Grease 2 is a 1982 American musical romantic comedy film and a standalone sequel to the 1978 film Grease, adapted from the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Originally titled More Grease, the film was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who choreographed the original stage production and prior film. The plot returns to Rydell High School two years after the original film's graduation, with a largely new cast, led by Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer in her first starring role.
The film was released in United States theaters on June 11, 1982 by Paramount Pictures, and grossed $15 million against a production budget of $11 million, a far cry from its predecessor's $132 million domestic box office. Despite breakthrough roles for Pfeiffer, Adrian Zmed, and Christopher McDonald, the film received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics; however, Grease 2 maintains a devoted fan base decades after its release. The film is now regarded as a cult classic.
Plot
In September 1961, two years after the events of the prior film ("Alma Mater" from the original stage musical), Principal McGee and her secretary Blanche react in horror as students arrive at Rydell High to start a new academic year ("Back to School Again"). Among them are the trendy "bad-girl" Pink Ladies and the laid-back, motorcycle-riding ruffian T-Birds. Stephanie Zinone, the new leader of the Pink Ladies, feels she has "outgrown" her relationship with ex-boyfriend Johnny Nogerelli, the arrogant, chauvinistic and rather immature bully leader of the T-Birds.
Clean-cut British student Michael Carrington (a cousin of Sandy Olsson from the previous film) is introduced to the atmosphere by former Pink Lady Frenchy, who offers to orient him. She has returned to Rydell to obtain her diploma so she can start her own cosmetics company (as preluded with "Beauty School Dropout" in the previous film). Michael eventually meets Stephanie, and quickly becomes smitten with her.
At the local bowling alley, a game between both cliques ("Score Tonight") turns hostile between Johnny and Stephanie, culminating in him kissing her friend Paulette Rebchuck. In retaliation, Stephanie kisses the next man who walks in the door, who happens to be Michael. Bemused by the unexpected kiss, Michael asks her out the next day at an audition for the upcoming school talent show, but learns she has standards for her ideal suitor ("Cool Rider"). Attempting to appropriately attain her affection, Michael starts covertly selling completed homework assignments and term papers to the academically-challenged T-Birds to save enough money for a motorcycle. Meanwhile, substitute teacher Mr. Stuart leads a rousing biology lesson ("Reproduction").
Rival motorcycle gang the Cycle Lords, led by Leo "Craterface" Balmudo, surprises the T-Birds at the bowling alley. Before a fight ensues, a lone, mysterious "Cool Rider" arrives, defeats the enemy gang, and disappears into the night ("Who's That Guy?"), astounding Stephanie. Meanwhile, T-Bird Louis DiMucci attempts to trick his sweetheart, Pink Lady Sharon Cooper, into losing her virginity to him by taking her to a fallout shelter and faking a nuclear attack ("Let's Do It for Our Country").
While Stephanie is working at her after-school job as an automobile mechanic at her family's gas station/auto garage, the Cool Rider surprises her with a romantic twilight motorcycle ride to a hilltop. Before he can reveal his identity, the T-Birds and Pink Ladies interrupt them, and he vows to reunite with her at the talent show. Johnny, enraged by Stephanie's new romance, threatens physical violence towards the Cool Rider if her new relationship continues. The Pink Ladies depart haughtily, ignoring the T-Birds' self-confidence ("Prowlin'").
At school, Stephanie's dismal grades in English lead her to accept Michael's offer of help. Johnny, having witnessed their encounter, demands that Stephanie denounce her association with the Pink Ladies to preserve his honor. Although she is still enchanted by the mysterious Cool Rider, her romantic interactions with Michael pressure him into questioning his facade ("Charades").
Stephanie and the Cool Rider reunite at the talent show but the T-Birds abruptly ambush them and pursue him to a closed-off construction site on their respective motorcycles, with the Pink Ladies following in a car. The site conceals a deadly drop, and the biker's absence suggests that he has gone over the edge and perished, devastating Stephanie. Prior to "Prowlin'", the T-Birds sabotage the competing Preptones by tying them to a shower pole in the boys' locker room. During the Pink Ladies' performance ("Girl for All Seasons"), an emotional Stephanie obliviously enters a dreamlike, fantasy world, where she reunites with her mystery biker ("(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time"). She is named winner of the contest, and she and Johnny crowned Queen and King of the upcoming graduation luau.
The Cycle Lords gatecrash the luau the following day ("Rock-a-Hula Luau (Summer Is Coming)"), but the Cool Rider reappears, overpowers them, and reveals himself as Michael. Initially shocked, Johnny subsequently presents him with a T-Birds jacket, officially welcoming him into the gang, and Michael and an overjoyed Stephanie cement their relationship with a passionate kiss. All the couples pair-off happily, and after the senior class graduates ("We'll Be Together"), the credits roll in yearbook-style, as in the original film ("Back to School Again").
