Is Dreamgirls Still Coming in this season? — Page 2

BrodyFosse123 said: "The various casts of Grease would like a word.

GREASE was written as a satire and from its original 1971 Chicago production to its 1972 Off-Broadway and later Broadway productions, it has always been cast with older adults playing teenagers. That not only is the conceit of the satire concept but it was an intentional choice. They carried this older actors playing teenagers for the 1978 film adaptation but the satire tone didn’t cross over as intended. Due to this, 99% of the film’s memory is the unrealistic casting of older actors playing high schoolers as no one is/was familiar with the satire aspects of GREASE as originally written."

Not only agree, but want to add that Patricia Birch says the show doesn't work with actual teenagers--and she's right. It isn't a "teen show"--for all the adoration teens have had for it, even from the start. It's a jaded look back, snarky and spikey, but not actually mean-spirited. It's about adults looking back on their teenage years--a fact made more explicit in the stage show with the opening scene of the square adults from Rydell attending their twenty year high school reunion. I don't think that spirit is entirely missing from the film, but it is unquestionably much diluted. 

Back to Dreamgirls, I just kinda don't get people wanting a revival, unless it is a recreation of the Bennet original, which itself probably wouldn't go over so well. The book is pretty bad, the lyrics aren't great, the characterizations are fairly shallow. Bennet made a classic out of hit-or-miss material and a great collection of performers and designers. I don't think a revival will show off the work to very good advantage, and will mostly appeal to those of us on the older side with a nostalgia for that first production and its original cast recording.