Here’s my opinion about remakes – if you’re gonna bother, you better have a new take on the show or performers that blow you away.  Neither were the case in this lackluster, joyless rendition.  Although we were promised a melding of the stage and film versions, what FOX delivered was a fairly faithful, yet faded copy of a beloved film.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing…just a pointless thing.  But one must give credit where credit is due – the technical achievements of this live production were astonishing.  The sheer scope of the sock hop scene alone was a marvel (marred by an audio glitch during the hand jive, where no one did the hand jive).  There was almost one major disaster at the end when the dancer with the era-inappropriate frosted tips drove his tram onto the curb!  But the biggest misstep was this – if you are going to go to the trouble of having a live audience, use them!  We never heard a peep from them, except for applause at the end of songs.  This made all the jokes fall flat.

Happily, no one in the cast embarrassed themselves.  But nobody covered themselves with glory, either.  Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough are attractive and capable performers.  But they had almost no charisma and zero chemistry.  Julianne lacks a winsome quality and you never really root for her Sandy, while Tveit was practically the antithesis of a successful Zuko (in some scenes, he looked eerily like the Kenickie of the film version, Jeff Conaway).  His Danny never came off clueless enough for the early scenes, and was way too muscular for the later athletic scenes.  The most successful performance of the evening was that of Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo.  While it was pretty much a carbon copy of Stockard Channing’s portrayal, at least she was interesting and authentically sassy – and kudos to her for pulling it off only hours after her dad lost his battle to cancer.  What was left of the part of Kenickie was well played by that hot-ass, Carlos PenaVega.  Keke Palmer made the most of her Marty, but someone should teach Jordan Fisher how to strum a guitar.  The screen sparkled every time Ana Gasteyer came on as Principal McGee, alongside Haneefah Wood as her secretary, Blanche.  Special mention must go to the film originals Barry Pearl and Didi Cohn, who brought some heart and pathos to her all-too-brief scenes as Vi.