"You do know what they say about twins, separated at birth? They say that if either twin ever learns he was once one of a pair they shall both immediately die." The play ends in a very sad way, with both the twins dieing.
Grease is about a group of kids in their graduate year, the main characters are Sandy Dee who is a goody two shoes Australian girl and Danny Zuko an ultra cool gang leader of the T-birds. They fall in love over the summer but when they go back to school Danny’s acting as if he doesn’t even know her. Gradually throughout the play, they sort out their differences and Danny realises that he loves Sandy and doesn’t care what his gang thinks; he does what’s right for himself.
Grease is set is in the restrictive 1950’s centred around at an American high school, this is similar to Blood Brothers as in the musical version it is very much set in the 1950’s at some points, predominantly in Mrs Johnson’s songs. Blood Brothers was written in the 1980’s and it has a “timeless feel to it”. This suggests that it can be set in any year and it wouldn’t be affected.
Grease deals with the societal issues and stereotypes of America in the 1950’s; women were certainly treated differently then compared to in this day and age. In the film woman had little power in the film, the only main influence being sexual. Mrs Johnson is treated badly by men, as they are totally unreliable towards her. Regardless of this, she is a strong character and she knows what she wants out of life.
In Blood Brothers Mrs Lyons typifies her perfect life, manners, money and style. Whereas compared to Mrs Lyons she is the less fortunate as her life is full of poverty. Furthermore, this view of society for Mrs Lyons is still negative as her marriage is unstable. Again, the same is for Mrs Johnston’s relationships with men as they are unreliable. She has no luck with men and this is seen negative in society. Sandy and Rizzo’s relationships are also negative as their relationships with men are unsteady throughout the main parts of the play.
Although both Sandy and Rizzo’s relationships are similar in the main part of the play the gradually find acceptance at the end of the play. So therefore, in society this views them as acceptable with stable relationships and high self-esteem. At the end of Blood Brothers would be viewed insane and not worthy of herself by the society. She is obsessed and paranoid with the idea of Mrs Johnston trying to take Edward away from her. Mrs Johnson would be seen as weak and pitted by the society these are negative views.
The morals involved in both Blood brothers and Grease are very strong as in Grease Sandy doesn’t give in on Danny’s advances. Mrs Johnson is religious and superstitious. This is show when she swears on the bible.
However, Mrs Johnson isn’t viewed negatively by herself or by the audience, even though she has numerous children with different men, and furthermore none of the men have been reliable and stayed with her. This suggests that she isn’t very secure within herself and surroundings. Many of the children get into trouble, for instance like Sammy. This gives the impression that Mrs Johnston can’t control; her children. Rizzo is viewed harshly by the 1950’s culture, including other characters and her.
In Blood Brothers and Grease, they are similar as they both are musicals, with the spoken play being split up with songs. Important parts of the play with high moments of emotion are expressed through song and dance routines.
However it differs as in Blood Brothers the script studied was not the musical version. So this therefore means that highly emotive scenes had to be expressed through words alone, So that the audience could react to what was happening. The acting style is different to Grease as Blood Brothers is for the stage which includes bolder acting. Whereas Grease is for the TV, so therefore this suggests that more subtle acting is required.