Ari Notartomaso on “Rise of the Pink Ladies,” Stage Kisses, and This Week’s Gay Episode

This week’s episode of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies combined three mainstays of queerness: Halloween, theatre kids, and first kisses. The song “Merely Players” finds reluctant theatre kid Cynthia practicing a kiss with serious theatre kid Lydia. All alone at a Halloween party, they enemies to lovers their way to a musical montage of Hollywood iconography. But as the song says, “Hollywood has no idea.”

When I was a kid, I knew I couldn’t express my desire to be a girl. But I could express my desire to be a T-Bird. Like many little lesbians, Grease’s over-the-top gender performances and really cool jackets resonated with something deep within me. That’s why it’s so exciting to see a character like Cynthia put the T in T-Bird and queer the Pink “Ladies.”

Cynthia is played by Ari Notartomaso, who injects Cynthia with goofiness and a deep well of feeling. Whether performing this love duet or the “Grease Lightning”-inspired “New Cool,” Ari’s stellar voice gives Cynthia the emotional range 1950s society would rather squash.

I talked to Ari about queer history, their own first stage kiss, and this week’s very gay episode.

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Drew: I want to start by asking, what’s your personal connection to Grease?

Ari: (laughs) It’s funny, because I never really remember having watched Grease. But it must have been in the water, because growing up I did know all the lyrics to all the songs.

Drew: Were you a musical person in general?

Ari: Oh yeah. I’ve been in musicals since I was six, and I went to college for musical theatre.

Drew: Six! As a teenager, were you similar to Cynthia?

Ari: Cynthia is very begrudgingly a theatre kid. I was not. I was very enthusiastic about being a theatre kid.

Drew: (laughs)

Ari: People used to say that I was a bit more chill than a normal theatre kid. I would say I was just socially anxious. But people said I was chill, and I felt good about that, proud to not be a loud theatre kid. But… I am! That is who I really am and I think that’s true of Cynthia, too. For both of us, theatre acts as a refuge. Being able to play a character and explore gender and sexuality and what it might feel like to be a different person. And for me, my theatre friends were who I could talk to about sexuality and gender.

Drew: Were there characters that felt like oh that is my gender?

Ari: Ooooo. You know, I think Peter Pan was the first time that I was like that. When I was little, I loved the live action Peter Pan movie. I remember being drawn to this small blonde person who is sort of outside the toxic masculinity expectations of a human being. I very heavily identified with that. And also, he loves Wendy. So that was another part of it. And when I was like, “I want to play Peter Pan!” no one batted an eye. They were like that’s a totally normal thing for a small blonde musical theatre girl to say. But secretly, I was a transmasc nonbinary lesbian wanting to play Peter Pan for a different set of reasons.

Drew: What was the audition process like for Rise of the Pink Ladies?

Ari: It started off pretty normal for most auditions during the pandemic. I graduated in the year of our lord 2020.

Drew: Oh God.

Ari: Yeah, so I was used to self-taping. But I was doing a reading out in New Jersey and I didn’t have a reader, so I sent in a self-tape where I just left space for the scene partner that didn’t exist and then later voice-overed the other lines into the tape. Then I forgot about it for a few weeks until I got a call from my agent telling me they wanted to see me for a callback. We had another set of a few callbacks and did a bunch of songs that our songwriter Justin Tranter and their team had written. The entire process was over Zoom. And then we left to film in Vancouver like a month and a half after we found out we got it.

Drew: When you send in tapes, you’re able to just not think about it? You’re able to let go in that way?

Ari: Ideally.

Drew: (laughs)

Ari: I would say most of the time. Most of the time, when I get an audition, I’ll find a way to connect with the character and then try to just love doing the self-tape. I’ve gotten better at that over the past few years. Initially, when I didn’t get something, I’d be heartbroken. There have definitely been a few times when I really identified with the character and it felt really special to me, and when I didn’t get the role I felt devastated. But most of the time it’s just like, oh it would be cool if I booked that, it would be really fun, and then I just try to forget about it and have a life outside of my work.

Drew: That is really impressive.

Once you booked the role, did you do research about queer people from the time period?

Ari: Yeah! I had a few conversations with folks who were teenagers in the 1950s.

Drew: Oh wow!

Ari: It was really enlightening to me. Because growing up I didn’t have much access to anyone that age who was queer. My dad is gay, and I did know a couple of lesbians, but when I was young I didn’t have a connection to anyone over the age of about 40. Like I didn’t know anyone older than my parents who was queer. So I had to do some digging, ask around. Our showrunner Annabel Oakes put me in touch with somebody. And the conversations I had were honestly really surprising. There were people who had relationships, had girlfriends, in high school. Then, of course, some people didn’t know until much later in life. There was a widespread range of experiences.

For both of us, theatre acts as a refuge. Being able to play a character and explore gender and sexuality and what it might feel like to be a different person. And for me, my theatre friends were who I could talk to about sexuality and gender.

Drew: I do think there’s a temptation sometimes to view our history in a way that’s linear. To view queer life before the last couple decades only as torture. And so much of that is because of the stories that were allowed to be told in the mainstream about queer people. It’s interesting to hear you were able to talk to people with more varied experiences.

Ari: One of the women told me that she feels bad for me and a lot of other young people now who grow up with a lot of explicit messaging that being gay is bad and against God. Especially with the internet, it’s really hard to not know that people hate us and want us to not exist. But for her, there wasn’t any context at all, positive or negative. There was just a feeling that it was something that couldn’t be shared, but not something that was necessarily evil or shameful. That wasn’t everyone’s experience, of course, but I did find that really interesting.

Drew: Yeah that really highlights the complexities of visibility.

Do you mind talking about your dad being gay and how that impacted your experience?

Ari: (laughs) Yeah! My dad is the best dad ever. I feel like I can say that with no reservations. I have the best dad in the world. My mom and him were together for decades, had me, and then got a divorce within six years. Pretty immediately after that, he came out. When I was eight years old, with pretty much no concept of sexuality, I didn’t really understand what that meant. It wasn’t until a few years later when I was like, “Oh my dad is gay in that way! That’s what that means!”

It took a long time for me to come out to him. I knew that I was queer, I knew that I was gay, I knew we were the same in that way, so if I told him he’d be really supportive and understanding and validate how I was feeling. And that was the last thing I wanted! So it actually took me a long time to share that with him. I wish I had earlier, because now my dad and I are super close and it’s amazing to be able to connect with a parent in that way.

Drew: Wait, why would that validation be the last thing you wanted?

Ari: Because then it would be real!

Drew: Ohhh gotcha, okay that makes sense.

Ari: It’s sad! I mean, I grew up Roman Catholic. I had a lot of shame about my sexuality and felt like it was something to be hidden and forced out of me. I knew that if I told my dad he’d be supportive and love me and I wanted to tell him obviously. But I just wasn’t ready to come out to myself until college which was when I told him. And he was very supportive and loving and amazing about it.

Drew: It’s interesting how even if you have supportive parents or even if you have a gay parent, we still live in the society that we live in.

Ari: Exactly.

Drew: Even though in contemporary language Cynthia is probably also nonbinary, were there challenges in playing a character who is referred to as a girl?

Ari: Yeah, it was definitely challenging. I’m very grateful for the creative team. A number of them are queer, and all of them are really respectful and have done a lot to make sure that there’s a distinction between Cynthia and the other Pink Ladies being girls and me being nonbinary and not a girl. One of the things that was started on set — and actually I think was started by the other Pink Ladies — was that instead of referring to us as the Pink Ladies, we started calling ourselves the Pinks. It was really sweet to know people cared enough to change language on-set in order to make me feel more comfortable. You know, it was challenging when people would come in on the crew and didn’t know. I was definitely misgendered a lot. But having the solidarity there with my coworkers made it a lot less difficult.

Drew: Yeah. I actually know Annabel and love Annabel.

Ari: Oh my God!

Drew: I worked for her on The Edge of Seventeen pilot that she wrote and directed and before that on her website I Heart Female Directors. I adore her. She’s been one of the most supportive people in the industry to me. I think of her as a mentor. And after The Edge of Seventeen wrapped, she took me out to dinner to ask what the experience was like for me on-set. As you were just saying, there are so many people on-set and people’s familiarity with gender and queerness varies. Misgendering is just going to be a part of it. But it was really meaningful to have Annabel ask me what the experience was like and how things could be done better. Just to care enough to check in. Some of it is an inevitability no matter how much the people in charge want to create a good space. There are going to be challenges. But, like with trans life in general, just because these things are inevitable that doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Ari: Totally.

Drew: But I’m glad to hear that there were steps taken to make it a little better.

Ari: I love that you know and love Annabel as much as I do, because she’s so spectacular. You’re right about the inevitability of these challenges as a trans person and a queer person. It continues to suck, and there’s not enough understanding and empathy around that. But what’s great about people like Annabel and other creatives on the show and people who make the world a little bit better is that just because it’s inevitable doesn’t mean they won’t try to make something different. It’s really great when people respond to the inevitability by trying to alleviate at least some of the heartache.

Drew: Yeah it makes a huge difference.

I want to walk through the entire process of filming a couple of these musical numbers, beginning to end. Let’s start with “New Cool.”

Ari: Okay! So we always start by getting a demo that they record in the studio. Then we worked on the dance with Jamal [Jamal Sims, the choreographer] using that demo. After that, we recorded the song in the studio. And then we waited a long time and had a few more rehearsals before filming it. But with other songs, there were times when we’d record a song and just have one or two dance rehearsals all within a couple days before shooting the actual number.

Drew: Oh wow! I guess it makes sense that the songs that were in the pilot had the most prep. And then as the weeks and months of shooting went along the process sped up. Was that how it was for the number from this week? “Merely Players.”

Ari: It was very compressed. We got the song like a week and half in advance, and then a couple days after that I recorded my part and then Niamh [Niamh Wilson who plays Lydia] recorded her part. But we were really busy working on “Pointing Fingers” for episode four, because it’s a group number. So at the end of one of those rehearsals, the Friday before we shot the song on Monday, Niamh and I stayed after and learned the entire dance that evening. We had one more rehearsal the next day where we worked on it with Jennifer Morrison, the director, for maybe 30, 40 minutes to figure out the shots and stuff. And then we literally just did it. It was so quick. But it was very fun. I think that’s where my Penn State musical theatre training really helped.

Drew: It’s so great. Hit me in all the gay musical theatre feelings.

Ari: Aw I’m so glad.

One of the things that was started on set — and actually I think was started by the other Pink Ladies — was that instead of referring to us as the Pink Ladies, we started calling ourselves the Pinks. It was really sweet to know people cared enough to change language on-set in order to make me feel more comfortable.

Drew: And I loved that the different costume changes played with expectations. I think the more obvious approach would’ve been to place you in clear masculine/feminine roles within Hollywood archetypes, but it ends up being more playful than that.

Ari: The costume department was so great. Something I really appreciated is they made sure that I would always have a binder and a sports bra in my trailer so on the day, however I was feeling, I could make that choice privately. And then for this number, we had a lot of explicit conversations about what we felt comfortable with and what we wanted to play around with.

Of course, 1950s lesbian culture had a lot of the butch/femme dynamic, and I love that we get to explore that with Cynthia and Lydia. But I also really loved that in this number when we’re in musical and film mode that there’s a little bit more play. It was so much fun.

Drew: I love to hear that about the costuming department because costuming is something else that can be really fraught for trans actors and queer actors in general.

Ari: Totally.

Drew: I think they did such a good job with Cynthia, finding the balance between having her in clothes she’d have to wear but in a way that feels true to her. It never feels like she’s femmed up.

Ari: Yeah! We made a closet for Cynthia of all the different clothes she would have. And as we went on, we decided that she has to wear skirts for school but as soon as she leaves school she’s putting on pants. As soon as there’s not a dress code, she’s changing. And then we had conversations about how Cynthia would wear her wardrobe. Would she button this? Would she tuck in that? Would she wear a t-shirt underneath the button-up? That was something that felt very Cynthia and also very me.

Usually with costuming, I’m a little like whatever. I’ll just give up. But then with this show, they put so much effort into having conversations with all of us about how we felt comfortable and what our characters would wear.

Drew: You brought up butch/femme dynamics in lesbian culture at the time. Before doing prep for the show, was queer history something that was important to you?

Ari: Yeah, I mean, I came out as bi in high school, and I didn’t really know there was any kind of expression I could have beyond being a cis woman. I didn’t realize there were any options for me. So I was like obviously I’m femme because that’s the gender identity that was forced on me since I was born. Then when I got to musical theatre school, I think they did a pretty good job of telling us we didn’t have to wear jewel-toned dresses in order to get jobs. But I always found I got the most reception whenever I performed cis womanhood. I’d get the most roles that way, and people would tell me I would be successful more when I presented that way.

It wasn’t until the pandemic when everything was stopped. I mean, I’d been performing almost every single day since I was six years old. I was constantly in production after production. Then the pandemic happened, and I didn’t have anyone to perform for. I wasn’t on stage. I didn’t have anyone around me except for my dad, who I knew would accept and love me no matter what. And that’s when I started exploring my own butchness and gender fluidity. I also had a girlfriend during the pandemic who was super femme, and so that butch/femme dynamic came about sort of naturally, and that’s when I started learning about the history surrounding it. But then my current partner who I’ve been with for two years is also butch, so now there’s the butch4butch dynamic in our relationship that I love so much. But the butch/femme dynamic and the exploration of gender identity within lesbianism was something that was so freeing for me coming out and still continues to be. And I know that’s true for a lot of people, including some of the people I talked to, and probably including Cynthia and Lydia.

Drew: It’s something I care a lot about, because I think sometimes contemporary conversations can be attached to a limited idea of what certain labels mean. And I love the fact that lesbian history has always encompassed lots of different genders and lots of different sexualities and that it’s never meant cis women who only love cis women. That’s such a narrow view of lesbianism and the history of lesbianism.

Ari: Yes! Totally! It’s so varied. And honestly, that’s why I’m not very precious about people interpreting Cynthia’s experience of gender loosely. Especially since Cynthia doesn’t have as many labels to identify herself with in the 1950s and also because Cynthia does not exist in real life and is not a real human being—

Drew: (laughs)

Ari: (laughs) I’m so happy when I see online that queer people are interpreting Cynthia’s gender in different ways. There are some people who see Cynthia’s experience as a trans man and others who see her as a cis butch lesbian and others who see her as a gender-nonconforming super fluid person. And I love that about Cynthia. The 1950s were obviously really painful for basically every single human being but at least in the context of the show there’s a bit more openness so people can identify with this character and put their own labels onto Cynthia.

Drew: The last thing I’m going to ask you about because of the context of “Merely Players” is what was your first stage kiss like? And what was your first gay stage kiss like?

Ari: Oh my God! This is so funny. Like me personally?

Drew: Yeah!

Ari: My first stage kiss was with the boy who became my first boyfriend. Who I was with for FIVE YEARS. We were together all through high school and into college. He was my best friend, and I really don’t regret that relationship. I’m gay, obviously, so there was a lot missing, but he’s a very nice person.

But it’s weird! My first kiss was in a rehearsal room in front of people. It’s like really weird to have that public experience. Obviously for Cynthia it’s a more private moment which is good.

Drew: Wait, what was the show?

Ari: Oh! It was A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum.

Drew: Incredible.

Ari: I played Philia, the little, happy innocent one. That was my first big role too. As a 12 year old.

Drew: You were 12!

Ari: I was 12.

Drew: Okay and then what was your first gay stage kiss?

Ari: Well, I played Drood in college. That character is a man but it was an explicitly lesbian dynamic on stage. And then my first real gay kiss was January 1, 2020. As the ball dropped some girl came up to me and was like, “You’re super cute. Can I kiss you?” and I was like, “Please!”

Drew: (laughs) You’re like, “Yes, let’s go into this new year!”

Ari: (laughs) Exactly! A perfect way to start the year! Everything is going to be great in 2020! Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

Drew: No, but that is a great first gay kiss. A New Year’s kiss? That’s some movie magic, that’s some Rise of the Pink Ladies magic.

Ari: It really was. And then, in classic lesbian fashion, that person disappeared and I have not spoken to them since. But there was this other girl who I’d been on a date with a few weeks earlier. I walked into a gay bar later in the evening — as you do — and I saw her there. And that was the first time I ever hooked up with a woman.

Drew: Wow.

Ari: It was a very lovely way to begin the new year. Then later that year I came out fully. And that was just the beginning.

“Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” Can’t Go Both Ways

The following review contains spoilers for the first four episodes of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, now streaming weekly on Paramount+.

The first time I performed Grease, I was nine years old at Girl Scouts camp. We did a medley for our parents that included both “Born to Hand Jive” and “Cool Rider” (even though the latter, technically, was from Grease 2). Afterwards to celebrate, my mom rented the movie for the first time. I was hooked.

That fall, I wanted to be a Pink Lady for Halloween. Pink Ladies are not a common child’s costume and we’re talking pre-online shopping days, so my mom called a local professional costume shop. They had the coveted satin jacket, but I was so small that my mom ended up triple rolling the sleeves to make it fit. By fifth grade I had memorized the entire Pink Ladies Pledge and taken to performing overly dramatic renditions of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” to an audience of my own reflection in my bedroom mirror after school.

Being Black and Puerto Rican and gay (though, I didn’t know that last part quite yet) didn’t stop me from seeing myself in the lily-white, straight halls of 1950s Rydell — not that it ever would have. In fact the only reason I mention this at all is to say, by all accounts, I am the core audience for Paramount+’s Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. I know that anyone reading this website wouldn’t assume that I’m some off-the-wall right wing pundit bemoaning the “wokefication” of Grease for finally including POC and queer characters, but I also want you to know that I’m not some staunch traditionalist. As far as I’m concerned there have been queer, Black, and Latina Pink Ladies since at least 1997, when I first put on the jacket.

Which is why it pains me that I don’t love this prequel.

In Rise of the Pink Ladies, it’s 1954 — roughly five years before Rizzo, Frenchy, and Sandy are going to rule the school — and horny Puerto Rican-Italian nerd Jane Facciano (Maris Davila) is spending the last hazy days of summer going at it in the backseat with her boyfriend, preppy jock Buddy (Jason Schmidt). Teens being horny is a backbone of Grease lore and Rise of the Pink Ladies is often its strongest when directly tackling the sexist double standards and purity policing forced onto teen girls. Jane, still relatively new at Rydell after moving to the California suburban high school from New York last year with her family, is made the target of a slut-shaming rumor campaign after Buddy lies about how far they went at the drive-in.

Meanwhile, Olivia (Cheyenne Isabel Wells), an aloof bookworm hot girl Chicana, is also left reeling after rumors swirl about a “relationship” she had with her English teacher last year — relationship put in quotations by me because a grown adult can’t have a consensual relationship with a teen girl, a fact that isn’t glossed over in the show but can never be emphasized enough. Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara), a Japanese student who dreams of a life as a fashion designer in New York, is left alone after her two closest friends dump her to become boy-obsessed. Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso) is a tomboy who dreams of being inducted into the T-Birds, no matter how badly they treat her. Cynthia’s obviously queer coded right away and the team behind Rise of the Pink Ladies has promised make good on queer characters in future episodes, which is one of the reasons we are gathered here today. While I get the sense that Cynthia’s episodes are still ramping up, it must be said that Notartomaso is already a scene-stealer right from the top, its impossible to take your eyes off of them.

When Jane announces that she’s running for class president against Buddy, she makes new friends in Olivia, Nancy, and Cynthia — with Olivia, whose brother is the head of the T-Birds, becoming her campaign manager. For Pink Ladies casting director Conrad Woolfe, in creating these archetypes, “Our North Star… was Rizzo. Stockard Channing is just so amazing, and that was the essence we wanted to pull for all of these characters, for all four of these Pink Ladies especially.”

And thus, the original girl gang is born.

On the surface, Rise of the Pink Ladies hits all the important nostalgic beats. So far there’s been a T-Birds’ mooning, a bonfire pep rally, Principle McGee (for now she’s Assistant Principle McGee), a sleepover in Frenchy’s pink Sandra Dee bedroom. The premiere episode alone includes homages to “Greased Lightning” and “Beauty School Dropout.” It doesn’t take long for a middle school aged Frenchy and Rizzo to make a cameo, either. If you’re a fan of poppy TV musicals about high school outcasts — High School Musical, Glee — there is a lot to love in music producer Justin Tranter’s work. It’s also beautiful to look at, with impeccably slick production design and choreography.

For me, this is also where the series begins to fall apart at the seams. I have yet to make it through even one single episode of Rise of the Pink Ladies without asking myself if a meteor is going to come any minute now and strike all the students of color (and their families!) before the prequel ends and the original series picks up. After a while, I started making a joke that around every shrub was a The Last of Us mushroom zombie that only ate the Black and brown kids. That there must be a reverse migration style mass deportation back to Mexico, Japan, and the Southern states. Because somehow Rydell goes from a beacon of 1950s racial harmony in 1954 to the all-white school we know it becomes in ’59.

If she was interested in telling an updated take on Grease that tackles school integration (and to be clear, I think if we’re going to return back to these classic namesake properties, we should be updating them) — I’m not sure why showrunner Annabel Oakes chose to focus on a prequel instead of setting her series in the 1960s, after the events of both original movies. In that situation, the linear progression of time could have done lot of the work for her. If we imagine a world where, say, after Michelle Pfeiffer’s Pink Ladies hang up their iconic jackets, the group disappears for a few years , only to be picked up again by newly arrived POC and queer students who are outcasts and find power in the iconic Pink satin — very little else of the show would have to change. Except that I would stop daydreaming about a zombie apocalypse worthy of a drive-in cinema.

One of Autostraddle’s writers, Drew, helpfully suggested that instead of letting the question of “where did all the POC exactly go?” get the best of me, I could compare the budding Grease-verse to the James Bond franchise. After all, there have been, and will continue to be, an infinity amount of Bonds, Qs, Ms and Money Pennies — and I’ve never required any of them to have continuity. What’s to stop Rise of the Pink Ladies from taking place in a multiverse where the infamous Frenchy (Jane’s little sister) is actually Puerto Rican and both the Pink Ladies and T-Birds have origins more closely aligned with the very real Mexican-American 1950s culture that birthed “Greasers” in the first place.

Except even that instance doesn’t solve what I believe to be Rise of the Pink Ladies’ greatest fault. The show is in a rush to pat itself on the back for a more (overtly) queer, POC-based adaptation, but seemingly has little concern about the factual realities that race plays in these characters lives. It would be one thing if (as is often the case in Broadway musicals), the racial-blind casting simply meant that race wouldn’t be brought up at all. Instead confusingly, if not upsettingly, Rise of the Pink Ladies seems to want to pick and choose when race matters.

At one point Hazel (Shanel Bailey, another knockout performer), a Black student who recently transferred to Rydell, shows interest in joining the Pink Ladies. In hushed tones during one of their classes, Wally (Maxwell Whittington-Cooper), a Black football player, warns as much as he chastises: “Hazel, you’re not getting mixed up with those Pink Ladies, are you? They like to stir up trouble. [Hazel says: so?] So trouble just might hit you differently than it would hit them.”

But following that same logic, would this worry of “trouble” not also be true for Nancy, who’s Japanese-American family would have been held in interment camps not barely a decade earlier? When Nancy would have only been in elementary school? Or for Olivia and her brother Richie, Mexican students living in a California that’s only had integrated schools for seven years at that point? Or even for Wally himself, who has a blonde, white cheerleader girlfriend? A full 13 years before Loving v. Virgina?

Later in a following episode, Nancy tells Wally, who is feeling down about losing a game, that you can’t look to others for validation. It’s a lesson that she learned as a child because “when I was little, kids used to throw rocks at me and call me a ‘dirty Jap.’ They blamed me for the war… I was still saying ‘pa-sketti.’”

Of course, that is horrifying. But it’s also fantastical to believe that young Black boy in 1954, less than a year before the murder of Emmett Till, would need to be told a story about the difficulties of racism. Let alone in the context of being hard on himself over a football game.

Jane’s mother, Kitty (Vivian Marie Lamolli), attempts to wave off her dark skin tone in public by passing as Italian instead of Puerto Rican. She ignores Frenchy’s bewilderment over hiding her heritage (“I thought I was calling my abuelo, nonno this whole time!”) and shudders when Richie bows and calls her Señora in public. When Jane decides to make boycotting a bigoted, exclusive country club for the fall dance part of her campaign platform, Kitty objects. This is the closest the show has gotten to tackling the complications of race head on — Kitty’s passing attempts are easy to write off as self-hatred in less deft hands, and to its credit Rise of the Pink Ladies instead takes time to show how they’re rooted in strategies of survival.

That survival, of course, also pays a steep price of loneliness and isolation. While visiting Olivia and Richie’s parents, who are so excited that Rydell’s next student body president might be Mexicana (they don’t quite get “half Puerto Rican” but hey, the heart is there!), Jane wistfully explains that she doesn’t know much Spanish. Rather than dig deeper into the ways that their relationship to race has strained Kitty and Jane’s relationship to each other, Kitty’s entire passing subplot is swept into a campy musical number between Jane and Buddy at the Frosty Palace, where Jane publicly “comes out” as Puerto Rican to applause from her fellow Pink Ladies. There was so much more to explore.

Rise of the Pink Ladies wants the privilege of deciding when and how questions of race matter, but that’s not how race works — not on a fictional television show where teenagers sing on cafeteria tables for fun, and not in life. Without any serious consideration to historical specificity and its impact on the lives of Rydell’s students of color, all Pink Ladies does instead is open up an unsatisfying — and distracting — Pandora’s box. Even if it is one shimmering in bright pink glitter.

Every Character From Grease and Grease 2, Ranked by Lesbianism

One could argue that there is no specific correlation between homosexuality and an affinity to the films Grease and Grease 2, but the employees and writers of this website would not be amongst those ones. We believe deeply in the Grease-to-Gay pipeline, as explored in articles such as Why Did We Love “Grease” So Much As Gay Children?. Therefore, in honor of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, the new Grease reboot that premiered on Paramount+ this week, the TV team (with special guest Vanessa Friedman, noted Grease 2 Superfan) gathered as a family to rank the legends of both cinemas. By lesbianism, of course!

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33. Louis DiMucci, Grease 2

Riese: Coercing a girl to participate in sexual activities by lying to her with the primary argument that sex is necessary in the name of patriotism and a reverence for the US military is as heterosexual as it gets
Valerie: definitely straight (derogatory)
Natalie: worse: straight and republican.

32. Vince Fontaine, Grease

Carmen: I quite literally want to give him negative points.
Where is the negative points option.
Natalie: Agreed, Carmen. I was thinking, “is there a zero option?”

31. Patty Simcox, Grease

Kayla: she’s a narc
Riese: definitely is going to micromanage the bridesmaids at her (heterosexual) wedding into absolute misery

30. Coach Calhoun, Grease & Grease 2

Riese: He’s straight but there’s nothing wrong with that!
Dad, not Daddy

29. Leo Balmudo, Grease

Carmen: no.

28. Doody, Grease

Riese: the upskirt creeping is a hard no
Vanessa: i literally don’t remember this man which tells me he’s very straight

27. Putzie, Grease

Riese: clumsy, young, means well
but also was homophobic to sonny
maybe internalized homophobia
Vanessa: why do i not remember any men in these movies i love
Carmen: Vanessa, because you are gay.

26. Goose, Grease 2

Carmen: Inconsequential, but ultimately inoffensive
Natalie: Not a lesbian but he met with Michael under the bleachers so I’m not totally discounting him as a member of the alphabet mafia.
Vanessa: gay 4 davey

25. Marty Maraschino, like the cherry, Grease

Carmen: Marty Maraschino had a crush on Rizzo for all of Sophomore year.

24. Paulette Rebchuck, Grease 2

Valerie: She doesn’t give me queer vibes but she does give me the vibe of the ally who will bring up that she has a gay friend as often as possible.
Riese: Yea big ally vibes here
Natalie: She’s your straight friend who is somehow blessed with better gaydar than you.

23. Cha Cha, Grease

Kayla: honestly she’s mostly getting points bc I was kinda obsessed with her mean energy as a baby gay
Valerie: She’ll go on to hook up with fellow members of the dance team in college but ultimately wave it off as a phase and not really mention it again until one of her kids comes out and she’s like “You know, I dipped my toes in the lady pond once”
Carmen: The grand foremother of one Santana Lopez

22. Tom, Grease

Valerie: So soft!
Carmen: The sweetest boi.
Just vibes and eyebrows. No thoughts.

21. Eugene, Grease & Grease 2

Riese: bi wife guy
Valerie: He’d campaign for his favorite ship in AS March Madness

20. Davey Jaworksi, Grease 2

Riese: there is something queer about riding in the sidecar of goose’s motorcycle
Natalie: The glasses alone are swaying me…
Vanessa: in my mind davey and goose are absolutely in love i won’t be hearing otherwise

19. Johnny Neorgelli, Grease 2

Shelli: Came out in the 70s when disco did something to him
Vanessa: SHELLI

18. Sonny, Grease

Riese: lesbian points earned for having a bark that exceeds his bite & lusting after marty, deducted for doing sandy dirty at the dance
Kayla: having 1 piece of jewelry you wear every day is gay

17. Sharon Cooper, Grease 2

Riese: skilled thrifter, really committed to rehearsing for the talent show
Valerie: Something about her collar(s) is gay to me
Shelli: Straight and annoying and probably not an ally – cute hats tho.
Vanessa: agree with shelli, her boyfriend is a straight republican who i feel like she’d defend no matter what

16. Mr Stuart, Grease 2

Carmen: Ok but hear me out! HEAR ME OUT!
This is a middle aged soft butch whose household chores include but are not limited to: making the French press coffee in the morning, tending to your little patio garden of potted plants, knowing the best craft beers no matter what bar you are at on date night, cleaning the counters and taking out the trash before you go to bed.
Riese: def a plant lesbian

15. Sandy Olsson, Grease

Kayla: she represents both sides of the good girl/bad girl dichotomy in a way that simply screams closeted high femme dyke to moi
Valerie: Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee (Reprise) is a coming out song, I won’t be hearing arguments at this time. I didn’t realize that I shipped Rizzo and Sandy until doing this ranking but I’m all in now.
Shelli: So straight that it’s wild
Drew: Literally she may be straight, but spiritually she ends up extremely gay.
Vanessa: i’m torn between her being clearly straight and a literal separate character from hot bad girl sandy at the end vs her being the closeted version of hot bad girl (high femme gay as fuck) sandy at the end
much to think about
Carmen: The Triptych of Sandra Dee.

14. Principal McGee, Grease & Grease 2

Valerie: Too easily scandalized
Shelli: Lesbian, everyone knows, has dykin’ potlucks on Saturday nights with her own pink ladies.
Natalie: In a secret relationship with the shop teacher. Those pearls and earrings Ms. Murdoch wears actually belong to Principal McGee.
Vanessa: when she says “these are MY boys” about the t-birds during the rehearsal process i knew in my heart she was a dyke

13. Blanche, Grease & Grease 2

Kayla: Gay Auntie Energy
Carmen: BIG Gay Auntie Energy

12. Miss Mason, Grease 2

Shelli: Pam Anderson of the 50s and has a high femme long distance girlfriend

11. Rhonda Ritter, Grease 2

Riese: bisexual energy, great bangs
Shelli: Bisexual for sure

10. Jan, Grease

Riese: Cozy pajamas, imitating Bucky the beaver
Kayla: representation for kind of annoying but ultimately endearing loud goofy theater gays
Valerie: Felt left behind when her friends started liking boys, leaned into her childish interests to compensate.

9. Frenchy, Grease & Grease 2

Riese: it’s the hair
Valerie: Also she’s really into dream interpretation which feels queer to me
Shelli: An ally but VV straight
Drew: idk she has very bisexual energy to me
Carmen: The energy is that her hair color is entirety the bisexual pride flag, all at once.

8. Vi, Grease

Riese: elder dyke energy
Valerie: yes very Bev from A League Of Their Own, gotta look out four our own vibes

7. Danny Zuko, Grease

Riese: in an alternate reading of sandy’s season-ending makeover, long maligned by feminists, danny is simply a power bottom in search of a hard femme top who will literally walk all over him. he has no use for the passive heterosexual sandra dee, he needs a woman who challenges him to keep her satisfied and puts out a live cigarette on the dirt in his face
Kayla: his performative masculinity is clearly an overcompensation for baby butch frustration
Drew: The whole movie is him trying on various lesbian identities: the romantic, the greaser, the mechanic, the athlete, and, ultimately, the wife guy.
Vanessa: the greaser to wife guy pipeline is real!!!!
Carmen: The shine of the grease slick (pun not intended) in Danny Zuko’s hair is so butch, and no I will not explain.

6. Stephanie Zinone, Grease 2

Kayla: only a homosexual can wear a jacket that well
Vanessa: MY ROOT, MY LOVE, MY LIFE

5. Kenicke, Grease

Riese: Hey Mamas lesbian
pretends to be hard, is in fact soft
wants to immediately provide for rizzo’s hypothetical baby and then u-hauls regardless
Kayla: I dressed up as him to go to a queer dance party in my early 20s sooooo

4. Michael, Grease 2

Riese: looks great in sweater vests and leather vests
Valerie: The teen queer impulse to change everything about yourself so a girl notices you is relatable.
Natalie: Is he gay or just British?
Drew: This is a lesbian trans woman

3. Betty Rizzo, Grease

Valerie: Rizzo had a reluctant crush on Sandy and you can’t convince me otherwise
Shelli: I think this is a case of « Is she hot and queer or just hot and confident » as much as I want the pencil skirt to add on layers of dykin I am only in the middle – extra points for the haircut though.
Riese: agree shelli yes
Carmen: Would any of us be here without her?
(I am “us”)
she’s an icon she’s a legend and she is the moment

2. Mrs Murdoch, Grease

Riese: i mean… this is a queer coded character right she’s a shop teacher in 1959
Valerie: I bet the principal made her wear that jewelry, there’s no way a shop class teacher would actually want to be wearing snag hazards around her neck and in her ears.
Gay.
Natalie: Yeah, the jewelry feels like a mask.
Carmen: That’s a lesbian for sure.

1. Dolores Rebchuck, Grease 2

Riese: tiny skateboarder with punky brewster vibes, wants desperately to be one of the girls
Shelli: Lesbian and future publisher of some underground magazine in the 70s
Drew: Gosh I love Pamela Adlon

Home Alone for the Holigays: Watch “Grease 2” with Vanessa

Welcome to Home for the Holigays! Although it’s been said time and time again — the holiday season looks quite a bit different in 2020. Many of us will be spending these special days solo, in the cozy comforts of our homes. In this series, a few of our writers welcome you to spend the day with them virtually, and live-tweet one of their favorite holiday films, with the hopes and wishes that it will make us all feel a little less alone.

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Home Alone for the Holigays

As a Jewish person, “The Winter Holidays” have never really affected me the same way I’ve seen them affect non-Jewish people in my life. I like Hanukkah just fine, but as Jews try to express every year, it’s not really one of our major holidays. To be honest, my birthday is December 21 / Winter Solstice, and that’s the most exciting part of the holiday season for me!

Because of this, the specificity of the pandemic doesn’t really change how I feel about the holidays because it doesn’t make a material difference to my plans. In a typical year, I’m way more likely to go home for Yom Kippur (September or October) or even for my mom’s birthday (November) than I am to travel “for Christmas” (though of course I have not done any travel this year and I will continue to stay put!). I like this arrangement because it’s very chill! I dated someone for a few years who had a very stressful relationship to the winter holiday season, and after we broke up I promised myself to never again get roped into the high-stress nature of this time of year. And I haven’t!

I like to relax on December 24 and 25 while everyone else “does Christmas.” My birthday has just happened. There is no religious element to the day for me. There is no family custom, no pressure to buy gifts or make specific foods or hang with specific relatives I dislike. It’s just a day when no PR people send out emails (bless!). It’s a day when lots of people post photos of cookies and trees and pets in sweaters (send me photos of your pet in a sweater!). It’s a day to wear pajamas and move slowly and maybe enjoy the snow, if there is any snow. It’s not a big deal. It’s wonderful.

I hope y’all are able to grant yourself some relaxation this ~winter holigay season~ whether it’s on Solstice, Christmas, or just a random Tuesday. You deserve it — we all do. Merry merry, babes. Love you.

Vanessa

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Grease 2

Grease 2 is a holigay classic and also my gay root. Of course it’s a Christmas movie, Michelle Pfeiffer is wearing a Christmas tree outfit in the third act IS SHE NOT?! You’re welcome.

If you haven’t seen it, guess what? I’ll be watching and live-tweeting it tonight Friday, December 18 2020 from the Autostraddle Twitter at 8 PM EST! It’s available to stream free on Amazon Prime (Ugh, Sorry).

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How a Jewitch spends Christmas solo

In order to have the most relaxing, decadent, sweet solo day, I like to be surrounded by lots of beautiful and cozy things. That includes candles, books, art by my friends, a pink Kitchenaid, and my floral print wallpaper. (Bonus points for the things I can’t link to specific online stores: the plants my housemate gifted me, the floor to ceiling bookshelf my other housemate built me, the warmth inside my heart when I think about how fucking grateful I am to live with such generous humans. SORRY EVEN CAPRICORNS GET SAPPY SOMETIMES.)

Honestly, my goals for Christmas Eve and Christmas are just about being cozy, taking care of myself, and having a nice time — the opposite of family stress or strict tradition. I’ve “celebrated” the past couple of years entirely alone and loved it, so I’m writing this as if I’ll be entirely alone, although to be transparent my housemates will likely also be around and it’s possible my boyfriend will join me for part of the day. But in the spirit of showing off what an entirely solo Christmas looks like for this Jewitch, here’s the plan!

Midnight – 10am I’m staying up as late as I want because I’m a night owl and when I have nothing to do the next day, I like reading and writing and masturbating until like, 4 am. Then I’m sleeping in until 10 am at least because why not!

10am – 12pm Elaborate brunch! Breakfast is the best meal, you can’t change my mind. This day calls for a seriously deluxe one: mimosas, home-baked challah, soft eggs with runny yolks, lox, possibly even some salmon roe if I’m feeling fancy! Fresh herbs, hollandaise sauce, and some vanilla nectarine preserves I put up this summer — arguably the best thing I have ever made — will round out the meal.

12pm – 5pm Relax. I am notoriously terrible at actually taking a day off — I’m always just writing a little bit for work, just catching up on some emails, just editing one last essay, just, just, just, just. Not today. Today we are relaxing! Reading a book. Sitting by the fire staring into the flames. Taking a nap. Journaling. Masturbating. Doing a manicure. Talking on the phone. Whatever I want that truly isn’t work!

5pm – 7pm Grease 2. Enough said.

7pm – 9pm Dinner. Cooking is something that has historically always soothed me, but during the pandemic that hasn’t exactly held true. Sometimes it’s soothing and vital, sometimes it’s my greatest challenge and scariest enemy. I’d like to set up tonight’s cooking to be of the soothing, vital variety, so I’m picking what in my opinion is a perfect meal: The Cheese Plate. Is this technically a meal? Are we technically cooking? Who cares. It’s the second most delicious thing in the world, right after breakfast.

9pm – Midnight Continue relaxing. Notes to self: Do not zone out on Twitter or Instagram. Finish reading your book. Sext your boyfriend. Take a long bath. Do whatever you want, you’re a Jew celebrating Christmas babe! You make the rules.

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A Holigay Cheeseplate

Babes, get ready. We’re gonna make a cheese plate. The beauty of a cheese plate is it can be whatever you want it to be!

A cheese plate calls less for a recipe and more for a specific energy. Are you hoping to get this done quickly and efficiently? Oftentimes for lunch, I’ll make myself a quick cheese plate: sliced gouda, sliced radishes, olives, almonds, salami, DONE. Nestle them all on a plate together and drizzle the radishes with some olive oil and flaky salt and you’re ready to go. Other times, I’ve been known to spend a full hour prepping a cheese plate, making sure there’s not a single inch of empty space on the entire huge cutting board. I make intricate designs with the meat, I shape each apple slice just so, I include 4 different homemade jams each in their own tiny pot with a tiny spoon to match. Obviously, my Christmas Cheese Plate will be decadent and intricate, but all you really need to make a perfectly lovely cheese plate is 1+ ingredient from this suggested list, a flat surface to put your ingredients on, and enthusiasm in your heart to consume a large amount of cheese in one sitting. If you need more inspiration, we’ve talked about cheese plates on Autostraddle quite a lot over the years!

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Though the pandemic has honestly really made me so sad all year, and the sadness is getting worse not better as time marches on, I’m hoping this Christmas can still feel relaxing, easy, and peaceful for me. I hope that for you, too.

Why Did We Love “Grease” So Much As Gay Children?

People on Film Twitter love a prompt.

“List your six favorite films from 1978!”
“Top nine movie musicals!”
“Five movies that made you gay!”

Usually these prompts are just an excuse to to share some movies you love while giving the original poster the retweets they crave. But that last prompt, suggested by Louis Peitzman, was special. It’s how I learned about Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya‘s Grease-themed birthday party.

The revelation that Kayla and I were both obsessed with Grease as children demanded further discussion. What was it about this ostensibly heterosexual movie that so consumed our young gay lives?

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Kayla: The first time I saw Grease, I was five years old. We were at my aunt and uncle’s house in D.C., and the adults wanted to stay up late gabbing, and I didn’t want to go to sleep. So they set me in front of a TV and popped a Grease VHS in. I don’t think they knew what they were doing. Because after that night, Grease became my whole world. I have a long history of deep, steadfast, all-consuming pop cultural obsession, and it all started with Grease.

Here’s a quick list of the forms that obsession took early on:

1. I had a Grease-themed costume party when I turned six (most of my fellow kindergarteners had NOT seen the movie but their parents dressed them up).
2. I wrote in my first grade journal very matter of factly that I was changing my name to Olivia Newton-John.
3.  I listened to a vinyl copy of Olivia Newton-John’s Totally Hot so much that I’m shocked it still plays smoothly.
4.  When tasked with drawing a picture of something we wished for in second grade, I drew one of me holding hands with Olivia Newton-John.
5.  Around the same time, I wrote an (unfinished) illustrated novelization of the movie in which I classified Sandy and Danny as “best friends.”
6.  I memorized the entire movie and would often perform whole scenes from it, playing all the characters.

Drew: I think those are the gayest six things I’ve ever read.

Kayla: I think my parents thought it was “just a phase” but it surely WAS NOT. I was so young that it’s difficult for me to recall exactly how I felt when I watched it the first time, but I know I latched onto a few things in particular right away: the cheerleading uniforms, the leather jackets, the dance competition, Sandy’s transformation at the end, all the music.

Drew: My love of Grease pre-dates my earliest memories. I’m sure I discovered it through my older sister who danced and liked musicals and has always been drawn to anything with clearly defined gender roles. I don’t actually remember the first time I saw it, but it’s featured in some of my earliest memories. My family moved when I was five and I remember that first house by remembering Grease, watching it on VHS, dancing around the living room, pretending the coffee table was Grease Lightning.

My obsession did not last long. By 3rd grade or so, Grease had become an anecdote, a fun fact about me, rather than a current interest. I’d share that as a child I was obsessed with the musical, the way at 18 I’d share that I had a tattoo. It was something that shifted people’s perception of me in a way I enjoyed. I think throughout my childhood and adolescence I was swinging aggressively back and forth between trying desperately to prove I was a normal boy and wanting to be seen as the queer weirdo hidden underneath. There was something about my love of Grease I didn’t understand so it felt like a safe hint to disclose.

Ages 3 – 7, I was such a rule follower. I never misbehaved with my parents and once in school I had perfect attendance. I also played a wide variety of sports and generally just fit the mold I was supposed to fit. During this time my love of Grease really was the only weird thing about me, so it always stuck out to me, and to other people, as this random complication in the narrative of my identity.

As a fellow goody two-shoes, Sandy is the explanation for my obsession. I was inspired by her evolution even at such a young age. But I responded to this attraction by desperately trying to be Danny.

Drew: What were you like as a person during your Grease years?

Kayla: During the height of my Grease years, I was a musical theater geek and nerd who loved school. I felt immediately seen by Sandy in that she was this goody two shoes with a secret urge to rebel. Her incredulous “You making fun of me, Riz?” at the sleepover is a Mood. In middle school, I was the somewhat clueless nerd of my friend group who didn’t understand any of the sex jokes, and I definitely would have gotten “ill from one cigarette.” Sandy’s somewhat awkward attempts at being Cool and Bad at the end of the movie are also extremely me.

But my obsession with Sandy also had an underlying complicated edge to it because she’s such a paragon of whiteness. The only time in my life I wished for blonde hair was at the height of my Grease obsession. Now everytime I watch, I wish so badly that I was a Rizzo, which omg I just realized is still very Sandy of me!!!!! Cha-Cha and Frenchy are also two very underrated characters.

Drew: Looking back on the media I consumed during my childhood and adolescence, I would often get really attached to emulating the male character in a straight romance even though I was obviously relating to the woman. Jane Campion’s John Keats biopic Bright Star sort of changed my life when I was 14 (I also have a pattern of all-consuming pop culture obsession) and I really thought of myself as Keats, this sensitive boy poet. But looking back I was so obviously relating to his stubborn and emotional lover, Fanny Brawne.

The same thing happened here. As a fellow goody two-shoes, Sandy is the explanation for my obsession. I was inspired by her evolution even at such a young age. But I responded to this attraction by desperately trying to be Danny.

An oft-told anecdote in my family, or at least oft-told until my coming out queered it, was when I begged my sister to make my hair look like Danny’s. Despite the movie literally being called Grease, and the opening animation sequence heavily featuring hair gel, I did not understand how he did it. I was very young and very gullible and my sister told me that if she put two dozen butterfly clips in my hair it would do the trick. I happily obliged. When my mom saw me, she told me to take them out, and informed me that this method would not work. I threw one of my rare tantrums, Bad Sandy already influencing my behavior.

I think for many years I was most similar to Frenchy, but now I openly relate to Sandy, good and bad, depending on the day. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Grease was my first exposure to romantic love and I’ve spent most of my life being attracted to people who are edgier than me, hoping to absorb some of that rebellion. I’m a Capricorn who has mostly dated air signs after all.

If you look closely, Rizzo and Frenchy have as much of an impact on Sandy as Danny does. And honey let’s be real, trying on new personalities or looks erratically is extremely queer.

Kayla: Obviously I feel like we need to address the fact that a lot of the messaging in Grease is, uhhh, not great. Sandy essentially changes her entire look and personality for a man because her sweet, soft femininity is seen as unattractive. But HEAR ME OUT, what if Sandy goes from Good Sandy to Bad Sandy not because of Danny at all but because she’s finally coming into her own identity and sexuality and has never felt like she had permission to be her authentic self before now?

If you look closely, Rizzo and Frenchy have as much of an impact on Sandy as Danny does. And honey let’s be real, trying on new personalities or looks erratically is extremely queer. And I love what you said about relating to Sandy by being good and bad, depending on the day. This really is a movie about extremities, which feels very camp.

Drew: I agree with you completely! In high school, when I was first discovering feminism (lol), I’d often rant about the messaging in the movies I grew up with. My main target was The Little Mermaid but I’m sure I brought up Grease.

Then as I got older, especially once I came out, I really started to appreciate these stories of transformation. I’ve regularly changed things about myself because of crushes and relationships, but I wasn’t changing for them. They were just an excuse. You’re right. It gives her, me, all of us, permission to be who we want to be. Or at least who we want to be in the moment.

I also love Rizzo and how unapologetic she is in herself and her sexuality. Her character is possibly the only example of sex positivity I had until I started watching European art films. I really love this essay by Mara Wilson where she writes about Rizzo’s effect on her. She also suggests Sandy helped Rizzo get an abortion, a theory I like a lot. As a kid, Rizzo scared me, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence my Grease obsession gave way to a crush on someone who bullied me.

That said the movie is not morally perfect. Obviously. The whiteness as you mentioned, and with that an overwhelming 1950s nostalgia that can be pretty gross. Revisiting it now I was also fascinated by the T-Birds. Danny and Kinickie are bad, but their buddies are the worst. They encapsulate everything about boys and men I was horrified by growing up and why so often I chose to have female friends. It’s interesting to me that watching Grease at a young age didn’t endear me to this behavior. At all.

Between the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies, the gender roles are very dramatic and exaggerated. So, I’m curious, why do you think we loved this movie so much as gay children? There’s something almost drag-like in the performance of gender. But I’m not sure I was clued into that at 4. Is it just about leather jackets? And Mrs. Murdock the dyke shop teacher? Or maybe Sandy’s transformation is a sort of coming out?

Kayla: Yeah, obviously now I’m able to recognize those extremities and camp elements, and maybe there was a subconscious attraction to that when we were young. I think I was drawn to the aesthetics and color scheme and how immersive it is visually. The red accents, the sheen of black leather, the pink jackets, the somewhat gauzy but still vibrant look of 1970s cinema. It just has such a specific Look that I really fell in love with. I do see the dichotomies of Good Sandy v. Bad Sandy as something specifically magnetic for little baby gays, too, even if we were too baby to fully unpack that.

As an endnote, I just need to share this story: In college, I was on a weekend trip in Chicago to visit friends and got very drunk. The person in charge of the music at the small party we were at asked everyone to queue up their Favorite Song Of All Time for the group to listen to. I put on “Hopelessly Devoted To You.”

I have no recollection of this.

Holigay Gift Guide: Grease Is The Word For Updating Your Style

In case you don’t follow me on Twitter, Grease is the word. Both the classic Grease movie starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta and the modern classic Grease Live are pretty much the coolest thing on earth right now, so if you’re looking for a way to retool or update your aesthetic, there isn’t a better choice of inspiration. Also if you haven’t already watched each of those movies at least a dozen times, go and do that right now. They’re both on Netflix and they’re both amazing. In all honesty, If you just have the jacket, you’re pretty set, so that’s going to be a big part of this, but there are a few other things involved as well. In even more honesty, a lot of it also has to do with your attitude. If you’re a Kenickie or a Rizzo (like I am), you’ve already got this part down; people will recognize that you’re a T-Bird or a Pink Lady no matter how you dress. But if you’re, say, a Doody or a Sonny, you might have spend more time on your look, sorry.

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Pink Satin Jackets

Obviously, the Pink Ladies are the best part of Grease. There’s no contest. And the look is pretty much just whatever clothes make you feel most confident and badass underneath a pink satin jacket. You could go with one of these pretty classic pink Satin Bomber Jackets, the Missguided Plus Satin Bomber, Boohoo Plus Satin Bomber or the Boohoo Satin Bomber. I own one of these and I can tell you, it looks great. It’s my favorite jacket I’ve ever owned.

Or you can go the nontraditional route, maybe you want to mix it up a bit? This Slogan Satin Bomber Jacket is super cool, this Two Tone Bomber Jacket is pretty close to the original, but with a bit of twist, and I love this Plus Varsity Satin Bomber. This Embellished Satin Bomber is a real statement maker, and this Quilted Satin Bomber Jacket is just cute. My ultimate favorite of these, though, is the Raglan Bomber Jacket In Satin And Floral Print. This jacket is just gorgeous.

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Leather Jackets

If you’re more of a T-Bird than a Pink Lady, you’re in luck; there are lots and lots of great options for cool leather jackets online. There’s this Belted Biker Jacket and the Asos Biker Jacket. This Schott Leather Biker Jacket is also super cute, this Leather Biker Jacket with Quilt Hem Details is tough looking, and the Tall Leather Look Biker Jacket is sleek and simple. No matter what you choose, you’ll definitely look tough, or at least tuff, and you should no trouble finding the Pink Lady of your dreams.

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Tight Pants

Tight pants are almost as essential to the Grease Look as the jackets. They make you look instantly badass and instantly hot. If you wanna rock some leather (or fake leather) pants with your jacket, first of all, I want to say that you’re very cool. Second of all, here are some options. I really, really want these Plus High Waist Leather Look Pants, and I never even wear pants! The Leather Look Stretch Skinny Pants are perfect for any Rizzo out there, and these Leather Look Treggings are perfect for just about anyone. Of course, if you’re looking for something that’s less fake leather and more jeans, you could go with the Ridley High Waist Skinny Jeans or the same jeans, but in non-plus size.

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Accessories

These cute and cool accessories will put the perfect finishing touches on your Grease inspired look. These Chocker Neck Tie and Head Scarf in Black and Pink is my favorite accessory of the year. This is what I really, really want for Christmas. If you’re a Marty Marachino and you want to look extra smart, these Cat Eye Glasses in Clear Lens are for you. If you’re a Danny, though, you could go with these Dolce & Gabbana Round Sunglasses. If you’ve been wanting to accessorize but don’t quite know how, you could get this Book on Vintage Hairstyles or The Art of the Scarf.

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Decor

Maybe you already have the wardrobe, maybe you have the look down pat. If that’s the case, you could always use some things to make your house a little greasier. Obviously, you can start with a DVD of the movie itself, or a poster of the film. There’s also this really cool clock shaped like a record and this fun vintage wind up car kit.

Pretty much the coolest thing I found in this category is this Jukebox that works as a radio and, much more importantly, a speaker for you iPhone or other smart phone or whatever you have that plays mp3s!

Rhymes With Witches: The Teen Royalty of The Pink Ladies

Admit it, you like Grease. Maybe you haven’t seen it in awhile or haven’t heard the soundtrack on the radio and you forgot about it. And you probably think it’s dorky or cheesy or just plain awful. And to be honest, yes it is all of those things. Take it from someone who was in musical theater for a large portion of her adolescence, I hate it too. But I also kinda love it BECAUSE it is so cheesy and corny and kinda bonkers (remember that Frankie Avalon dream sequence and/or that final scene of Sandy and Danny driving off into the sky?). No matter how hard I try there’s something about those crazy catchy Bee Gee songs and a movie in the 70s trying to depict a movie in the 50’s that’s kinda brilliant. And the most amazing part of it all is one of the original girl gangs, The Pink Ladies.

Don’t let their name emblazoned on their jersey jackets fool ya, these gals ain’t the typical high school debutants. Way less diabolical than the Switchblade Sisters (possible Rhymes With Witches post?) and a ton more fun than the Mean Girls, the Pink Ladies are a permanent part of the American lexicon like gentrified rock n roll and sock hops.

For those of you a bit lost (and a bit young, how have you not seen this movie?) the 1978 movie Grease depicts the blooming love of two kids, greaser Danny and square Sandy, from opposite sides of the very white tracks with the background of a 1950’s high school. But forget about those two because the real entertainment lies with their friends. While the original musical was much grittier and focused more on class conflict and social issues, the movie sanitizes the heck out of the original story which explains why these are the goofiest juvenile delinquents on film. But even with the PG-13 rating, The Pink Ladies were still awesome enough to go down in Girl Gang History.

We first meet the Pink Ladies, which consist of Rizzo, Frenchy, Marty and Jan, on the first day of high school when they drive up in their PINK CAR and their matching jackets. You know a girl gang means business when there’s a uniform requirement — specially cool jackets with embroidered names on the front. Right from the start we know these are not the type of girls that are into promise rings or being elected prom queen. Rebellion and not fitting in, that’s what’s cool. There’s Rizzo, their indelible leader, Marty, the heartbreaker who has a wallet full of marine boyfriends, Jan, with an insatiable sweet tooth, and everyone’s favorite beauty school drop out, Frenchy. Not exactly a menacing group, but cool enough to garner the need of acceptance from high school princess/teen dream Sandy, played by doe-eyed Olivia Newton John.

