Memorable Musicals Part 1 - Grease 2

Yesterday I was bogged down with a slight headache that went away after 9 pm. Feeling perturbed by this ailment, I decided to take the day off and just laze around, did some light house chores and giving good quality time to me, myself and I.

Turned on the TV and started surfing to find out any interesting programs on ASTRO. Flicked to HBO channel and lo... The start of the musical Grease 2. GOD! It's been aeons since I last saw Grease 2. It was nice to watch the whole show. For those who don't know much about Grease 2, here's the synopsis...

The movie starts in the fall (autumn) of 1961 (two years after the original) with a new group of students who are members of both the T-Birds, headed by Johnny Nogerelli (Adrian Zmed), and the Pink Ladies, headed by Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer). He wants to keep dating her though her feelings for him are no longer there.

Meanwhile, Michael (Maxwell Caulfield), an exchange student from England arrives. He is the cousin of Sandy Olsson, the character played by Olivia Newton-John in the first movie. Michael asks Stephanie out, but she does not feel like going out with grade-worried, good student Michael. Stephanie tells Michael she would like to date someone with a motorcycle, a "Cool Rider."

Michael starts doing the T-Birds' homework for money, so he can buy his own bike and impress Stephanie.

A fight ensues between the T-Birds and their rivals, the Cycle Lords (headed by Balmudo Dennis C. Stewart, who had played the leader of the Scorpions gang from the original movie) after a game of ten-pin bowling. As the T-Birds are being beaten, a mysterious biker emerges and beats the Cycle Lords, embarrassing them and conquering Stephanie along the way. Now Michael has a dilemma: either keep on going as the mysterious biker, or take the risk of telling Stephanie that he is the biker who has her so impressed and maybe lose her forever.

Johnny is jealous of Stephanie and the Mysterious Biker (Michael). He vows to retaliate against the biker, threatening to Stephanie that he will hurt him the next time he sees him.

At the June Moon Talent Contest (as summer graduation 1962 approaches), the T-Birds chase the mysterious biker into a construction site ("Dead Man's Curve"), from where he is forced to jump into the night. The T-Birds look around to try to find their victim. Everyone assumes he has died even though there is no real evidence to support the fact, and Stephanie is devastated. Later during the talent show, Stephanie "spaces out" (possibly due to grief) and turns up singing "Love Will Turn Back the Hands of Time" in the middle of the Calendar Girls' (Pink Ladies') performance. This appears to the audience to be a solo, but to Stephanie, it is a duet with her recently lost love, the mysterious biker, who now seems to be in Biker Heaven.

Johnny and Stephanie are crowned king and queen of the talent show. At the Rock-a-Hula Luau the next day, however, the Cycle Lords reappear, threatening to destroy everything within sight. Out of nowhere, the mystery biker reappears, to Stephanie's relief and happiness. He finally reveals himself as Michael.

While Stephanie is shocked, she also realizes at that moment that the man she had loved all along was Michael, so she goes over to him and expresses her love to him with a long, passionate kiss and soon begin to slow dance to "We'll Be Together". Johnny was shocked too. Admiring Michael for the way in which he had beaten their arch-rivals the Cycle Lords twice, he decides to make Michael a member of the T-Birds by handing him a T-Bird jacket. The film concludes with graduation and poses for the yearbook (similarly to the first movie).

Cast

• Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie Zinone
• Adrian Zmed as Johnny Nogerelli
• Lorna Luft as Paulette Rebchuck
• Peter Frechette as Louis DiMucci
• Maureen Teefy as Sharon Cooper
• Christopher McDonald as Goose McKenzie
• Alison Price as Rhonda Ritter
• Pamela Segall as Dolores Rebchuck
• Leif Green as Davey Jaworski
• Didi Conn as Frenchy
• Eve Arden as Principal McGee
• Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun
• Dody Goodman as Blanche Hodel
• Tab Hunter as Mr. Stuart
• Aidan Mcdonnel as Vira L.P. Enguin
• Connie Stevens as Miss Yvette Mason
• Eddie Deezen as Eugene Felsnic
• Dennis C. Stewart as Balmudo
• Jean and Liz Sagal as Twin Sorority Girls

Musical numbers

1. "Back to School Again" - The Kids feat. The Four Tops
2. "Score Tonight" - Cast
3. "Brad" - Twin Sorority Girls
4. "Cool Rider" - Stephanie
5. "Reproduction" - Mr. Stuart and the Kids
6. "Do It for Our Country" - Louis and Sharon
7. "Who's That Guy?" - The T-Birds, the Pink Ladies, the Cycle Lords, and Kids
8. "Prowlin'" - The T-Birds
9. "Charades" - Michael
10. "Girl for All Seasons" - The Pink Ladies
11. "Love Will Turn Back the Hands of Time" - Stephanie and Michael
12. "Rock-a-Hula Luau (Summer is Coming)" - Cast
13. "We'll Be Together" - Stephanie, Michael, and Cast