Grease is the Word

Last night Jlo and I went to the Hollywood Bowl for the Grease Sing-a-Long.
 
The Bowl sits in the Hollywood Hills and dates back to 1922.  It’s such a beautiful location and, even though it’s been sweltering this past week, last night was cool, crisp, and very pleasant.
The original “shell” was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright but it has been rebuilt 2 or 3 times since.

Jlo is a rabid fan of musicals.  Me?  Eh, but I do LOVE me some Grease.  In fact, whenever I catch it on TV I hold my own sing-a-long sitting on the couch.  We found out about this event just a few days ago, but were able to still get decent tickets to the show last minute. 

Many arrived in costume…

  

Since our attendance was so last minute we did not make it in costume…maybe next time.  But we did receive goody bags with the things we’d need for the show. 

IInside we found a comb (for the greasy hair), pompom (for the cheerleaders), yellow scarf (for the drag race), and bubbles (for beauty school drop out).  Jen made us practice ahead of time.

After the location and the acoustics of the bowl, the next best thing about visiting is that you are allowed to bring a picnic inside with you.  We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way and picked up our evening meal.

We forgot cups so we drove through a Jack in the Crack and “borrowed” some.

Before the movie started, there was a preshow.  Didi Conn, the original Frenchie, was the host. 
She explained when to use our goodies and sorted out the costume contest.   

If you look carefully, you can see the Hollywood sign peeking out between the hills.

Then the movie began…

The singing started immediately with the theme song.

If you’re not familiar with the plot, here’s a quick run down.  Danny and Sandy fall in love at the beach the summer before their senior year of high school.  It ends up that Sandy doesn’t go back to Australia and arrives at Rydell High (which was really Venice High School my dad’s alma mater), the same school Danny goes to!!!    
Danny belongs to the T-Birds and Sandy hooks up with the Pink Ladies.
The best part of the movie is Summer Nights when Danny and Sandy “tell me more” about their summer fling.  We belted that song out like nobody’s business.

Then Kenicke buys a beat up car and the T-Birds fix it up in Grease Lightning. 

For the sing-a-long, words came up on the screen.  Jlo and I didn’t even need ‘em!

 A little Grease Lightning dance.

Frenchie drops out of school to attend beauty college, but she’s not very good and accidentally dyes her hair pink.  The bubbles floated around the bowl during Beauty School Dropout.  
Much to the surprise of both teachers and students, Rydell High is chosen for an episode of National Bandstand.  Danny and Sandy attend the dance and are the best dancers there…

until Cha-Cha DiGregorio shows up and steals Danny away to win the dance contest.  Sandy sadly leaves the school gym.

 
After Grease Lightning is set to race, Kenickie is ready to go head-to-head with Balmudo, the leader of the Scorpions and his nemesis, in a drag race.  But he gets knocked out by a car door and can’t drive in the race.

Danny takes his place and, after some close calls, wins the race for the T-Birds! While the others run to congratulate Danny, he sees Sandy (who is thinking about what she has to do to get her bad boy).  Seeing Sandy makes him think about what he has to do to get his good girl.

At the end of the school year, there is a carnival.  Danny surprises everyone by arriving with a letterman’s sweater, going jock on his gang.   Then Sandy arrives, again surprising everyone
including Danny, having morphed into a bad girl who smokes!

After “You’re the One That I Want” (we belted out that one too) the second best song in the movie, Danny and Sandy ride off into the sunset.

I loved watching the movie outside on the big screen.  It was reminiscent of drive-in movies from back in the 70s.    What a fun way to spend a Su-uhhhh-mmmmerrrrr Niiiiiii-iiiiight!