Give Us Some Summer Lovin’

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 28, 2007 5:23PM

The great thing about having old theatres still around is that they do funky stuff. It’s always amusing to see what the Music Box Theatre brings back, and even better, the crowd that turns out. Last time I was in the Music Box, they were showing Deep Throat. We showed up for the midnight viewing after a disco nap, hearing it was a naughty, dirty film. The audience was filled with groups of giggling people too young to know any sexual revolution first-hand. And sprinkled throughout, old men in trench coats. In trench coats, we kid you not.

When the movie opens, the plot immediately beings to develop – through song? Who knew it was also a musical, of sorts?

This weekend, the Music Box has brought back a different kind of musical, and one you won’t have to wait until midnight to see. They’re screening the musical that defined the modern-day musical, “Grease.” But this time, it’s “Sing-Along Grease,” with the lyrics subtitled. (Like we don’t know the words.)

“Grease” was produced by Allan Carr, who was born Allan Solomon in Chicago and is an alum of Lake Forest College (where he was known as “Poopsie”) just thirty miles north of our fair city. After producing Grease, he went on to produce the bomb Can’t Stop the Music, the movie biopic chronicling the rise of the Village People, which also stars Olympic Athlete Bruce Jenner, Valerie Perrine, and the Village People, as well as Where the Boys Are ‘84. That same year, he also won a Tony award for producing the Broadway hit La Cage aux Folles.

“Sing-Along Grease” runs through Sunday, June 3, and tickets can be purchased on-line. The price of admission includes a prop bag (bubble gum cigarette, a glow-bracelet, knock-off Ray-Bans, bubbles, a slick comb, and a festive confetti popper) to help you get into the spirit. The pre-movie organ concert makes the evening a family affair, and before the curtain rises, there is a quick costume contest. Hats off to Suburban Seniors Sandy and Danny who easily lived the plot of the movie in their day, and won by obvious audience noise, proving they can still shoo-be-doo-whop with the rest of us.

Thanks, Tim!