[Paramount Plus 1950s-set series Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies
is filled with progressive Gen-Z values. Their struggles derive from
not only the misogyny they come up against, but the discrimination
they face thanks to their cultural identities. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

GREASE: RISE OF THE PINK LADIES REVIEW: A BLAST FROM THE PAST THROUGH
A MODERN LENS  
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Jenna Scherer
April 6, 2023
AV Club
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_ Paramount Plus' 1950s-set series 'Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies'
is filled with progressive Gen-Z values. Their struggles derive from
not only the misogyny they come up against, but the discrimination
they face thanks to their cultural identities. _

Marisa Davila as Jane Facciano and Johnathan Nieves as Richie
Valdovinos, Photo: Eduardo Araquel/Paramount+

 

Every period piece reflects the era that created it as much as the era
when it takes place. Witness Baby and Johnny grooving to ’80s soft
rock in the 1960s-set _Dirty Dancing_
[[link removed]]_, _Leonardo
DiCaprio sporting a floppy _Tiger Beat_ heartthrob ’do circa 1912
in _Titanic_
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Jacobson tossing out millennial slang in Prime Video’s _A League of
Their Own_
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If you love a movie or TV show, it’s easy to forgive these
anachronisms; in fact, they can sometimes be the entire point. When
Randal Kleiser’s original _Grease_ movie_ _debuted, it was a
sensation specifically _because_ it looked back on the 1950s through
a late-’70s lens, from the disco-inflected title song to Olivia
Newton-John’s teased-to-heaven hairstyle.

_Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies_
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which premieres April 6 on Paramount+, continues this proud
anachronistic tradition; in 2023, that means progressive Gen-Z values
and songs that sound like they could be Ariana Grande or Kesha singles
(that’s likely because its lyricist-composer, Justin Tranter, has
penned Top 40 hits for both these artists). Created by Annabel Oakes
(_Awkward, __Minx_ [[link removed]]),
the series wears its liberal politics on its sleeve, treading the line
between nostalgia for the aesthetics of postwar America and criticism
of its regressive politics. The show_ _takes a refreshingly light
approach to thorny topics like racism and slut-shaming while largely
doing them justice. And though its messaging can be didactic at
times, _Pink Ladies_ never feels like a chore. In fact, it’s a
wall-to-wall blast.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Season 1)
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2023

Comedy/Musical/Romance

Grade

B+

CAST

Jackie Hoffman

Asst. Principal McGee

Madison Thompson

Susan

Marisa Davila

Jane

Cheyenne Isabel Wells

Olivia

Kallie Hu

Peg

Ari Notartomaso

Cynthia

CREATORS

Samantha Cordero, Kayla Richardson, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Robert
Sudduth, Annabel Oakes, Christina Nieves, Auriel Rudnick, Alison
Levering, Gabe Liedman, Raul Martin Romero, Laura Pollak, Mackenzie
Dohr

Oakes’ show is a prequel to _Grease _set in 1954, four years
before Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson made out under the dock. Though the
T-Birds are already strutting and preening down the halls of Rydell
High, their girl-gang counterpart has yet to be born. Enter Jane
Facciano (Marisa Davila), a not-quite-nerd, not-quite-popular girl
whose family recently moved from New York City to ultra-suburban
Rydell. (If the Facciano surname sounds familiar, note that she’s
got a little sister named Frenchy.)

Jane starts the school year secretly dating dreamy quarterback Buddy
(Jason Schmidt); but after he passively lets the whole school believe
rumors about her (gasp!) _putting out,_ Jane drops him—then finds
herself sans clique. And in a town where every teen is defined by the
jackets they wear—be they letter or leather—that’s bad news.

She’s our protagonist, but _Pink Ladies _is a true ensemble show.
That primarily includes three other outcasts: Olivia (Cheyenne Isabel
Wells), who’s smarting from an affair with her English teacher;
Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso), a tomboy who dreams of joining up with the
T-Birds; and Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara), an aspiring fashion designer and
a proud weirdo.

When Jane decides to run against Buddy for class president, the
foursome comes together to back her cause and solidify their
friendship by donning those iconic jackets. Meanwhile, Olivia’s
brother Richie (Johnathan Nieves), the hunky leader of the T-Birds,
starts to get the hots for Jane. (The half-baked love triangle between
these two and Buddy is the show’s weakest subplot; in
this _Grease, _the romances aren’t nearly as compelling as the
friendships.)

