When I first came across the music of siblings Angus and Julia Stone, I was blown away by the fact I was enchanted by it immediately. They combine exquisite musicality with amazing harmonies and a charming distribution of quirk to make truly special songs. I just recently came across a wonderful cover they did in 2007 while promoting the Down The Way album. Enjoy their take on Olivia Newton-John's song from Grease, You're The One That I Want.
You can find the song on the EP for the single Big Jet Plane. It is on iTunes here, and on Amazon here. You can find more about Angus and Julia on their official website here. You can also find them on Twitter here.
Actor Jeff Conaway passed away this morning after a long hospitalization. He was just 60 years old. After having early success on television with a role in Taxi, and on Broadway and film as Kenickie in Grease, Conaway saw the promise of success go away as he spent way more time chasing his demons than his career.
Conaway first played Kenickie as a replacement on Broadway, garnering strong reviews for his performance. He once again played the role when the 1978 movie was brought to the silver screen, but the character's big song, Greased Lightnin', was taken away and given to Danny Zuko, played by mega-star John Travolta. This left the Kenickie role pretty much as comic fodder in the movie.
He appeared in the television hit Taxi, playing Bobby Wheeler, the beautiful-but-not-so-bright actor/taxi driver. The show was smart and funny, with an escellent cast that included Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Andy Kaufman, and Carol Kane. He started working on the show just after filming Grease, and stayed with it until he was fired in 1982. It was said that his demons were already haunting him at this point. Hopefully now he will find some peace.
Clockwise: 1972 logo, the 2007 logo; and the 1994 logo.
Grease originally opened on Broadway in 1972. The unknown show had come from Chicago to off-Broadway, and finally moved to Broadway in June of that year. The cast were relatively unknown, with Barry Bostwick making his debut as a leading man and ending up with a Tony nomination. And there was Adrienne Barbeau playing Rizzo, the 'bad girl with the heart of gold.' The show ran for over seven years, or record-setting 3,388 performances, the longest run in Broadway history at the time, only to be surpassed two years later by A Chorus Line. Throughout the run, cast replacements included Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner, Peter Gallagher, Patrick Swayze, John Travolta, (director) Jerry Zaks, and Treat Williams. Richard Gere was an understudy for many roles in this production. It opened in London the following year, and unknown understudy Richard Gere was cast as leading man Danny Zuko.
In 1994, Grease was called back to Broadway, a revival starring Rosie O'Donnell as Rizzo, soap hunk Ricky Paul Goldin as Danny, Star Search winner Sam Harris as Doody, and pre-Karen Walker Megan Mullally as Marty. This cast was meant to sell tickets, and that is what they did. Once Rosie left, she was replaced with Brooke Shields. Four months after the show opened, a US tour was in place, with former Monkey Davy Jones playing Vince Fontain, Brooke Shields as Rizzo [before she went to Broadway], Sally Struthers, Rex Smith, Mickey Dolenz, Adrian Zmed, Debbie Gibson, Lucy Lawless, Mackenzie Phillips and Jasmine Guy in the cast at various times.
In 2007, producers launched a reality television show to cast the next revival, the show called You're The One That I Want! The show eventually cast Max Crumm and Laura Osnes and the show opened with a construct closer to the 1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John than the previous Broadway productions, utilizing songs from the movie and story lines as well. Soon it was time for cast replacements to be made, and the casting of former American Idol winner Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel, and former Idol finalist [and yesterday's birthday boy] Ace Young as Kenickie. Also, once the YTOTIW winners moved on, other contestants were brought in to play the leads.
The revival closed in January of 2009. The tour continues, with Taylor Hicks headlining for some time to come. As part of the 'finale,' Hicks sings several of his songs from his most recent album and hawks them in the lobby afterwards.I guess that is what happens when you are released from your label contract and have to fend for yourself. You can find more information about the tour here.
Photos by me from Binghamton, NY, Washington DC & Uncasville, CT
My appreciation of Ace Young has been documented by my driving 6 hours to catch him performing live, seeing him a couple of times playing Kenickie in Grease on Broadway last fall/winter. It was about a year ago Ace released his first self-titled CD, with a release party at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. It was produced by Desmond Child, the musical genius. It is a pretty good freshman offering, but established no traction with resistance from radio to play non-studio songs. There were some select combo CD/DVDs for sale, with the first video and some behind-the-scenes footage. That footage included scenes of a shirtless Ace working out to get ready for a shirtless photoshoot. That alone could be worth the price of admission.
Screencaps from the Behind The Scenes DVD
Well, the fanworld of Mr. Young was thrown in a tizzy recently when he announced his engagement to Allison Fischer, whom he met during the stint in Grease. I wish them the best of luck, and hope we get to see and hear much more from the both of them. Until then, this is the video for Addicted from his eponymous CD. It is a song I still love.
You can listen to more of Ace's music on his MySpace, buy the CD from iTunes and most other retail and online stores, but I think the CD/DVD package can only be purchased in Target.
