Explosive Xanadu - Photoplay

Ageing rockers and teenyboppers have about as much in common as English summers and sunshine, yet to the majority of her public, Olivia Newton-John, a member of the former category, is always put into the latter. It's not her fault that she has retained her youthful good looks and vitality, but she would like the fans to let her grow up.

Now on the wrong side of 30 - she was born on September 26, 1948 - Olivia is pinning her hopes of at least screen maturity on the mammoth new musical Xanadu. The goody-goody image with which she has been lumbered for so long will finally, with luck, begin to fade. While not having had to suffer the indignity once handed out to Petula Clark in a film, of being made to wear a special bust-flattening ensemble, or endure the Hayley Mills' first screen kiss nonsense, Olivia has captured the girl-next-door market. But, she would sensibly argue, the girl-next-door isn't always an angel.

There are far more parts to me than the girl-next-door image, she points out. I am growing and expanding. It's not a sudden change of labels, it's just that in retaining my own identity I am now a woman. as any red-blooded male can see, that last statement is only too true, and some of Olivia's experiences during her career have helped her reach that state rather more quickly than might otherwise have been the case.

Before returning to her native England in the late Sixties as a prize for winning a talent contest, Olivia had fallen in love with and become engaged to Bruce Welch of the Shadows. Upon arrival here Olivia formed a singing duo with Pat Carroll who incidentally, later married Olivia's current record producer, John Farrar. Pat's work permit expired, she returned to Australia and Olivia got roped into Don Kirshner's ill-fated Toomorrow project.

Kirshner had been responsible for foisting the Monkees upon an unsuspecting world and followed that with the Archies who, though cartoon characters, had a lot in common musically with the Monkees. To follow those huge successes he put together a two boy, two girl group, called them Toomorrow and made a film. It nose-dived. And Olivia was back on her own.

Things soon took a turn for he better however when Welch, her record producer as well as her fiance, helped her to a hit with a middle of the road version of Bob Dylan's If Not For You in 1971. Her first album the same year went to No. 2 and her follow-up single, Banks of The Ohio, was another smash. She toured Europe as part of the Cliff Richard Show, then became a regular guest on his BBC-TV series, It's Cliff Richard.

As her career went from strength to strength she must have felt on top of the world as her single Let Me Be There gained her a Grammy as Best Country Vocalist in 1973. But the same year, she and Welch split up and he was later found suffering from a drugs overdose. There's no need to go into the traumatic effect that had upon a girl. John Farrar, by that time a member of the Shadows, became Olivia's record producer and her success grew. Two more Grammys in 1974, eight American Music Awards since 1974 and awards from the Country Music Association, Billboard the Academy of Country Music and Cashbox among many. Not bad going for a former coffee bar singer. Olivia's new manager was Londoner Lee Kramer with whom she had a long love affair, but the couple recently split up. Kramer is executive producer of Xanadu. So it becomes obvious that Olivia has packed a lot of experiences - good and bad - into her 31 years.

Its a popular fantasy about my innocence, it makes me sound as if I'm not human, she protests. There's innocence and there's innocence - I'm broadminded, and I'm not innocent. Like any normal woman, Olivia has had her share of men friends, but she insists, most of the love tangles I hear I'm involved in just aren't real experiences. It would be a pity if I felt I had to jump about from one man to another. I hear about women leaping into bed with the nearest man or as a substitute turning to drinking. I'm not putting down sex or alcohol, but it's just a cover-up for something lacking in the brain.

In her last movie, Grease - reputed to be the most successful musical ever made, grossing over 150 million dollars in international rentals alone - Olivia donned tight pants and high heels and admits, I just didn't know if I would be accepted like that, but I was determined to be more adventurous. People came up to me and said they liked that part, so I was pleased with the way things turned out. I get fed up with people thinking I'm too good to be true, I'm always being branded as a sort of Miss Clean, but that's really not me at all.

It all started when my career began to take off. I was only about nineteen at the time and I suppose I was innocent and a bit too goody-goody. Now I'm grown up.

