I caught a few minutes of the Grease reality program on TV.

I’m a Grease fan, not the movie, but the play. I first saw Grease back in a dingy little theater on Second Avenue in NY. I lived in an apartment at Avenue A and 11th street in the lower east side. The area, known as alphabet city, was a dangerous place. I saw a mugging and a few times I saw blood on the sidewalk with the police tape around it. I slept out on the fire escape in the summer and more than once watched heroin addicts shooting up in the street beneath me.
This was in 1971-73.
I walked by the dingy theater over in second avenue when I would go up to Union Square to catch the subway. I saw the signs for Grease go up and it seemed like it would be a good show. The first week that the show opened I bought tickets ($8 each) and Erica and I went to see this wonderful little show. There was a bomb threat so the show opened late. (Bomb threat means they haven’t sold enough tickets so they delay the show hoping someone will show.) We waited out on the sidewalk and there were all these guys in leather jackets smoking cigarettes. When the show finally opened, they were on stage.
I read in the Times that the show was up for a Tony for best off-broadway musical, and I was rooting for them. They didn’t win.
The show went on to Broadway and then they made the Movie. I liked the movie, but adding the new songs for Newton-John and Travolta made it too slick and I think didn’t help the movie at all.
Erica and I saw Grease twice on Broadway back when you could get very cheap “two-fers” (two for the price of one). For $5, a student could see any play on Broadway. We saw Hair four times. I always enjoyed Grease.

I had to turn off the TV show, though. I couldn’t stand watching those nice talented kids get rejected.