Cut Song: The Broadway production itself cut or altered musical numbers for timing purposes. Most of the below examples were reinstated for 2011 ''Original Grease'' production in Chicago:
"Foster Beach" was changed to "Summer Nights", as Broadway producers felt audiences would not be familiar with the beach (a Chicago-specific locale on Lake Michigan).
Patty and Miss Lynch originally had solo numbers, but both were cut.
Before the movie would have its own titular song, there was an Act II number called "Grease" that was dropped (it would also be reprised as the final musical number). Another song called "Boogie Man Boogie" was cut and replaced with "Born To Hand Jive".
Besides "It's Raining On Prom Night", Sandy had a solo number called "Kiss It" (in the Original Grease, this comes before "All Choked Up", the song created to replace it in the Broadway script).
Doody's song was originally in Act II and titled "Rock Progression", but it was moved to Act I and rewritten to be "Those Magic Changes". "Rock N' Roll Party Queen" was created for the second act instead.
The Burger Palace Boys were to have two songs entitled "The Tattoo Song" and "Comin' At Ya", but these were cut before the Kingston Mines premiere.
"How Big I'm Gonna Be" was a song cut before rehearsals of the Kingston Mines production began. It explored a greaser's idea of success in life and became Danny's solo in the American Theater Company's 2011 stage remake of the original Grease. The song is used as a response to Sandy's challenge that Danny do something with his life.
The "School Version" omits "There Are Worse Things I Could Do".
Filmed Stage Production: In 2016, Fox aired a live production of the musical, modeled after the live musical productions that had succeeded on NBC. It blended elements from both the original musical and the more popular film adaptation, and incorporated a live audience to capture the essence of a live theatrical performance.
Write What You Know: Most of the characters are based on teens whom lyricist and book writer Jim Jacobs knew in his own his own 1950s high school years. The characters of Doody and Roger are both based on different aspects of Jacobs himself when he was a teen, Doody on his more naïve side and Roger on his mischievous side.
The 1978 film
Acting for Two: Stockard Channing and Dinah Madoff play Rizzo and Marty respectively, and also appear as two of the dancers during the "Beauty School Dropout" number.
Cast the Runner-Up: Michael Biehn originally read for the role of Tom Chisum, but lost out to Lorenzo Lamas. He did get a much smaller role in the film.
Completely Different Title: In Spanish, the title translated to Grasa, or "fat". The film was released as Vaselina in Hispanic America and Brillantina in Italy and Spain.
Cut Song: Several musical numbers from the stage version were not used in the film, including "Freddy, My Love", "Those Magic Changes", and "It's Raining on Prom Night." They appear as jukebox tunes or band numbers at the high school dance.
Dawson Casting: Most blatantly with Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) and Stockard Channing (Rizzo). By the time the film came out, Channing was 34 (and actually old enough to have been in high school in 1959 note Though as a freshman, not a senior. ) and Newton-John was pushing 30. At least those two have fairly youthful faces — Annette Charles (Cha-Cha), with her chiseled facial features, looks to be in her late thirties (or even early forties) and is in no way credible as a high school student (she was 29 when the film came out).
Other examples include John Travolta (24) as Danny, Jeff Conaway (28) as Kenickie, Barry Pearl (28) as Doodie, Michael Tucci (32) as Sonny, Kelly Ward (22) as Putzie, Didi Conn (27) as Frenchie, Jamie Donnelly (31) as Jan, Dinah Manoff (22) as Marty, Eddie Deezen (21) as Eugene, Susan Buckner (25) as Patty Simcox, Lorenzo Lamas (20) as Tom Chism, and Dennis C. Stewart (29) as Leo "Craterface" Balmudo.
Some of the actors were barely younger than Frankie Avalon (38), an actual teen idol from the late 1950s who makes a guest appearance.
Randal Kleiser shot a scene of Kenickie and Rizzo getting into a heated argument, which explained their attitude towards each other in the diner scene (where Rizzo threw the malt at Kenickie). The fight scene was cut because it didn't match the tone of the rest of the film; it was much grittier, described by one crew member as "looking like something Martin Scorsese might have directed."
Jamie Donnelly had prematurely grey hair, which she dyed black to play Jan. Her hair grew really quickly, so her roots had to be colored daily with a black crayon.
Didi Conn, who played Frenchy, was a big fan of '50s teen idol Frankie Avalon and didn't know that he was cast to sing "Beauty School Dropout" to her. Her barely contained shock and surprise are visible throughout the scene, adding to the "dream come true" vibe of the dream sequence.
The rest of the cast didn't see Olivia Newton-John in her carnival outfit until she walked into the scene. Their stunned reactions are completely genuine.
Elvis Presley turned down the role of The Guardian Angel in the "Beauty School Drop-Out" scene. When Allan Carr first bought the film rights to Grease, he envisioned Elvis as Danny and Ann-Margret as Sandy.