Part of the 'sexing up' of Olivia Newton-John, screen-wise, continues in Xanadu with her wearing variously-a fringed cowgirl skirt and white, thigh-length boots; a sexy tiger-skin number; a flowing white dress with a slit up to there and a Betty Grable-type outfit complete with fishnet stockings. The queue forms behind me, chaps.

The 20 million dollar Xanadu could come closest yet to putting an end to the fatuous 'untouchable' Olivia image and she may then come to be regarded by the public more as she really is. After her break up with Kramer she revealed; I'm glad to be on my own again. I'm far too busy to meet, much less fall in love with anyone new at present. It's not easy to be in love with a man or be married while working in showbusiness. I don't want to be somebody's little girl. I don't want to be dependent on anyone.

I haven't yet run into the man I believe I'll spend the rest of my life with. There's no need to rush into anything like that at the moment. One day I will be ready for marriage, but it isn't just yet. When I finally make those marriage vows I want it to last forever. Unfortunately I've never seen relationships close to me and my family that have lasted forever (her parents, her sister, plus uncles and aunts were divorced), so you reach the point of believing they're not possible. If I get married it will be the strongest commitment I've ever made to anything - so I want to be sure I make the right decision. Marriage has destroyed many careers in my business and because I feel so strongly about that eventual commitment I have to sacrifice it for my career for now. To be loyal can be costly. You can't go in front of cameras worrying about your man waiting for you, or staying up late to keep him happy.

And if that makes Olivia sound a very career-minded and independent lady, note what she says next. I think women might be getting a little too independent. It could lead to a backlash of problems. Today, many men just don't treat women the same because of it. Independent women don't get the car doors held open for them anymore. Fortunately I was given a good upbringing by my parents, it was a strong foundation for my life that enables me to survive everything.

In the survival stakes Olivia has managed well thus far and she will probably need no rabbit's foot for Xanadu. If the credits are anything to go by, it should be a musical as well as a cinematic treat. Consider -the composers - Jeff Lynne and John Farrar. Jeff, for the uninitiated, is the driving force behind the phenomenally successful Electric Light Orchestra, the band that plays to packed audiences the world over and which ships platinum with every album release. Jeff joined the Move, the enfants terrible of the British pop scene, in 1970 and a year later formed ELO with Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan. Wood left and Jeff took over the whole caboodle. From their initial hit with Roll Over Beethoven, which combined Chuck Berry and the classical composer, ELO and Lynne scored a stream of hit singles and albums. Lynne had many offers to write songs for movies but ELO's busy recording and touring schedule put the lid on that activity.

In 1979, the group rested up and Jeff wrote and recorded five songs for Xanadu. ELO play the music in the movie. The title song, featuring Olivia and the ELO, was No 1 in Britain. As well as producing smash after smash for Olivia., John Farrar toured the States with her in 1977 before settling in Los Angeles. His close association with the lady star of the film made him an obvious choice to write and produce another five songs for the movie.

In Xanadu, Olivia plays the part of a muse, one of Zeus' nine daughters who come down to Earth to help mortals live out their fantasies. Michael Beck from The Warriors is the romantic attachment for Olivia and they sing a duet - the catch being that on the soundtrack it's really Olivia and Cliff Richard! The song, Suddenly, is a joint single.

There's also the presence of one Gene Kelly to add weight to the proceedings. When he originally agreed to do the film, Kelly was reluctant to get involved in dancing, but he finally agreed and now appears in several production numbers. He plays a former clarinet player, now retired, who yearns to get back into showbusiness with its attendant glamour.

Co-producer Lawrence Gordon (The Warrior; Hooper; The End) and his partner Joel Silver, first took the idea to Warner Brothers but they vetoed the scheme and Universal picked it up. Maybe Warners were right to do so, Gordon mused. A musical fantasy is chancy and at that time we didn't have Olivia or Gene.

Three months and three million dollars were spent constructing John (Coal Miner's Daughter) Corso's set for the interior of Xanadu and the finale involves 237 dancers, roller skaters and speciality acts, including tightrope walkers and jugglers. Olivia has no less than five costume changes during this sequence.

I'm not outrageous or controversial, so I get labelled as bland, Olivia complains. Boring, boring! That's what they say. Perhaps not for much longer.