomes of rise in the form of the “Greasers.” white families were twice as high as Wearing their hair longer and slicked L-R: Lucy Anders (Marty), Kate non-white families; and 1 percent of back with pomade or “grease,” leath- Cassidy Ryan (Jan), Jaymie Inouye the population enjoyed 9 percent of er jackets and jeans, young men in (Frenchy) and Alex Kidder (Rizzo) the nation’s disposable income. working class neighborhoods affect- Page 2 Continued to Page 3 Continued from Page 2 the 15 years that had passed by the DISCUSS time Grease was first produced in 1972, those rebellious times would The photos below depict teens in the have looked, as they do today, 1950s and the 1970s. comparatively innocuous. The day In what ways are they similar? to day preoccupations of the char- In what ways are they different? acters: (hairstyles, hot rods, dating and even the more serious worries of peer pressure, gang warfare, a missed period or the future beyond high school) were, in one sense, typical of the coming of age angst that all teenagers experience. But the stakes were not the same. The quiet, awkward boy who sat in the back might be strange but he wasn’t likely to mow down his classmates with a semi-automatic, nor was a rival gang member. Unprotected sex might be risky but it wasn’t life-threatening. A career in the military seemed an attractive option in the peacetime year of 1959. Despite the stirrings of change, so far as anyone knew - least of all young people who had grown up in the “fabulous” 50’s - there was no need to save the world. By 1972 the world was a very differ- ent place. The Civil Rights Move- ment had resulted in the assassina- tion of Martin Luther King as well as countless other deaths. President John F. Kennedy, champion of the disenfranchised, had been assas- sinated as had his brother, Robert, who had been a powerful beacon of hope. The war against Communism had taken the form of a senseless campaign in the jungles of Southeast Asia that would claim 50,000 young American lives. Draft evasion, birth of 1950’s pop culture in the 1970s. From the standpoint of the early 70s, control pills and cynicism had be- In addition to Grease, there were it’s clear that the end of the 50s was come part of the cultural landscape. films such as “American Graffitti” the end of innocence. The persistent Sex, drugs and rock and roll were and “The Lords of Flatbush” and the charm and joy of Grease lies in the not only the gauntlet of adolescence television show “Happy Days,” all fact that it restores us, for a short but had become embedded in its very celebrating, with varying degrees while, to a state of blissful igno- identity. of seriousness, the first glimpses rance. § of an authentic youth culture. Only There was no way to know, in 1958, through a retrospective lens can it be where the seeds of social revolution seen for its simultaneous significance would lead or just how profound- and innocuousness. ly the world was about to change. Perhaps this accounts for the revival Page 3 Grease is the “word” Developing a language of one’s own is one means of self-inven- tion. In this case, the invented language or “special vocabu- lary” of the greasers is all part of the self-conscious creation of a rebellious persona. The central characters in Grease represent that generation of teens from work- L-R: Michael Schimmele (Roger), David Park (Kenickie), Cameron ing-class neighborhoods who first Holzman (Sonny), Pascal Pastrana (Danny) and Pepe Nufrio (Doody) carved out a separate youth cul- ture and identity within the social does.