All ‘Greased’ up

Colourful musical sequel debuts on Paramount+

Attention all jocks, greasers and beauty school dropouts: Paramount+ is launching a brand-new series. It’s time to puff up those poodle skirts, slick back your hair and “think pink,” because “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” the highly anticipated “Grease” (1978) spinoff, premieres Thursday, April 6.

Billed as a prequel to the stillpopular John Travolta (“Saturday Night Fever,” 1977) and Olivia Newton-John (“Xanadu,” 1980) -led musical “Grease,” “Rise of the Pink Ladies” follows a group of young women fighting to gain autonomy at Rydell High in the early 1950s.All relegated to specific gender roles and expected to behave a certain way while growing into adulthood, Rydell’s finest females form the Pink Ladies, an elite club of teen girls, out of a desire to take control of their own destinies.

While the original “Grease” shows the Pink Ladies in action when Sandy (Newton-John) arrives in town four years later, the Paramount+ series takes things back to the girl gang’s humble beginnings, shining a spotlight on the issues that prompted the group’s formation in the first place.

Behind the Pink Ladies’ inception are Olivia (new talent Cheyenne Wells), Jane (Marisa Davila, “I Am Not Okay with This”), Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara, “Queenpins,” 2021) and Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso, “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin,” 2021), Rydell students who’ve grown tired of the double standards, societal expectations and sexism that runs rampant among their classmates and in their community.

Based on the official synopsis, first-look images and the twominute Paramount+ trailer, it’s clear that the formation of the Pink Ladies is a joint effort between the “four fed-up outcasts who dare to have fun on their own terms.” The driving force behind the idea, however, appears to be Jane, who has grown weary of her peers’ shaming and her newfound reputation at school.

After stepping out in public wearing Buddy’s (Jason Schmidt, “FBI: Most Wanted”) letterman jacket, a group of cheerleaders accuse Jane of having performed lewd acts in order to snag a boyfriend. Insisting that Buddy told them “exactly what [she] had to do to get that jacket,” Jane’s more popular peers leave her feeling as though she has ruined herself and her clean reputation. Matters only worsen for the teen when she confronts Buddy and is met with ignorant nonchalance.

Olivia, meanwhile, is caught in a similar smear campaign from the year prior. Still constantly harassed by her male peers, Olivia is on the hunt for a way to escape the crude comments regarding her sexuality. As a result, it only makes sense that Jane and Olivia should find each other between classes and devise some sort of plan to get their lives back to normal. Getting back to “normal” is easier said than done, however, because as Assistant Principal McGee (Jackie Hoffman, “Glass Onion,” 2022) says in the show, “A girl’s reputation is all that she has.”

Also looking to improve her own reputation is Cynthia, who desperately wants to be a part of the T-Birds, Rydell High’s band of popular greasers in matching leather jackets.With her unconventional gender-fluid style and “tomboy” interests, Cynthia is repeatedly ridiculed for expressing her true self and soon joins Jane and Olivia in their quest to change the landscape of their school’s social hierarchy.

The last founding mother of the Pink Ladies is Nancy.The only group member of Japanese descent, Nancy not only faces the same sexism as other young women at school but is also subject to racism and haunted by memories of her time spent in an internment camp.