Those who remember all the words to “Summer Nights,” “You’re the One I Want,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and all the other hits from the movie Grease should head to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (cinema.co.il ) on Thursday night at 9 p.m. for an open-air screening of the movie, which will include a sing-along with actors and dancers.
The event will be held in the plaza outside the theater.
The 1978 movie, directed by Randal Kleiser, was the top-grossing musical up to that time and tells the story of Danny Zuko (John Travolta), a greaser who falls for Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), a good girl. It has held up remarkably well, thanks to the beauty and energy of its two leads, a funny supporting cast and its catchy score, which includes the title song, which was written for the movie by Barry Gibb and sung by Frankie Valli.
Neither Travolta nor Newton-John was ever better in anything and the cast includes Jeff Conaway (Taxi) and Stockard Channing (The West Wing), along with veteran stars such as Frankie Avalon (who plays Teen Angel), Sid Caesar, Eve Arden, Alice Ghostley and Joan Blondell. The doo-wop group Sha Na Na also appear in the film.
White Nights program in Tel Aviv
The event is part of the White Nights program in Tel Aviv and there will also be screenings of films inside the Tel Aviv Cinematheque all night, featuring movies that take place in a single night. These will include Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, in which a mild-mannered man (Griffin Dunne) goes on a loony odyssey through downtown New York. It which costars Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), Bronson Pinchot, Will Patton and Cheech and Chong. Before Sunrise, the first movie in Richard Linklater’s romantic trilogy about a couple (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who meet on a train, will be shown, as will Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; Edgar Wright’s horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg; and George A. Romero’s zombie classic Night of the Living Dead.
The Israeli films, Alenbi Romance by Yannai Goz and Jonni Zicoltz and Endtime by Veronica Keidar will be shown. There will be a double feature of the recent movies, Everything Everywhere All at Once by Michelle Yeoh and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage.