Grease: You're The One That I Want - Aired Jan. 21 - Partial Recap

GREASE ACADEMY IS HERE!

I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl! Finally, after two long weeks and an unending lineup of auditions good and bad, the moment we've all been waiting for has arrived! Grease Academy!
Now, some of it was as good as I was hoping. It was in a real school and there were different classes, but just not as many as I would have liked. Maybe it's because there were only potential Dannys and Sandys there. Once this concept takes off and all the characters are represented, things will greatly improve. There will still be a "Sandy Dance Class", but there would also be "Sandy 101" where you go to learn of the subtleties of her character, and much of her back story. But for now all we have are dance, singing, and acting classes, so it's a mere shadow of what it could be. I guess because it's only for one episode, and an hour one at that, this is the best they could do.
I'm still somewhat disappointed.
What they did do very much right was finally give us little graphics with everyone's names, and we got to see a LOT of them. I have just over two pages of notes, and some of it is just names. I did learn many that I got wrong, even one I thought I had right (Max's last name is Crumm, not Crumb).
First up was the Dannys Dance Class, where we once more met fair-haired Austin Miller, a professional actor and at 30, one of the oldest. It appears he had once been on Days of Our Lives, so I did a little IMDb search to see who he played. You see, I watch Days and I didn't recognize him. It turns out he played a character named "Hawk" back in 2001-2002, but sorry to say that still doesn't ring a bell. I guess that's why he's not on the show anymore. That's okay, he's still my early favourite to play Danny.
We then met Vince Ortiz who is an ice cream store manager with no experience on stage. That's all my notes say. Hey, it does say "Partial Recap" in the title of this thing, so just lay off. There's going to be a lot more of this before we reach the end.
Cut to the Sandys Singing Class, and we got to see some familiar faces and some new ones.
First the two Ashleys, Anderson and Spencer. Ashley A. was good, Ashley S. (the Meg Ryan look-alike, for those of you keeping score) was very good.
Juliana Hansen said she was nervous about all the competition, but she was still pretty good.
Not as good as Kate Rockwell though, who I thought was great.
Then there is Kelly La Velle. At 17, she is the youngest contestant there. She's also the only one who is a minor, so by law she has to be tutored for three hours a day. Put that on top of everything else, and she has so much more work that everyone else. Or that much less time to rehearse, if you look at it that way.
We then got to see some couples paired up and acting out the scene at the drive-in where Danny makes a move on Sandy and she storms out, slamming the door on him. Now I always thought she hit him in the tallywacker, and some of the Dannys went that route, but others showed him getting his hand caught in the slamming door. Boys, it's not as not funny when his hand is hurt, I'm sorry to say. Take two for the team, for crying out loud.
At Sandys Dance Class, Ashley Spencer was doing so well that she was used to demonstrate the moves for Jacqueline Petzel who was struggling just a wee bit.
In Dannys Singing Class, Derek Keeling was doing okay, but OUCH when he tried to hit certain notes.
The judges were getting worried. Out of the 50 people who made it to this august institute of learning, would they be able to find the 12 they need for the live show so that they could live with whoever the public votes on? To add to the pressure, resident Brit David Ian, who had been doing something elsewhere (and something shady, I'm willing to bet, like having afternoon tea at his club for however long he's been absent) was just arriving. I haven't mentioned this before, but David Ian has put $10 million of his own money toward this Broadway revival. That kinda puts the pressure on for this to be a hit.
The performers then went one-on-one with David Ian (I keep feeling there needs to be a third name there, as he has two first names - how does "David Ian Brit-Tumblebottom sound?) so he can have a chance to gauge where they are.
We then learned that Ashley Anderson was struggling and her inexperience was showing through. Is this true? Could we only have one Ashley for the live shows? Maybe. I'm going to try to think positively though.
We then found out that a trio of potential Dannys - Chad, George, and Jason - became friends through this process. A real Three Dannsketeers, if you will, who will support each other, but still compete. I haven't decided that we're privy to this information because it's a heartwarming story, or if the producers just want to add some suspense for later when the cuts are made.
There was a scene from a co-ed dance class, then we got to see athlete Matt Nolan singing for David Ian Brit-Tumblebottom. Oh, he was awful. Mr. Brit-Tumblebottom gave him some advice on how to punch it up, make it more rock'n'roll. Matt took that advise and gave it a much better showing, but still, I don't see him graduating Grease Academy.
Then the kicker - everyone has two hours to learn a new song, and then there will be a mass expulsion as only 24 contestants will move on to the next stage, and the rest will be told to hit the bricks and never darken the doors of Grease Academy again.
