This is very true, but then, the revival of SWEENEY TODD we got last season wasn't like the original Broadway show either.
And while I didn't see the last revival of GREASE (the one with Ricky Paull Goldin), was it much like the original? I think we can blame the movie for this evolution.
Well, last year's revival of
Sweeney Todd was a total reinvention of the piece. Some people liked it. Some people loathed. -I liked it.
As for the last revival of
Grease... The production was sooooo geared toward Rizzo - and the stunt-casting of said role, starting off with Rosie O'Donnell - that it seemed like Danny and Sandy were afterthoughts. That is until those roles started to be stunt cast too. And that revival actually wanted to be more like the movie, since there was a movie-based production of
Grease running in London at the time, and they wanted to bring it over. But due to difficulties in securing the rights for the movie songs for a Broadway production, the producers had to go back to the original...with a few interpolations - most notably "Since I Fell For You" for Sandy. (That called belted high E's, F's and G's!!!!!)
As for the "new"
Grease... Yes, the movie is to blame. But I also treat the movie as a different animal. More or less.
I just have to wonder about Jim Jacobson's role in all of this - and his credibility. The movie is most definitely not "his"
Grease - that was Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard who's credited with the screenplay. Jim Jacobson seems to have "claimed" the movie as his own. And it just simply wasn't.