On January 31, 2016, a television version of the Broadway musical and hit movie, Grease, was broadcast live on the Fox TV network. Grease Live! was seen by more than 12 million viewers and received mostly positive reviews from the critics.

As a long time fan of the 1978 movie, which stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, I looked forward to the new version for months. I was not disappointed. The acting, singing, and dancing were excellent, and the production was outstanding. There was, however, one small problem with the show. The age of the cast members was not appropriate.

Grease is a musical about kids attending high school during the 1950s, and was originally performed on Broadway in 1971. Although high school students from the 50s and 70s looked different than today, the actors from the current production would not pass for teenagers in any era.

The 32-year-old actor, Aaron Tveit, played the male lead, Danny. Unless he repeated 9^th grade 15 times, he looks too old to be in high school. The professional dancer and judge from ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, Julianne Hough, played the female lead, Sandy. If Hough is currently attending high school, the 27 year-old actress would be in the 22^nd grade. The remaining “teenage” leads on Grease Live! were played by actors ranging from ages 21 to 30, with Jordan Fisher, playing the role of Doody, being the youngest.

Due to the miracle of makeup and perhaps Botox or plastic surgery, it is possible that actors may appear much younger on television. Knowing the actual age of the lead actors, I may have been biased in thinking they looked too old. To test this theory, I submitted photos of Tveit and Hough to the website “how-old.net,” where an app tries to guess a person’s age by analyzing facial features. The results were not surprising. The website thought Tveit is 31 years old and Hough is 26 years old.

Having aging men and women playing high school students is not unique to the current production of Grease. The 1978 movie featured actors ranging in age from 20 to 34 playing the high school teenagers. The leads, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, were 24 and 29 years old, respectively.

In contrast to musicals, dramas about teenagers appear to have more age appropriate actors. In the original Hunger Games, the lead actors playing the teenage roles, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, were 20 and 18. In the 2014 film The Fault in Our Stars, which is about high school students battling cancer, the two stars, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, were 21 and 19.

The reason why musical producers ignore the huge discrepancy between the ages of the actors and the characters appears fairly simple. Musicals are not based on reality. It’s unusual for a high school student in real life to suddenly break out into a song in the middle of a conversation; at least not in Manhasset. Fans of musicals will forgive the producer for having a talented singer with wrinkles dancing to choreography in a high school classroom.

On the other hand, when watching a drama, where the audience is supposed to believe in the characters, having “teenagers” with grey hair and age spots would probably ruin the show.

Arguably, Grease Live! would have been a more enjoyable experience if the actors were younger, but not if they were less talented. Having a 17-year old actor with limited acting, singing, and dancing skills would have been distracting. Overall, the compromise made by the producers paid off, as the musical was extremely entertaining.

In December 2016, NBC is planning to air a live version of Hairspray, another musical about teenagers. It should be interesting to see who will be cast in the leading roles. Perhaps Zac Effron, who was 19 years old when he played Link Larkin in the 2007 film version, will reprise his role. Hey, he will only be 29!