Grease

Randal Kleiser’s film is not a recording of the stage show but a redistribution of it. Kenickie’s stage number went to Danny, other characters’ songs were reassigned, two were dropped outright, and the two best known items here, “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, do not exist in the theatre version, having been written for the screen. Nobody hides the ages either, since part of the cast playing high school students was in their thirties and the director ran a separate test for close ups. The blurred signage in the Frosty Palace is commercial rather than censorship: the producer held a Pepsi tie in while the set had been dressed with Coca-Cola, and reshoots were too costly, so optical mattes covered the logos. Olivia Newton-John did not accept the part outright. She asked to see a screen test of herself opposite John Travolta first and agreed only after watching it, and Sandy was rewritten as an Australian so she would not have to fake an American accent. A good fit if you are untroubled by a school corridor full of people plainly in their thirties and are here for the two duets the stage never had. Not a fit if you came to hear the Broadway score; parts of it were cut or reassigned.