You're The One That I Want
How Grease movie stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta fought their way back to the top
GREASE stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John have reunited to bring back the magic of the hit movie 24 years on.
The pair, who played sweet Fifties high school couple Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsen, sang one of the many hits from the film, You’re The One That I Want, at a Hollywood bash on Tuesday.
The scene would have brought back happy memories for the millions od thirty and forty somethings who saw Grease on its release in 1978 and for whom John and Olivia are Danny and Sandy.
But the reality is this was a meeting of two showbiz survivors whose lives since they starred in the film have been anything but fairytales.
The intervening 34 years have be full of turmoil and heartache for Travolta and Newton-John, making the reunion all the more emotional for both.
Kitsch, romantic, cheesy or charming Grease became the highest grossing movie musical ever and the third most popular film of the Seventies after Star Wars and Jaws.
John and Olivia were household names when they took on their roles but the movie made them megastars.
Now 54, Olivia is as stunning as ever. As Sandy she was the pure, blonde, high school girl (although Olivia was 30 at the time) with the voice of an angel.
But a string of disastrous flop films, a raft of dodgy records, a company that went bust, a marital break up an devastating battle against breast cancer were to follow.
Movies like Xanadu and Two of A Kind were failures and while her 1981 single Physical was a big hit her record releases soon stopped charting.
In 1992, two weeks after her father had died from cancer, she too was diagnosed with the disease, subsequently undergoing a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction.
Then in the following year she endured the breakdown of her 12 year marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi.
She made an emotional return to centre stage when she sung alongside John Farnham at the opening of the 2000 Olympic Games. Her attitude reamins strong despite everything.
She said “The failure my marriage taught me another valuable lesson - nothing is guaranteed in this life. You’ve got to make the best of what you’ve got.”
“Everything I have been through has made me a much stronger person though in a subtle wat. I feel I can cope with anything now”. And she is still passionate about the film that made her a star, saying “I still watch it. I love it. It did so much for me.”
At 48, John Travolta admits he can’t dance like he used to.
The bad boy romantic in the movie, he has also suffered his ups and downs since.
A year before he had starred in Saturday Night Fever but it Grease that changed his life for ever.
He was mobbed all over the world. In Britain teenage fans crushed the roof of his car at the movie’s premiere.
But away from the hysteria there was already tragedy.
In 1977 his girlfriend, Diana Hyland, 18 years his senoir, hd died in his arms from cancer.
In the same year as grease he starred in Moment By Moment, a critical and box office disaster.
His mother died soon after and John hid from the world - even turnign down the lead role in American Gigolo, which went to Richard Gere and made him a major star.
He was at his lowest ebb, eh reflected later saying “I was felling sort of out of it. I thought I might not want my movie career any more.”
Travolta all but disappeared for a decade but the comedy Look Who’s Talking, in which he starred, was one fo the biggest films of 1989.
Pulp
His private life began to look up as well. in 1991 he wed Kelly Preston and now they have two children.
But it was his role in Quentin Tarantine’s Pulp Fiction which signalled Travolta’s return as a major box office draw.
Big hits Primary Colours, Face Off, Broken Arrow and Get Shortly all followed and he now commands at least £20 million a movie.
Speaking at Tuesday’s reunion, which was celebrating the clearly the release of the movie on DVD, a clearly emotional John said “Grease is as relevant today as it was then, if not more so. I am staggered by its success.”
Shakespeare it ain’t but the honest, romantic love story of Grease is as relevant today as it has ever been - even if hot rods, pink lipstick and greasy quiffs are not.
Now the release of the movie on DVD means new generation of kids can get down to the movie’s many hits songs including Greased Lightning, You’re The One That I Want and Summer Nights
And to those who saw it the first time will be reminded of just how old they’re getting.
They are the reason You’re The One That Want is still the most requested karaoke tune in the UK, America and Australia
And as excited cinemagoers back in the summer of 1978, they would never have guessed the real life dramas awaiting their heroes - John and Olivia.
By Derek Brown