BWW Blog: Alyssa Sileo - We'll Always Be Like One: Grease at the 2016 6ABC Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade

This is a continuation of my blog from 11/23 about the 2015 parade.

About a month ago, my voice made its local television debut as I stood on the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, in an aquamarine sweater and polka dot skirt, and sang twenty seconds of "You're The One That I Want." I would consider a Thanksgiving spent singing one of my favorite musicals a pretty dip-da-dip-da-dip doo-wop-be-dooby-doo one.

My love for Grease is something I've taken a long time to examine and understand. It's a musical that I've known forever, but in little bursts. Because this is a school musical, I'm going to take this in grades:

Kindergarten: My parents put the movie versions of "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Summer Nights," "We Go Together," and "You're The One That I Want" onto my MP3 player. I would listen the heck out of them in the car, and sing them with my grandparents at Sunday Dinner, and dance to them in my room, but I wasn't allowed to watch the movie. I knew practically nothing about Grease other than the album cover with the green frame around John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and kind of fell out of love with the show, until...

Seventh grade: My Grandma got my sister and I tickets to Grease at The Walnut Street Theatre. I remember thinking that the show was wonderfully staged, choreographed, and sung. I always think about this production when asked to recall terrific ensembles. And at the time I still didn't understand why I wasn't allowed to watch the movie as a little kid.

Sophomore year: I sat on the family room couch and watched Grease Live, suddenly remembering everything from the play (and being quite confused about the screen-version differences.) This program is an absolute treasure, and a victory for musical theatre artists everywhere. It felt like a two hour long pure celebration. But I still didn't connect to Grease in such a personal way until...

Two months later: I went to my best friend Adriana's school musical, and was forever changed the moment "Grease is the Word" began. How perfect is it that the day I fell fully in love in Grease was while watching a high school production? I was reminded and surrounded by all the things that make high school lovable and memorable-the scrappiness, the kinship, the spontaneity. I'll never forget the joy of that unbelievable night.

Grease's cultural significance is something every theatre major should be required to take a class on. Even removing all societal context and while just considering its prominence: it's a buzzword musical. I cannot think of one other piece of theatre that is so recognizable and resonant with Americans than this one. I've called this musical "the American folktale" in hours-long rants with my friends-but after seeing the show a total four-times onstage and watching the stage versions, you start to notice the little differences of locales and song placement. But just like the little differences in Snow White or Cinderella, we all acknowledge the same themes and golden moments of Grease, no matter what version we like best. Furthermore important for us drama kids: this show put musicals into the mainstream. It's another example of theatre linking together all types of people, artists and non-artists.

(And I cannot blog about Grease and fail to mention how I kind of struggle with the ending of the musical. I can't deny how the theme of "change yourself to make yourself more attractive for others" isn't positive or even constructive for young girls. And maybe it will take this generation to come up with new ways to communicate this ending, and make it something that relays the lessons we can learn in high school about staying true to yourself and confidence.)

Without fail, I get emotional at the end of the screen versions of Grease. It's certainly a happy ending, but it strikes a chord with me, because then I think about graduation. Besides my family, high school has been the best thing to happen to me in my life. On that June Day, I won't mourn the passing of four years but will instead marvel at the most remarkable gift I'll ever be given.

It's incredible how musicals can be important to us for various reasons. The writing of Grease is not superb, and it's not a feat of structure. So why does this fellow playwright revere this piece of theatre? Grease reminds me to hold onto my high school years. Anything that celebrates one of my favorite things in the world will have my attention and love too.

Junior year: So as I stood still in thirty-degree weather, going on hour-seven in my character shoes, standing before the city I love, with cameras taking me to the screens of my family waiting on their own family room couches, I recalled my Kindergarten car ride jams. I also knew that this wasn't the last time Grease would come to me. I predict another kind of involvement, post-high school. I can't wait to see what it will end up being. I guess you can say I was born to hand jive.

I am honored to have once again been involved in a paradigm of a Philadelphia production and to send my love of Thanksgiving to all of the families watching. I hope that after that morning, another young lady took a liking to these timeless songs, put them on her iPod, as she will come to learn that music has the power to reappear several times in your life, exactly when you need it to.

And happy new year, BWW!

Photo Credit: Dave Gruen

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