When Grease came out to theatres on June 1 1978, over 38 years ago, the whole world fell in love with the good girl, bad boy love story of Danny Zuko and Sandy Olssen, played by actor John Travolta and actress Olivia Newton-John. People also loved the classic girl gang, The Pink Ladies, led by the aggressive, dark haired, Betty Rizzo played by Stockard Channing. The movie instantly became iconic and some sort of a remake was inevitable in the future.

On Jan. 30 and 31 of 2016, the time had come, and the hyped up Grease Live went on air. However, this isn’t exactly a remake of Grease the film, as this livestream production was instead Grease: The Musical. A livestream is basically a musical or show you can watch on your tv as actors and actresses are performing it right at that very second. Every forgotten line, dance move and wrong note will not be deletable, making tensions high for the people performing.

The livestream started off with Jessie J singing the ever-so-famous “Grease (is the word)”. I think she did a great job, and gave this song a refreshing new angle, with it being sung by a female. Then, we were introduced to the new Sandy and Danny. Julianne Hough, who plays Sandy, is an actress, singer and a two-time champion of Dancing with the Stars.

I think she also strikes a crazy resemblance to the original Sandy, which is comforting with anyone who doesn’t like too much change. My favorite song that she sang in this adaptation was “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, which she did a wonderful job on. However, I really wish she would’ve hit the high note at the end, as Newton-John did in the original. As for Danny, he was played by Broadway and Les Miserables star Aaron Tveit.

I think they definitely nailed it with his casting, as he became Danny Zuko, but in his own way. It added just enough difference to spice things up a little bit, without making people feel he re-invented the whole persona of the character. When the two of them first sang together in “Summer Nights”, I got crazy chills from how perfectly they harmonized, and how much it reminded me of the original. One of my all time favorite characters from Grease has always been Rizzo, as she was always the strong independant woman who didn’t take anything from anyone. She was portrayed by High School Musical star, Vanessa Hudgens, whose father unfortunately had died the day of the performance.

Despite the emotional pain she was in, Hudgens became Rizzo. In her song “There Are Worse Things I Could Do”, She had the audience in her hands, and made a way into their hearts. This ballad was sang with so much raw emotion I was left in awe and, I am sure, many others with tears in their eyes. I speculate that she channeled the sadness of her father in this song, turning her pain into power, and making her father proud.

Since Grease Live is the musical version of Grease, it includes different songs and adds more characterization to what was smaller roles in the actual film. For example, one of my favorite songs is sang by a secondary character, Marty Maraschino, one of the Pink ladies, called “Freddy, My Love” It also features the other Pink Ladies singing the background vocals. This song is about one of her long distance courtships with a marine named Freddy. I love this song because it has that rich, deep, sultry, 50’s swing sound to it.

Frenchie, the Pink Lady that’s closest with Sandy, is played by “Call Me Maybe” star, Carly Rae Jepsen. She has a whole song to herself, right before “Beauty School Dropout”, sang by Boyz II Men, called “All I Need Is An Angel”, which is another song only in Grease: The Musical. This song is about how she is realizing beauty school is not for her, and feels helpless as she already dropped out of high school to do so. So in this song, she is begging for guidance from an angel, as she doesn’t know what to do next.

On a personal standpoint I didn’t think this was a good song for her, her voice is more one for pop, not for the broadway belting I had hoped and expected, but otherwise her acting was spot on, and she was an awesome Frenchie. Between the vocals, characterization, choreography, sets and overall aesthetic, Grease Live had met and went above my expectations. I look forward to what FOX has coming our way next year.