america's love affair with the underdogs

who knew that at the end of the journey to crown the lead stars of 'grease, the musical,' we would see not just one, but two underdogs winning the votes?

max crumm was the unlikely danny zuko because of his looks. he was up against austin in the final 2 and as billy bush, the host, himself said, it was a battle between tom cruise and ben stiller. right there and then, i thought, max crumm's the new danny. i mean, tom cruise? did they think austin was going to be happy with the comparison?

laura osnes is also an unlikely sandy because, well, she's not blonde. hah! i don't have anything against her. she's cute and she sings well.

the show premiered in january and because of my trip to manila, i lost track of it until today when i got hooked again and watched the marathon on bravo before the 8 pm live finale sunday night. i have no idea if they got the idea (the reality show part) from bbc's "how do you solve a problem like maria?," a uk-based show looking for the lady who's going to play maria on the west end's "sound of music". caught a couple of episodes back in august when i was in london and i was instantly hooked. scoured the torrents for a few more but i am missing the final 3 or 4 episodes.

anyhow, this is what happens when producers make a reality show ("you're the one that i want" aired on nbc) out of their audition process. i honestly thought that austin had it in the bag since he has been doing musicalls all his life and he seemed to be the perfect danny. i just hope that max and laura be able to sell tickets. good luck.