HBO Max Is Making A Musical TV Show Called “Grease: Rydell High”

October 15, 2019 / Posted by:

1950s nostalgia was already gross and weird in the ‘70s and ‘80s so it makes perfect sense to bring it back once again for #thesetryingtimes. TVLine reports that HBO Max is working on a TV show called Grease: Rydell Higha musical spinoff of the iconic movie.” But really, wasn’t Glee enough, or do we really have to add unspoken segregation and hot rods into the mix? Let me not give Lea Michele any ideas. Lea, you’re too old to be Sandy and don’t pull that “but Olivia Newton John was… wah wah wah” bullshit with me!

According to TVLine:

“Inspired by” the 1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, Grease: Rydell High will also be set in the 1950s, when “the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds still rule the school,” and will feature “some characters you already know, and a whole lot more you will soon meet.”

The musical numbers will include hit songs from the time period along with original compositions, all as it explores “the peer pressures of high school, the horrors of puberty and the rollercoaster of life in middle America with a modern sensibility that will bring it to life for today’s musical lovers” (according to the official synopsis).

“This is high school and life in small-town USA told on the scale of a big rock ‘n’ roll musical,” HBO Max head of original content Sarah Aubrey said in a statement. “It’s Grease 2.0 but with the same spirit, energy and excitement you immediately think of when you hear any of these iconic songs.”

I’m going to have to assume they will be blind casting this like they did Grease Live, otherwise it’s going to be a real clusterfuck if they try to get real with the period details. I loved Grease more than anything when I was a kid, but eventually I realized that I wouldn’t have been allowed to attend Rydell High, and therefore wouldn’t have been bopping my head to the Big Bopper at the bop. I wouldn’t even be tearing it up on the dance floor with the Cha-Cha and the rest of the St. Bernadette burnouts. I’d be in the next town over getting a second rate education at the colored high school. I still adore Grease, don’t get me wrong. But let’s just say, 1950s nostalgia is not for everyone.

But I guess it’s for enough people that Grease: Rydell High is the second Grease Extended Universe project announced this year. Back in April, it was reported that a Grease prequel was in the works which, as Deidre wisely pointed out, has already been covered in the song Summer Lovin’. I’m sorry but the only Grease Extended Universe property I ever need to see is Grease 2, on a loop, forever and ever and ever amen.

Pic: Wenn.com

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