Cast
Principal cast Lead roles Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie Zinone
The T-Birds Adrian Zmed as Johnny Nogerelli Christopher McDonald as Goose McKenzie Peter Frechette as Louis DiMucci Leif Green as Davey Jaworski
The Pink Ladies Maureen Teefy as Sharon Cooper Lorna Luft as Paulette Rebchuck Alison Price as Rhonda Ritter Pamela Segall as Dolores Rebchuck
Reprising roles from Grease
Didi Conn as Frenchy Eve Arden as Principal McGee Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun Dody Goodman as Blanche Hodel Eddie Deezen as Eugene Felsnick Dennis Stewart as Balmudo
Playing different roles from Grease
Dick Patterson as Mr. Spears
Supporting cast Tab Hunter as Mr. Stuart Connie Stevens as Miss Mason Jean and Liz Sagal as the Sorority / Cheerleader Twins Matt Lattanzi as Brad Donna King as Girl Greaser (lead dancer) Lucinda Dickey as Girl Greaser Ivy Austin as Girl Greaser 'Francine' Andy Tennant as Boy Greaser 'Artie' (Arnold in Grease) Tom Villard as Boy Greaser 'Willie' (performs "Cry" at the talent show) Vernon Scott as Henry Dickey, one of the Prep-Tones Tom Willett as bowling alley manager (uncredited) Janet Jones as the girl who missed her last two periods (uncredited)
Production
Development Grease co-producer Allan Carr had a deal with Paramount Pictures to be paid $5 million to produce a sequel, with production beginning within three years of the original film. Carr decided to hire Patricia Birch as director for the sequel, as she had previously served as the choreographer for the stage and film versions of Grease. Birch was initially hesitant to accept after learning that neither composers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey nor John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John would be involved in the film. Bronte Woodard, the writer who adapted the original stage material for the original film, had died in 1980, and Canadian comic Ken Finkleman (who was also writing and directing Airplane II at the same time) was tasked with penning a new script mostly from scratch. The total budget for the production was $11.2 million, almost double the budget of the original. Birch's approach to the material was to hew closer to the original, grittier stage productions from which Grease came; she had resisted changes made to the original film (largely made at Newton-John's behest) but was overruled.
Grease 2 was intended to be the second film (and first sequel) in a proposed Grease franchise of four films and a television series. (The third and fourth films were to take place in the 1960s and during the counterculture era.) However, the projects were scrapped due to the underwhelming box office performance of Grease 2. Maxwell Caulfield was unhappy with the film's "drab" title, and unsuccessfully lobbied to change it to Son of Grease.
Casting Birch proposed an idea to feature Travolta and Newton-John reprising their characters as a now married couple running a gas station near the end of the film, with Travolta to sing a new number "Gas Pump Jockey;" this did not come to fruition. Newton-John rejected the offer to return, as she was more interested in doing Xanadu. Paramount tried to get Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing from the first film to do cameos but this did not happen (Channing, by then 37 years old, had left Hollywood for a time in the early 1980s to focus on her stage career). Early plans for Grease 2 had Conaway and Channing's characters, Kenickie and Rizzo, as main characters while they attended summer school, which would have culminated in the two getting married.
Andy Gibb was screen tested to play the male lead but this proved unsatisfactory.Holfer p 136 At one stage Timothy Hutton was announced as the male lead, and Carr later claimed after Grease 2 was released "Hutton came, sang, and danced in my living room. He had done Guys and Dolls in college, and that’s who I wanted and preferred. But they didn’t consider him sexy enough.”Holfer p 147
Maxwell Caulfield was cast after impressing producers off-Broadway in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Having seen his performances, Allan Carr offered Caulfield the role of Michael over thousands of applicants.
“They were all in love with Maxwell,” said Patricia Birch. “Robert and Allan saw him onstage without his clothes."Holfer p 137
Unlike co-star Pfeiffer, Caulfield's career following Grease 2 was damaged by the film's failure. He has been quoted as saying: "Before Grease 2 came out, I was being hailed as the next Richard Gere or John Travolta. However, when Grease 2 flopped, nobody would touch me. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown in my face. It took me 10 years to get over Grease 2."
With only a few television roles and small film appearances, Michelle Pfeiffer, then aged 23, was a relatively unknown actress when she attended the casting call audition for the role of Stephanie. Other actresses considered for the part included Lisa Hartman, Kristy McNichol, Andrea McArdle, and singer Pat Benatar. Pfeiffer was a wild card choice, but according to Birch, she won the part because she "has a quirky quality you don't expect." She later commented on being cast:
That was really weird for me. I'd been taking singing lessons and I had taken dance, because I loved to dance, but I had never considered myself a professional at all. I went on this audition as a fluke, and somehow, through the process of going back and dancing, and then going back and singing, I ended up getting the part. I went crazy with that movie. I came to New York and the paparazzi were waiting at the hotel. I know the producers put them up to it. I am basically very private, and I'm really nervous about doing publicity. Every time I set up an interview, I say, "That's it, this is my last one. I'll do this because I committed to doing it, but I'm never doing another one." It was insane.
Lorna Luft was the last star cast. The part played by Connie Stevens was originally meant for Annette Funicello but she was unable to appear because her schedule as Skippy peanut butter spokeswoman did not allow her time to film the scene.
Adrian Zmed had previously played the role of Danny Zuko in the stage version of Grease, a role he would later reprise in the 1990s.
Filming