The renowned musical Grease is currently playing at the Mogador Theatre!
Everyone must have heard about the famous film featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John as Danny Zuko and Sandy Olson in the late 70s? Those melodies that make you frenetically dance as soon as you hear the first notes…From Grease is the world to You’re the One that I want without forgetting We go together, the story of these young lovers and most importantly teenagers, has embodied the American youth.
However, the film wasn’t the first interpretation of that story. It begun before the movie release in 1979, in The Eden Theatre, off-Broadway.
Launched the 14th of February 1972, Grease is firstly a Musical written and directed by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.
The poster made for the occasion and
published as the cover page, represented two adolescents innocently kissing, the boy holding a coke bottle with two straws on one hand and the girl a cigarette.
A leather jacket, a vintage neck scarf : the perfect image of the 60s’ American style and almost the whole story summed up, depicted in one simple drawing that I personally appreciate.
Anyway, now that you all know a little more about that iconic Musical, let’s talk about what we’re interested to know, that
is related to ART&SOCIAL MEDIA, because we obviously need to make a link with all this explanation !
ARTISTIC ANALYSIS
“Neat ballets, ultra rhythmic choreography...The show, popularised by Randal Kleiser's cult film, seduces without reserve!”
-TÉLÉRAMA
The new adaptation inspired by both the Musical and the movie, called Grease le musical, is refreshing and purely artistic. It includes half a dozen musicians behind the stage which offer us a truly live show.
This same 50s’ universe, mixed with an air of modernity by its shocking replicas and its francophone adaptation of the musics…in addition to a brilliant cast, full of energy and multiple talents (most of the actors come from dance and more generally artistic schools), added to a masterpiece that is no longer useful to present, during 2h40 of pure craziness : this is how I would sum up the show I was able to attend three times (Yes, you read just well, I said three times and I was not even forced to, I promise). I was
very sceptical concerning the French adaptation of it because French translators often tempt to translate literally EVERYTHING so I was afraid that they decided that “You’re the one that I want, honey” turned into “Tu es celui que je veux, ouh, ouh, ouh, miel !”, which would have been very bizarre honestly. But thankfully, the French interpreter of the company, Nicolas Engel, decided to keep some of the original song lyrics which created a perfect match between French and English.
The elaborate staging retraces the cult moments while offering us a new look at the original model : the sets are colourful and vivid - thought to be practical and speak for itself - the costumes dazzling, the choreographies breathtaking and the dialogues “crude” and inflamed. We find Alexis Loizon (figuring in Bill Condon's last Beauty and the Beast) and Alyzée Lalande (appearing in Gilles Maheu's Musical Notre Dame de Paris) in the roles of Danny and Sandy - their alchemy brings an electric dynamism without taking into account the perfect harmony of the rest of the cast ! I also found Danny and Kennickie's interpretation strong and daring, which finally represent the original characters perfectly. Laughter, vocals and cabrioles, everything is present to spend the most pleasant moment, I highly recommend it!
HOW DOES THE SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCES THE MUSICAL?
Social Media takes a huge part in our life now and since today's world is about sharing news instantly worldwide, we can not ignore it. Many people earned recognition by posting their talents or just messages on Youtube, Twitter or even Instagram...and we can say that it became a powerful tool to obtain what we want, faster.
This is a novelty ! Grease le musical learned how to create buzz and more audience by following nowadays' trends and that is a great first step. Indeed, the musical
created a very active Instagram account - signed in after the first three-month representations : the account has now 3907 followers and 216 posts, in only two months of activity. With a ratio of two to six pictures per day and also reposts by the actors, not only the show received amazing critics but also earned a younger public thanks to its presence on social media which allowed the troupe to extend the shows until July instead of April, with more than 200 000 sold tickets in the beginning of the 2018 year! Instagram enabled the musical to present to the potential viewers what the show had to offer. Like a teaser, their Instagram account is filled with the presentation of the cast, some extracts of a few seconds and many beautiful and colourful pictures of the staging.
Drawings, photos, edits with the original cast of the movie, colours, black and white…so many diverse ways to illustrate the legendary musical ! Thanks to Instagram, they will earn more and more Greasers !
And I am doooone ! This was my first article and probably one of the longest I will made. I hope that you liked it because for this first post I decided to share with you one of my favourite subjects which is Grease. This article is about my personal opinion only and I hope that you appreciated this little analysis of it ! 🎶Grease is the world🎶 !
See you soon 🤗 !
Thanks a lot for all of your feedback, I really appreciate it ! I want to write even more.
Excellent.
Yeah your article peaked my curiosity . Indeed , how you find the french version of the song ? In your opinion it is an add value which cross barriers of culture or just a wast of time ?
I never thought about the communication strategies of the musical in Paris but now that I read it, it is quite obvious that social media has a lot of influence on it :)
Grease is everything for my childhood... I was quite disappointed by the french version of the musicals but however was still amazing. Incredible how social medias could influence the "Greasers" number of that much a story from many years!