Parnell: Four decades on, Grease is still – and always will be – the word

It’s been 45 years since the high school musical Grease hit the big screen – there hasn’t been one to top it since, writes Kerry Parnell.

Grease is still the one that we want.

It’s been 45 years since the high school musical hit the big screen and I put it to you there hasn’t been one to top it since.

Hairspray: only two good songs. High School Musical: can’t remember any of the songs. Grease 2: I wish I could forget it existed.

So enduring is the power of the 1978 stage-musical-turned-movie, it has spawned a prequel half a century later and is starting all over again. The new show Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, held its premiere in LA on Wednesday, with Grease 2 star Maxwell Caulfield, 63, turning up with wife Juliet Mills, 81.

The series, which launches on Thursday on Paramount+, stars Cheyenne Wells, Marisa Davila, Tricia Fukuhara and Ari Notartomaso as the young Pink Ladies, in their famous satin jackets.

Cheyenne Wells, Marisa Davila, Tricia Fukuhara and Ari Notartomaso attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Paramount+'s Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies in Los Angeles. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images/AFP

The musical rom-com is set in 1954, four years before Grease, and follows the girls’ journey to forming the legendary Rydell High clique. “We’re not girls, we’re layyydies,” they cry, adding, “We’re going to need some jackets.”

It is set to bring the Grease magic – and jackets – to a new generation, including my offspring. I finally let my pre-teens watch the original this week, after many requests. Despite its PG rating (erm, we must have been tougher kids back then, or just oblivious) I exercised my parental guidance by talking loudly over the rude bits, so most of the extremely un-PC dialogue went over their heads, like it did mine when I first watched it. They adored it and we spent a happy couple of hours enrolled at Rydell High.

Didi Conn, Stockard Channing and Dinah Manoff were three of the original Pink Ladies in Grease. Picture: Paramount

So, what is it about Grease that makes us so hopelessly devoted, four decades later? The magic lies in both the songs – there aren’t any boring ones – and the casting. Variety made the understatement of the century on its release, saying John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, “play together quite well”.

Quite well?

From the moment Danny Zuko turns his head and smiles, like Sandy, we’re hooked. It wouldn’t have been the same without them.

Happy Days’ Henry Winkler might well have regretted the rest of his life that he turned down the lead role for fear of being typecast, but it’s probably good he did.

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in Grease. It wouldn’t have been the same movie without them. Picture: Paramount Pictures/CBS via Getty Images

Because if you swapped Travolta and Newton-John with other actors, it wouldn’t have been the same movie – once again, may I refer you to Grease 2.

And yes, if you watch it now, it’s stuffed full of content we wouldn’t and they aren’t using today (the new TV series has been though the PC filter). Greased Lightnin’s lyrics and the Glad Wrap thing almost made me choke on my Ginger Nut with the fear my kids would start asking questions. Dated dialogue aside, it supplied us with catchphrases which mean Grease is still – and will always be – the word:

“A hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card”.

“Tell me about it, stud.”

“What’s the matter with me, baby, what’s the matter with you?”

“They call me Cha Cha, because I’m the best dancer at St. Bernadette’s.”

“Why, this car is Auto-matic. Its System-matic. Its Hydro-matic. Why, it’s Greased Lightning!”

Rydell Forever.