“Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” gives women the spotlight

Taylor Carroll Staff Reporter

The feminists from “Grease” have returned.

The original “Grease” movie came out in 1978 and is beloved by many fans.

“Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” is a spin-off prequel of the movie and shows a feminist side to the classic story. The show is centered around four women in Rydell High School trying to give power to the students who are not popular.

The show starts with the infamous drive-in movie theater shown in the original movie and introduces the characters from there. Jane Facciano starts dating football star Buddy Aldridge before school starts after being in a casual fling during the summer.

Once rumors speculate around the school about Facciano and Aldridge going “all the way,” her reputation is ruined, but Aldridge’s reputation remains intact. He wants to secretly date her to retain his popularity and be class president.

Facciano breaks up with him and runs against him in the upcoming student body president election for outcasts like her.

Like the original, this show is a musical. The songs are spaced well within the show’s episodes and sound similar to songs that came out in the original “Grease” movie.

Marisa Davila plays Jane Facciano and does a great job being the lead actress who unites the Pink Ladies. Her song “I Want More” is the most powerful in the show and displays her astonishing vocal rage with emotion behind it.

The show does a fantastic job of showing the difficul- ties of facing sexism during that time. Women were not supposed to speak up against a man or state their ideas. Another thing this show does great is feature the different personalities besides Facciano, who helped start the

Pink Ladies.

Nancy Nakagawa wanted to be a designer with her two best friends until they ditched her to hang out with their boyfriends more often. Cynthia Zdumowski wanted to be a T-Bird, but the group would not let her in because she was a girl. Olivia Valdovinos was cast out for being in a secret relationship with a teacher, who would not acknowledge he was dating her, and claimed she threw herself at him.

The show also calls on

Courtesy of Tribune nostalgia by showing Francesca Alicia “Frenchy” Facciano as Jane Facciano’s younger sister in middle school. It displays her life before high school and how she grew up in the Pink Ladies. entertainment.ed@ocolly.com