"The movie ruined a beautiful piece of camp. When done right, the stage version is far superior than the movie." True but I have yet to see a stage production that captures that spirit! Too often the casts try to do it like a cartoon greatly exaggerating all the lines and killing what little humour there is in the piece.
People forget that GREASE came along before AMERICAN GRAFITTI and HAPPY DAYS. The latter pair played it straight - making it even funnier and that was more or less the way they did the film of GREASE.
Trouble is, most kids whio know the movie expect the stage version to be the same and when it isn't they start putting in the extra songs from the film and re-writing the script. This only confuses the styles and creates an uneven mishmash.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com