GREASE: LIVE Took the Live TV Musical to School with Three Important Lessons

Now that we are a full two weeks removed from Fox's first foray into the world of live, televised musicals, I think it is time to look back at the lessons learned from GREASE: LIVE. Though I hailed it as a rousing success in my review, on Broadway Radio's "This Week on Broadway," and on BWW's "Some Like it Pop" podcast, there are a fair number of critics and viewers that had perfectly reasonable hesitations. Whether it was occasional sound issues, too strict a reliance on the film for inspiration, the wonky new song, or uneven performances, I am fine with acknowledging those shortcomings; but to me, there are three things that made GREASE: LIVE the most entertaining and artistically satisfying live musical of this recently reinvigorated phenomenon.

Not only was GREASE: LIVE a nearly universal critical success, but it also far exceeded even my expectations when it came to ratings, nearly besting THE SOUNG OF MUSIC LIVE! Also, the cast recording debuted at No. 5 on the iTunes, so clearly Director Thomas Kail and company did something right. So, it would behoove future live musical producers, whether they be Marc Platt, or Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, or anyone else, to take some classes at ole' Rydell.

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1) "Avengers Assemble"

In 2013, THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE! scored a massive ratings success, making this new era of theatrical television possible, partially on the strength of one of the most beloved stars in American popular music, Carrie Underwood. NBC followed up, to less than stellar results, with a mostly unknown, up-and-coming actress and a semi-coherent Hollywood legend for PETER PAN LIVE! in Allison Williams and Christopher Walken, before finding a better mix with an A-list All-Star cast for THE WIZ LIVE!

The casting for GREASE was in the vein of THE WIZ, but with two significant differences; all of the stars for GREASE were of a generation that would likely appeal to the younger target demo, while with THE WIZ, they skewed more towards the target demo's parents, and there were just a lot more "names" in the GREASE cast than in THE WIZ's.

Obviously, that is in large part due to the differing natures of the shows, but by casting a large mix of young stars with TV, movie, music, and theatre experience, GREASE: LIVE cast an extremely wide fandom net. Julianne Hough, has fans from years on DANCING WITH THE STARS, a country music career, and a handful of movies, Vanessa Hudgens still has legions of followers from the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL days, Aaron Tveit is a Broadway heartthrob, and the rest of the younger cast members have tons of fans from pop music, film, network TV, Broadway, reality shows, and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows and movies.

Then, when you bring in established stars like Ana Gasteyer, Jessie J, Boyz II Men, Mario Lopez, and GREASE film stars Didi Conn and Barry Pearl, it rounded out the different pockets of fans that could find a reason to be interested in GREASE: LIVE. For example, though my sister watched the first two seasons of Tviet's USA drama GRACELAND, his presence was not enough to get her to tune in, but as a huge Boyz II Men fan, not only did she watch, but she had friends texting and tweeting her to make sure that she tuned in.

By casting actors with such diverse and eclectic followings, Platt and the creative team gave themselves a huge chance to draw in as many fans as humanly possible. Obviously, with every additional star cast, there is a financial commitment made, a theme that we will discuss again shortly. However, if GREASE: LIVE is any indication, the investment in involving as many big names as possible will pay off if done properly.

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2) "It's Alive. It's Alive!"

Nearly anyone with a passing interest in these live musicals (myself included) has been advocating for them to be done in front of a live audience. Despite the fact that Meron and Zadan are publically and steadfastly against it, I think it is fairly obvious that having an audience (or more accurately in this case, audiences) brought such a different energy to GREASE: LIVE than anything we've ever seen on NBC; including with THE WIZ LIVE!, which was clearly the most exciting of NBC's three live musicals.

Some people had issues with the fact that the audiences were employed in some scenes, but not all; or that the audience was wearing modern, anachronistic clothing; or that they weren't sure whether to respond as an audience, or as part of the show, but the fact that this large ensemble of performers had someone to actually perform for was significant. Instead of songs being met with deafening silence, or jokes getting no response (although that did happen as well), the cast seemed to feed off of the audience's energy, and the production was that much better for it.

With Meron and Zadan announcing that they will be producing HAIRSPRAY LIVE! for NBC this December, it would seem like the perfect opportunity to do an about-face on their no-audience stance. Since more than a handful of scenes in the musical take place on a television set, it would make sense for the HAIRSPRAY production to incorporate a live audience, at least in those scenes.

Given the unique feel that the audience gave GREASE: LIVE, it would seem like continuing to refuse to involve a live audience would be little more than stubborn on the part of the producers, especially in shows and scenes where it would make logical sense. Was the way that GREASE set up their audience the best option? I don't know, but I do know that it was far better than the alternative.

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3) Go, Greased Lightning! Go!

One of the most common critiques of GREASE: LIVE is that it tried too hard to emulate even the tiniest moments of the iconic film adaptation. Personally, I saw those efforts more as homages to the version that millions of Americans fell in love with, but what cannot be said about this TV production is that they were stuck trying to recreate the way things were done in the past. From the beginning, NBC's live musicals had the expressed desire to recreate the way that live TV musicals had been done half a century ago.

However, that couldn't be further from the truth with GREASE. Not only did Kail and Production Designer David Korins (who are currently represented on Broadway in a little show called HAMILTON) create dazzling and inventive new ways to stage a live, televised musical, but the teleplay from Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, reincorporated songs from the Broadway show that had previously been eliminated from the film version, that actually improved upon the current GREASE script.

The decisions to stage "Freddy My Love" as an imagined USO show and to have "Those Magic Changes" serve as the underscoring for Danny attempting to better himself for Sandy were impressive on every level, not to mention William Ivey Long's tear-away, quick-change costumes.

One of the benefits of staging GREASE: LIVE on the Warner Bros.'s lot in Burbank was that they had access to a large amount of soundstages and sets, which the NBC productions based in the New York area didn't have. Some sizeable tax-breaks allowed FOX to broadcast from California, and to be able to afford to make the production as spectacular as possible. Despite broadcasting live, in nearly every scene, GREASE: LIVE had the look and feel of a big-budget TV show or movie.

Despite all of these other impressive features, the thing that really stood out for me was how the team handled the Thunder Road scene. What easily could have been a wonky, cheesy distraction was turned into an innovative moment that showed just how more technically advanced these television productions can become with the right team and, of course, budget.

THE WIZ LIVE! incorporated some impressive technology with the floor-to-ceiling LED panels, which, like the projections used in Thunder Road, are fairly common on stages in New York and around the world. However, in combining this particular brand of stage magic with creative camera work and other benefits of a TV production, the story-telling possibilities are practically endless.

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What do you think is the biggest lesson learned from GREASE: LIVE? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with my "366 in 366" articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter.