Big Gay Sing-A-Long: Grease
Question: what’s colossal — with only 48 seats, what the event lacks in sizableness it makes up for in spirit — queer, and discordant? Answer: the Big Gay Sing-Along San Diego’s presentation of Grease at the Digital Gym. It’s the one that you want, not I. Watching it again for the first time in over 40 years, my original valuation endured: the hopeless devotion to narrative structure and pace that churned within me acted as a stumbling block on the road to actual enjoyment. From a purely structural standpoint, we’re looking at more flaws than Trump’s border wall. Instead of taking his cue from Vincente Minnelli or Stanley Donen, director Randal Kleiser allows musical numbers to logjam, while the bridging dialogue scenes meander long past their usefulness. I’ll quit now. Seeing as how this has achieved cult status, my carping is comparable to bringing a pea shooter to a knife fight. — Scott Marks