The way it worked was that everyone was standing and singing in the same room, and David Ian B-T would go around and tap people on the shoulder. If they got the tap, they were gone. It was quite horrifying to watch, actually.
The first to go was 42-year-old Dominic Fortuna. Gramps was quite surprised at this and said that there are many people who will be shocked to find out that Dominic Fortuna was cut. Maybe at the Shady Rest Retirement Home, but I doubt your average citizen on the street is going to give it a second thought.
We saw Jacqueline Petzel leave, and then Matthew Carpenter. If you remember last week, Matthew was one of the major stories. He and his girlfriend Sarah were both auditioning, their relationship was rocky, and she threw a huge fit when he made it to Grease Academy and she didn't. So after losing that precious jewel, the least that could happen is he could make the live show, but no. He doesn't even make the final 24. Ow.
The Three Dannsketeers made it though, so their relationship is still going strong, at least for now.
After the carnage, the survivors then had two days to prepare for a performance on state in front of an audience of theatre critics and D-list celebrities. As they prepare, the judges still express concern over Max Crumm's looks, even though they think he has possibly the best voice there. This concern over his looks leads to David Ian uttering the best line of the season, "You look like an apology for yourself."
There was something with two women singing, how they've become friends, but I'm not caring at my mind was wandering anyway. We've already got this story with the three guys, so make two more friends and make it the Four Sandketeers and maybe we can talk.
Of the dazzling stars who came to see the performance we got to see... Marilu Henner! Whoo hoo! JEFF CONAWAY! He was Kenickie in the Grease movie! Okay, that was actually kinda cool, even with his alleged problems. I'm not going to say anything here, so go Google his name or something if you want to find out. There is no tabloid babbling here!
So the final 24 performed as one and in groups of four, with everyone getting a chance to solo.
Ashley Anderson did well.
Max Crumm not only did great, but the judges were impressed by how far he was able to get into character.
They thought Kelli La Velle, someone else they were concerned about, was doing well too.
Matt Nolan was doing iffy.
This is where we found out Austin Miller used to be on Days.
Cara Hille (whose name I spelled Kara Hilly previously) was in the last group, and with that note was the question, how did I spell it before? I really need to lay off the cold medicine when I'm watching this.
I thought last week was the last time we'd ever have to hear, "You're the one that we want" or "You're not Sandy/Danny". I was wrong. So terribly, terribly wrong. It isn't cute, producers! It's just annoying as hell, and I'm begging you to just cut people from the competition with dignity!
Now I didn't write down the names of everyone who made it or was cut, so I'll sneak the full names of the winners off the NBC website when we're finished the following list...
Kelli - didn't make it (like NBC can afford to pick up the cost of a tutor for this long).
Allie - made it.
George - didn't make it, thus the end of the Three Dannsketeers.
Jason - made it.
Lexie, the only woman of colour left, didn't make it. This means that Grease: You're The One That I Want, is now officially the whitest show on television after According to Jim.
Sara - didn't make it.
Nick - didn't make it.
Reed - didn't make it.
Who are some of these people? Why am I listing them if we never met them? I was wondering this as I was writing, so I stopped for a few names.
Juliana - made it.
Ashley A. - didn't make it. Bummer.
Then at the end was the showdown. Matthew Nolan vs. Max Crumm. Looks vs. Talent. While the producers would rather have both, in the end the show still has to entertain, and so Talent won out and Max Crumm moves on.
Thanks to NBC.com, here are our final twelve...

Potential Sandys
Allie Schultz
Ashley Spencer
Juliana Hansen
Kate Rockwell
Kathleen Monteleone
Laura Osnes

Potential Dannys
Austin Miller
Chad Doreck
Derek Keeling
Jason Celaya
Kevin Greene
Max Crumb

Yeah, I have no idea who some of them are either. You'd think not having been introduced to the audience yet may give some of these contestants a disadvantage. I know, in the end all that should matter is talent, but we all know by now that these shows often reward popularity over talent. They do that woefully often, in fact.
I've been saying through the auditions that the look does matter too, and if you look at the pictures on the website, you'll see that. Three of the Sandys are blonde, three are brunette, but they all look like what we've come to expect Sandy to look like.
The same goes for the Dannys, where one is blonde and the rest are brunette. The only one who doesn't quite have the look is Max, and he made it through on sheer force of talent alone. However, if there was a stronger field of Dannys, I strongly suspect he'd have been a casualty of the cuts.
But now it's up to us to decide who goes on from here. The live shows are next, with the first one being a two hour extravaganza of singing, dancing, and filler. Oh, you just wait and see. There will be filler!