Allan Carr wanted Andy Warhol to play the art teacher. One unnamed studio executive said he would not have "that man" in the movie, which Carr interpreted as the executive having a personal vendetta against the legendary artist.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original, theatrical edition has never received an official home video release. VHS and laserdisc releases before 1998 boasted Pan and Scan pictures, while the widescreen VHS/laserdisc/DVD/Blu-Ray/digital copy versions from 1998-2017 boast updated Paramount logos and a remixed soundtrack (sourced from the 20th-anniversary theatrical re-release). Mostly rescued from limbo as the 2018 40th anniversary edition features an improved master of the movie with the classic Paramount logo and restored original 1978 audio track. However, this version still features some differences. For example, the blurred-out Coca-Cola signs at the Frosty Palace became legible, '50s-looking Pepsi ads and the scene in "Greased Lightning" where Danny is bringing down the souped-up engine for the dream car still has the 1998 sound effects sans the piano.* If one listens closely though, they can still hear the original sound effects in the background, which was not the case for the 1998 version.
One for the Money; One for the Art: Apparently Randal Kleiser signed on to direct because he needed the money to finance a screen adaptation of The Blue Lagoon, and after doing several made-for-TV feature films, Kleiser agreed with Paramount and Robert Stigwood to direct the film.
On-Set Injury: An accident while filming the "Greased Lightning" number led to Jeff Conaway developing an addiction to painkillers.
According to Didi Conn, Rizzo was initially supposed to throw her milkshake at Frenchy, not Kenickie, which would lead to Frenchy taking off her bandana and revealing her pink hair. But Stockard Channing threw it at Jeff Conaway because she was a bit miffed at him at the time, reportedly because some of Rizzo's hickeys had become real and very visible. She kept throwing it at him in subsequent takes, which stuck for the final scene.
Didi Conn blowing up the giant bubble gum bubble during the "Beauty School Dropout" number was something she did on the spur of the moment.
The "blonde pineapple" line was improvised by Barry Pearl (Doody).
Originally Sandy was not supposed to participate in the dance contest at all; Sandy was supposed to be sidetracked and subdued by Sonny before the match even starts; allowing Chacha to jump in and take her place, and win the contest. But Olivia Newton-John was anxious to do some dancing in the movie; even though she was not a professionally trained dancer like Travolta. So she convinced Randall Kleiser to let her dance with Danny in the contest for a few minutes, and then for Sonny to jump in and subdue her a few minutes later.
"Greased Lightning" was originally Kenickie's significant number. When John Travolta announced that he was taking it from Conaway/Kenickie for the movie version, everyone in the cast, including choreographer Patricia Birch, and Jeff Conaway, who complained vehemently about losing the number even years later in interviews, was very against Travolta taking it and complained about this to the producers. But Travolta had the clout to steal the number, so he did.
What Could Have Been: Steven Krantz and Ralph Bakshi originally had the rights to the film adaptation of Grease, and had wanted to do it as an animated musical. When Krantz and Bakshi's partnership fell through, Robert Stigwood acquired the film rights.
Word of God: Creator Jim Jacobs said that whoever thought of the fan theory that the whole movie is Sandy's Dying Dream after drowning on the beach must have been "on acid" and that Sandy was very much alive.
Word of Saint Paul: John Travolta loves the theory that Sandy drowned at the start and the whole movie is her Dying Dream but always felt that Danny was exaggerating the drowning story to impress his friends.
Written-In Infirmity: During the Thunder Road scene, Annette Charles was in excruciating pain from what turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy. That's why Cha Cha frequently leans against cars.
Blooper: In the 2016 version, "We Go Together" was, as it always is, the show's closing number. The carnival took place inside the school's gym, but "We Go Together" was to finish at the town square on the Warner Bros. studio lot. The entirety of the cast ran out of the gym and hopped onto separate carts that are used to take people on tours of the lot. The main cast, with Aaron Tveit driving, hopped into the first cart. The carts had to navigate around a tight right-hand turn on their way to the square. Tveit successfully navigated the turn with no issue. The cart behind him, however, with Wendell Pierce and Eve Plumb (yes, Jan Brady herself) on board, took the turn too tightly. The right rear wheel clipped the curb, and for a millisecond, the right side tires were off the ground. Luckily, the cart landed on all four wheels with no issue. If an accident had occurred, it would've greatly overshadowed a production that got great reviews and ratings.
Dawson Casting: The youngest major character is Jordan Fisher (then 21) as Doody. Most egregiously the main cast included 32-year-old Aaron Tveit as Danny, and 30-year-old Kether Donohue (Jan), and Carly Rae Jepsen (Frenchy). Also included 27-year-old Julianne Hough as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo, 26-year-old Carlos Vega as Kenickie, and 22-year-old Keke Palmer as Marty.
Fake American: Leo, leader of the Scorpions, was played by Australian Sam Clark, who used an American accent for the role. Also, the Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen plays American Frenchie.
In Memoriam: The 2016 live performance was dedicated to Vanessa Hudgens's father, Greg, who died of cancer the day before.
in Chicago: