| Based on the popular Broadway musical, Grease is set in the '50s at Rydell High and follows the lives of the too-cool-for-school kids — the smoking, class-cutting T'Birds, led by Danny Zuko (John Travolta), and the Pink Ladies, the bad girls with reputations. Olivia Newton-John plays sweet Sandy, a girl Danny met on summer vacation, who shows up unexpectedly as the new kid at Rydell. Danny acts macho, though, pretending it was just a fling, but he knows better. Sandy tries to fit in with the Pink Ladies, who mock her Sandra Dee innocence. Ultimately, she decides that if she wants to win back Danny she must undergo a serious makeover. Along the way, there are musical numbers, drag races, a nationally televised dance contest, and, finally, graduation. Grease was the word in 1978, confirming Travolta's status as a superstar and making Newton-John an overnight sensation. The film became the highest-grossing musical ever. |
