Grease with actual teenagers?

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:54pm

After watching this TV show, it kept me wondering if any of the Broadway productions have been done with performers who are the actual age of the characters. I've always been curious about why the tendency to cast peformers who are a lot older.

I'm sure there are a lot of community theatres and high schools that take advantage of the age range, but it seems to me (and I might be wrong) that this is one of the few Broadway shows where the casting is usually way off from the way it is originally written, age-wise.

In any event, I would think it would have a stronger with a much younger cast.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:56pm

While not "real" teenagers, Hunter Foster, Sutton Foster, Jen Cody, Marissa Jaret Winokur, etc... were in their (early) twenties, to say the least.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:58pm

That's what I mean... they get close, but never quite there. Maybe they don't think it would work? But, I doubt it, we have a lot of talented teengers on Broadway right now, and there have been bright youngsters forever.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:59pm

With the labor laws, casting performers under 18 gets a bit complicated.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:02pm

Oh, maybe that's why. Although I thought the cast of Spring Awakening was mostly teenagers.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:06pm

It's more along the lines of "how many people of that age can do 8 shows a week?"

The original production was done as a parody of the 50s musicals and high school life, hence the older casts.

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:06pm

I think the youngest cast member of SA is either 17 or 18.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:08pm

Elizabeth Swados' RUNAWAYS back in the 70s had a large, mostly teenaged cast.

Obviously OLIVER!, ANNIE and KING & I (to name a few) all had large numbers of children in the ensemble.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:10pm

Margo, can you remember another Broadway show where most of the cast wasn't the actual age of the roles they were playing?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:14pm

How's Romeo and Juliet?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:15pm

How about YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN (which was also a parody like GREASE)?

[D2]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:17pm

How about the revivals of HELLO, DOLLY, MAME, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, etc?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:20pm

There's also SPELLING BEE, which has 20-somethings playing little kids.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:20pm

Makes sense. I suppose I ignored the parody aspect. Thanks :)

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 6:25pm

"I think the youngest cast member of SA is either 17 or 18."

The youngest member of Spring Awakening is 15.

[Danielm]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 8:12pm

It would be interesting, if it were cast with teen-agers, to see whether people suddenly realize that the show is basically about a teen-age girl choosing to have pre-marital sex in order to keep her boyfriend. I think people basically ignore the theme of the show.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 8:21pm

The only time I even remotely enjoyed this show (and I saw the original, among other productions), was at Bucks County Playhouse back around 1980 or so. It had a very young and talented cast.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 8:39pm

It's kind of interesting how GREASE has evolved since it first opened Off Broadway in the early 70s. I actually have the first published script for the show and in the jacket notes, the show is billed as being a "raunchy" parody of 1950s teeny-bopper flicks. The language and the sexual innuendos are certainly pungent - and have been significantly toned down in the years since (I'm assuming) the movie made it such a staple in high schools and community theatres. There is no high school on earth that could do GREASE as it was originally written.

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 8:45pm

Man, I would kill to do Grease as it was originally written...
But yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing a production of the show with teenagers.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 11:52am

With shows like Grease where actors who are older than the characters are often used, the key is to cast everyone to look the same age. If everyone looks 22, and then the audience is told they are all 17, it helps them to suspend belief.

I often suggest plays to my old college department chair that have characters all about the same age since it is very tough to buy a 20 year old playing 16 next to another 20 year old playing their grandfather.

Blue Window by Craig Lucas has about 7 characters and all are the same age.

[Danielm]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 1:06pm

It is interesting that the "softening" of the show has actually made the message of the show more sketchy. When it was a spoof it parodied the social aspects of 50s, the repressed sexuality and such. Now it actually seems to tell girls that it's good to have pre-marital sex (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 1:12pm

I didn't believe for a second, that anyone in either the original cast or the movie cast was in high school.

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 2:03pm

There is a "high school" version of GREASE available too--with the language and sex toned down.

The version I was in had actors from 18-32 playing the students, so there you go.

[Danielm]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 2:12pm

And in the High School version Sandy and Danny each decide to join the abstinence club.

[gumbo2]

Posted: 1/30/07 at 2:16pm

And Rizzo doesn't think she's pregnant, she just has her period, or something like that.