“She looks too pure to be pink” -Rizzo

It’s 1959 and there ain’t nothing worse than being a SQUARE, which is just what Sandy is. While she pines for Danny (which takes up seriously the entire film), the Pink Ladies are all about using boys for a good time and not much more. The more I think about it the more I realize the genius of their song “Sandra Dee”. While it’s sung to make fun of Sandy, it in turn makes fun of all the cheesy teen girl archetypes from older flicks like Ann-Margaret in Bye Bye Birdie and teen idol, Sandra Dee. Perfect blonde virgins with tiny cinched waists and poodle skirts who frame their crushes on their vanity, an ideal The Pink Ladies despise and refuse to follow. Who cares about being Sandra Dee, when they are too busy throwing milkshakes on their kind-of-boyfriends, dropping out of high school and watching drag races?

“I’m gonna get my kicks while I’m still young enough to get em” -Rizzo

I like them because they are so relatable. They’re funny and awkward and horny, just like high schoolers really are! These characters are foils against the stereotype of a 1950s teen just by being HUMANS. They are subject to mean rumors, heartbreak, and tons of mistakes. Sure they’re not the meanest girl gang or the toughest, but they do seem like the most fun to hang out with. One day we’d be getting drunk at a sleepover and the next we’d be discussing the proper way to dispose of a cigarette with heels on and rat your hair. What I would give to get a “bad” Sandy make over!

Which is your favorite Pink Lady? Mine is Jan, cause I gotta give props to a girl who would rather be eating chocolate bars than making out with greasers. Not to mention her killer bangs.

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Calling Out For All Mean Girls! Is there a mean girl or girl gang that you would like to see on Rhymes With Witches? Comment below and let me know of all the awesome ladies we love to hate.

Movie Night: Grease 2

by cara and vanessa

Welcome to Movie Night! Where we choose a movie based on any number of variables and feelings, create a themed menu and some decoration ideas to match, then spend the night eating these foods and watching these movies! It’s an uncomplicated but promising plan.

Tonight we are watching Grease 2, the lesser-known sequel to the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John classic that spawned a million theme parties and karaoke performances. Grease 2 has more terrible puns, more surprise dance numbers, and more ketchup-based flirtations than its older sibling. It also has about twelve times the camp, and Michelle Pfeiffer. You’re sold, right?

The Movie

Grease 2

[buy it here / stream it here]

Synopsis (from IMDB):

“Return to rockin’ Rydell High for a whole new term! It’s 1961, two years after the original Grease gang graduated, and there’s a new crop of seniors – and new members of the coolest cliques on campus, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Michael Carrington is the new kid in school – but he’s been branded a brainiac. Can he fix up an old motorcycle, don a leather jacket, avoid a rumble with the leader of the T-Birds, and win the heart of Pink Lady Stephanie Zinone? He’s surely going to try!”

Cara: Vanessa only likes five movies and this is one of them. In fact, she likes this movie so much that one time she got into an argument with some complete strangers in a pizza shop about whether or not it is superior to The Original Grease. The argument went something like this:

Vanessa: “Grease 2 is better than Grease 1.”
Strangers: “We strongly disagree, as does most of the rest of the world.”
Vanessa: “Hmm. Are you lesbians?”
Strangers: “No.”
Vanessa: “Ah, that explains it. That is the only way you could not be completely drawn in by the pure, heartwrenching sexiness that is Michelle Pfeiffer popping her collar in front of a school bus.”

Strangers (after conferring briefly): “Our artistic preferences are legitimate. We don’t appreciate you demeaning them by attributing them to our sexuality, which is irrelevant; you, of all people, should understand how problematic, NAY, oppressive, this tendency —”
Vanessa: “Oh don’t even. I will end you all. Cara let go of me.”

At this point I removed us from the pizza shop. A few months later I woke up on the floor of my kitchen surrounded by various ingredients and with a shiny DVD dangling before my eyes. Thus this movie night was born.

Vanessa: This movie is the greatest. Seriously, if you tell me you prefer Grease to Grease 2 I am going to judge you and question our friendship. Cara is also telling the truth, I hate most movies, which makes my love for this particular one all the more poignant. I first saw it as a small child in the ’90s, and as this was a time before Googling the lyrics of your favorite soundtrack was a thing, I sat patiently in front of my television set with a notebook, pencil, and the TV remote. I’d pause the movie dutifully every few lines of a new song so I could scribble the lyrics down in full. Neither of my parents thought it was weird that I was singing about reproduction, doing it for my country, or holding on tight to a cool rider. I dunno. I still have that notebook somewhere.

Also I only came out as a gay lady at age 19, but upon re-watching this movie with Cara and gasping or moaning every time Michelle Pfeiffer appeared on screen it has become apparent that she is in fact my root, and I probably should’ve been barging out of the closet at age 10 when I first saw this film. Oops. But better late than never, and we’re all here now, so let’s…

Set the Mood

C: If you’re having a party or a Fun Date, a cool thing to do is to refuse to allow your guests entrance unless they enter on a motorcycle or, failing that, approximate a motorcycle sound when you answer the door.

V: Alternatively, guests can wear before/after outfits for Michael (dorky grandpa sweaters vs. cool leather jackets), sexy pink jackets, Calendar Girl outfits (dibs on the Christmas tree, obviously), or bowling shoes.

The Menu

Cool Sliders
T-Birds (aka Black & White Milkshakes)
Pink Ladies (aka Strawberry Milkshakes)

Cool Sliders

(Adapted from How Sweet It Is)

One of the more memorable Grease 2 scenes is a number called “Cool Rider,” in which Stephanie, Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, sings about how she’ll only date a badass with a motorcycle. The song goes something like this:

“I want a whole lot more than the boy next door,” Stephanie explains later. “I want hell on wheels.” This is how I feel about these tiny barbecue mushroom burgers. When you taste them, I think you’ll agree.

Ingredients
+ baby portabella mushrooms (go for large-ish ones if you can)
+ slider buns/small rolls (as many as you have mushrooms)
+ 1 red onion
+ 1 avocado
+ your favorite cheese (we used gouda)
+ olive oil
+ smoked paprika
+ onion powder
+ chili powder
+ black pepper
+ barbecue sauce/other condiments

1. Slice up your red onion and sautee it in some olive oil for 8-10 minutes, till it gets soft. While it’s sauteeing, wash and de-stem your mushrooms! If you’re quick, this is also a good opportunity to cut up your avocado and arrange it beautifully on a plate.

2. Mix all your spices together. The amount you use will depend on your number of mushrooms and whether you like things to, as Stephanie describes, “burn you through and through.” But as a general rule, use about twice as much smoked paprika and onion powder as you do chili powder and black pepper.

3. Brush each mushroom with olive oil and rub it in the spice mix. Put all your spice-dusted ‘shrooms in a pan and cook them on medium heat until they start to brown (about 5 minutes). Flip them over and cook them for 5 more minutes on the other side.

4. While they’re browning away, slice your buns in half and your cheese into mushroom-sized squares.

5. Flip the mushrooms over one more time, so the round sides face up. Top each with a square of cheese and keep your pan on the heat until the cheese melts. (If it’s a rebellious, authority-bucking cheese that refuses to melt, stick a pot lid over your pan — the steam will do the trick.)

6. Put your sliders together! Don’t forget the barbecue sauce or Michelle Pfeiffer will yell at you. On second thought, maybe do forget the barbecue sauce, if you’re into that.

T-Birds & Pink Ladies

What’s an early-60s themed movie night without some milkshakes and gender essentializing? As vices go, these milkshakes are both tastier and, dare we say, cooler-looking than cigarettes. They’ll also wipe off your leather jacket really easily after you do a spit-take during the film’s surprising and emotional dream sequence. Warning: these will be really hard to make without a blender.

Ingredients

The T-Bird: Vanilla ice cream. Milk. Chocolate sauce. Optional embellishments (cocoa dust, malt powder, Milky Ways, etc.)

The Pink Lady: Strawberry ice cream. Milk. Optional embellishments (strawberries, whipped cream, tiny umbrellas, etc.)

1. Put ice cream in your blender (~1 cup per milkshake). Splash in milk — more if you want a liquidy milkshake; less if you’d like it to be more like a Wendy’s Frosty. If you’re making a T-Bird, add about a 10-second squeeze of chocolate sauce and the candy bar if you want.

2. BLEND.

3. Pour into your coolest glassware. Add accoutrements if desired. Toast to true, real, everlasting high school love, and/or Michelle Pfeiffer’s true, real, everlasting smirk.