20 Years of Grease - People magazine

Set in a 1950s never-never land called Rydell High and starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the movie musical Grease has proved as lastingly appealing as Elvis. Now re-released for its 20th birthday, the 1978 hit, already the top-grossing musical ever, took in $13 million during its first retro weekend. On the following pages, PEOPLE revisits the original T-Birds, Pink Ladies and other Grease grads.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: I don't think any of us could comprehend the enormity of its success, says Newton-John (with daughter Chloe in '97).

Grease was the single biggest event of my life, says Newton-John, 49, who played Travolta's girlfriend, Sandy, a wholesome Sandra Dee clone. It affected everything. (And still does: Her daughter, Chloe, 12, likes to go to sleep with the tape playing on the VCR.) Newton-John, whose duet with Travolta, You're the One That I Want, became a No. 1 hit, recalls her weeks with the cast as a wonderful summer. It was like going to a school that I'd never gone to.

This decade has been a hard-knocks education for Newton-John, who grew up in Melbourne. Her sportswear line, Koala Blue, failed in 1991; she was diagnosed with breast cancer in '92; then she and her husband, actor Matt Lattanzi, split in '95.

Things have picked up lately. She re-recorded her 1974 hit I Honestly Love You with Kenneth Babyface Edmonds and, more important, has a clean bill of health. You can go down the tube or you can fight, she says. I realized I could fight.

Alan Carr - I was so taken by Olivia's manner and her sweetness and her smarts, says Carr (partying with Newton-John at a Grease premiere in 1978).

Lorenzo Lamas - After presidential son and aspiring movie actor Steven Ford decided he was too nervous to play the role of Olivia Newton-John's jock boyfriend (even though the part had no dialogue), Lamas, a strapping 6'1" and 220 lbs., was more than happy to step in. After all, says Lamas, 40, the son of actress Arlene Dahl and the late actor Fernando Lamas, I was going to have some scenes with Olivia the goddess! He didn't even object when producer Allan Carr decided he looked too much like a T-Bird and told him to lighten his dark hair. I would have dyed it green, fuchsia, anything, says Lamas.