Blast from the Past: Xanadu

Just as I'm about to make a post about my favorite musical from the 80's starring Olivia Newton John, I found out that Xanadu is coming to Broadway!

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/98702.html









Anyhoo, so Xanadu is all about these Greek muses who incarnate themselves on Earth to inspire men to achieve. One of them, Kira, played by ONJ, falls in love with an artist named Sonny Malone. With the help of Danny McGuire, played by Gene Kelly (his last starring role) a man Kira had inspired forty years earlier, Sonny builds a huge disco roller rink and makes Sonny his partner. We really never know why he does this, but it inspires the best dance sequence/montage of all time, at least until Staying Alive. However, the fact that the whole thing was performed on roller skates makes the scene one-of-a-kind. Speaking of which, another one of my favorite ONJ films is Two of a Kind. And just like Napoleon's grandma, ONJ broke her coccyx during filming.

ONJ met her 1st husband, Matt Lattanzi, a dancer, on the set. They were married soon after filming wrapped.

I love this movie and definitely recommend it! Unfortunately, the critics did not and it was the inspiration for the creation of The Razzies, an award ceremony that honors the year's worst in film. Xanadu's director, Robert Greenwald, won the first ever Razzie for Worst Director.