In the late 1970s, Australian Olivia Newton-John was America’s sweetheart after her stunning performance as Sandy in Grease. She had her choice of film roles, and she decided to follow up the box office success of Grease with… Xanadu, another musical in which she played a roller-skating muse who helped a struggling artist and a faded big band conductor open a roller disco. It flopped. (SURPRISE!) Not only did it flop, but this film led to the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, a.k.a. “The Razzies” a counter to the Oscars which awards the WORST in film for a particular year.
Co-founder of the Razzies, John J. B. Wilson, happened to take in a 99 cent double feature of Xanadu and Can’t Stop the Music and was so appalled that he decided to create this dubious honor. Coincidentally, Can’t Stop the Music was co-written and produced by Alan Carr who had produced Grease. The film was written with the intention that Newton-John would star in it, but she chose Xanadu instead. So Can’t Stop the Music starred the Village People, Bruce Jenner, and Steve Guttenberg. It’s as bad as you think it is. But, like Xanadu, it can be appreciated for its camp value.
Can’t Stop the Music wound up taking the first Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture. However Xanadu “won” for Worst Director for Robert Greenwald.
As far as the film itself, Xanadu is an attempt to revive the old-school musicals of the 1930s-50s but is drenched in early ’80s pop culture and fashion. I mentioned roller skating, right? (It won’t be the last time.) The film was inspired by the 1947 picture Down to Earth.
Newton-John plays Kira (real name Terpsichore), a muse from Greek mythology that accesses the modern world via a graffiti painting on the side of a building. She roller skates around, taunting struggling artist, Sonny Malone, played by Michael Beck who had previously starred in another ’80s cult classic, The Warriors.
Classic film great Gene Kelly co-starred as a former big-band conductor, Danny McGuire, who happened to have once had a romance in the 1940s with a woman that *might* have been Kira. (Young Danny was played by Matt Lattanzi, who went on to marry Newton-John in 1984.)
Kira and Sonny roller skate and fall in love, and she inspires him to pursue his art and to open a roller disco with Danny in a condemned art deco theater. This is a very concise summary of the movie, which is long as hell. Okay, technically, it’s 96 minutes long, but it seems to go on forever as the musical numbers stretch on and on.
The music is a mixture of styles, as Kelly performs a big band duet with Newton-John, “Whenever You’re Away from Me.” There is also a number called “Dancin,” sung by Newton-John with backup singers, which mixes big band sound with modern rock and roll and includes music and vocals by the band The Tubes. During that song, and later on, some viewers may recognize the legendary breakdancer Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quiñones, who would go on to star in the Breakin’ movies and was the choreographer for Madonna’s Who’s That Girl tour.
Also among the dance cast was Darcel Wynne, the lead on the TV series Solid Gold.
“Dancin” is followed in the film by “Don’t Walk Away” performed by Electric Light Orchestra, who you may know as James Gunn’s favorite band. That sequence is animated (beautifully, I might add) by Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Secret of NIHM, and more) and depicts Kira and Sonny as fairies.
Xanadu also includes the hit duet “Suddenly” sung by Newton-John and Cliff Richard, standing in for Beck. The film’s soundtrack album was originally released on vinyl, with one side dedicated to songs performed by Electric Light Orchestra, and the other to Newton-John’s songs.
“Don’t Walk Away” is followed by ELO’s “All Over the World,” which is the requisite ’80s “Let’s go shopping and try on a bunch of clothes” montage. There’s more roller skating.
However, at this point, Kira realizes she is falling in love with Sonny and tells him that she is forbidden from having such feelings. She reveals that she is a Muse and that her father is Zeus. She then journeys back to “Xanadu” which appears to be another name for Mount Olympus. Sonny works through his grief by… YEP! ROLLER SKATING! (This time set to ELO’s “The Fall.” Also, wearing the shortest shorts I think I’ve ever seen in a movie.)
All this roller skating leads him to the mural from the beginning of the movie and he magically figures out how to skate through it into Xanadu, which is apparently made out of neon. After a debate, Zeus sends Sonny back to Earth and a lovesick Kira sings a ballad, “Suspended in Time.”
Moved by her song, Zeus allows Kira to go back to Earth in time for the grand opening of Sonny and Danny’s nightclub, which is also called Xanadu. This cuts to the film’s big finale, a massive song and dance spectacular (which also includes juggling, tightrope walking, acrobatics, and… oh, yeah, roller skating) bookended by the hit song “Xanadu” by Newton-John and ELO. This sequence cuts to other performances as well, including the rock and country hybrid “Fool Country.”
At the end of this explosion of glitz and pop, Kira vanishes back to her home of Xanadu. BUT there’s a happy ending for Sonny, as one of the waitresses at the Xanadu nightclub walks over to him and *gasp* is an exact double for Kira!
The film was a massive flop at the box office, earning just $23 million on a budget of $20M. But the soundtrack was a smash, with “Magic” hitting #1 on the US Billboard charts and “Xanadu” making it to #8. (I SERIOUSLY wonder what seven songs were considered better than “Xanadu” at that time! I mean come on!) “I’m Alive,” “All Over the World,” and “Suddenly” were also Top 20 hits.
Xanadu was a flop at the time, but thanks to cable, it gained a huge cult following. The songs remain beloved and in 2007, it was adapted into a Broadway musical, which launched the career of Cheyenne Jackson who starred as Sonny. The stage production was nominated for multiple Tony Awards and was followed by a national touring show.
Is Xanadu the movie good? Well, it’s not as bad as critics accused it of being back in 1980. But it is campy and it can drag due to all the musical numbers. So if that’s not your thing, you definitely won’t like this. But if you’re in the mood for glitzy, poppy fun, you may enjoy it. Especially if you drink every time someone roller skates.
Xanadu is available now on Amazon Prime Video and Cinemax – Prime Video Channel.