What’s notable about the Pink Ladies, aside from the fact that
they’re all pretty darn charming, is that not one of them is the
kind of girl you’d generally find at the center of a 1950s tale
(read: white and/or straight). Jane is half Puerto Rican, Olivia is
Mexican American, Cynthia is queer, and Nancy is Japanese American.
Their biggest struggles derive from not only the misogyny they come up
against as women, but the discrimination they face thanks to their
cultural identities. (The rest of the student population also includes
plenty of Black, AAPI, and Latinx folks.)

[Marisa Davila as Jane Facciano, Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia Zdunowski,
Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy Nakagawa, and Cheyenne Wells as Olivia
Valdovinos]

Marisa Davila as Jane Facciano, Ari Notartomaso as Cynthia Zdunowski,
Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy Nakagawa, and Cheyenne Wells as Olivia
Valdovinos

Photo: Eduardo Araquel/Paramount+

The third episode tackles the discrimination within Rydell. It centers
on Hazel (Shanel Bailey), a shy Black girl who’s new in town, as
well as Jane as she grapples with her identity as a Latina who can
pass as white while her mother and sister can’t. The show doesn’t
pull its punches in an insidiously catchy soft-shoe number called
“In The Club,” in which the rich white founders of the local
country club climb out of an oil painting to serenade Jane about white
supremacy.

That said, _Pink Ladies _is uneven when it comes to dealing with the
realities of the universe it’s created. The show_ _glosses over
how, exactly, the students of color are able to mix so readily with
the white kids, or how a gay Black man came to be hired as Rydell
High’s drama teacher. The series isn’t quite _Bridgerton _levels
of lazy about its worldbuilding; but if you’re going to make a show
whose plot hinges on dismantling the racism, sexism, and homophobia
bubbling just beneath the surface of midcentury suburbia, you’ve
gotta fully commit.

Speaking of surfaces, _Pink Ladies _looks and sounds gorgeous, from
the bright, detailed costuming to the lovingly kitschy production
design. Plus, it pulls off a trick that precious few musical TV series
manage: Nearly every number is a bop. After ushering us into the world
via a dynamic full-cast performance of Barry Gibb’s iconic title
song at the drive-in, the show starts to seed in Tranter’s original
compositions—lyrically clever earworms that run the gamut from
swoony torch songs and contemporary pop-inflected tracks to ’50s
rock jams that nod to the Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s work from
the original _Grease._ 

And thanks to kinetic choreography from _RuPaul’s Drag Race_
[[link removed]]_ _alum Jamal
Sims and dynamic camerawork from the series’ directing team, each
number feels like a mini music video. Highlights include a “Greased
Lightning”-style cut sung by Cynthia (with the T-Birds as her backup
dancers); an emotional banger from Jane in the school hallway that
looks like a Billie Eilish video; a joyous group number from the Pink
Ladies that sees the walls of a teen bedroom float up into the clouds;
and a solo from Hazel in which her dance partner is a cluster of
stars.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies | Official Trailer | Paramount+

Of course, the most kudos goes to the multitalented cast; the four
main players bounce off each other (and their haters) with ease.
Davila makes Jane—a protagonist who risks sinking into Mary Sue
territory—a full-bodied presence, and she’s unafraid to delve into
the thornier aspects of her character. As Nancy, Fukuhara undercuts
the sweetness of _Pink Ladies _with wry, tart humor.

Notartomaso and Williams may be the most impressive, however,
considering the series marks both of their screen debuts. Nonbinary
actor Notartomaso has the hardest needle to thread as Cynthia, a class
clown whose jokes belie a deep insecurity about sexuality and
gender—and they make their character’s struggle feel all too real.
And then there’s Williams, who seems destined for stardom; her
singing and dancing are Broadway-caliber, and she’s got the kind of
charisma you can’t teach.

We’d be remiss not to mention the series’ elder stateswoman,
character acting legend Jackie Hoffman. She plays the strict but
put-upon Assistant Principal McGee, whom the writers afford much more
humanity than most fictional vice principals get. Plus, she’s played
by _Jackie friggin’ Hoffman._

Compared with most of today’s high-school series, the stakes
in _Pink Ladies_ are low. But we’ve got more than enough shows
about teens dealing with murder, drug addiction, plane crashes, dark
magic, werewolves, and/or the Upside Down to go around. And though
it’s frustrating that nearly every series these days is based on
existing IP, _Rise Of The Pink Ladies _is proof that it’s possible
to dig up a hoary old piece of media and make it do the hand jive.

_GREASE: RISE OF THE PINK LADIES_ PREMIERES APRIL 6 ON PARAMOUNT+.

* grease
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* gen z
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* queer youth
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* Youth of Color
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* misogyny
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