Olivia's new look reflects a new sound
HOLLYWOOD: “Let’s Get Physical” is the invitation of Olivia Newton-John in her latest album and a television special on ABC Monday night (10 p.m., Channel 7 in Detroit).
In fact, the album led to the special, a unique happenstance in today’s TV.
“The album came first,” Newton-John recounts. “I hadn’t done a solo album in 24 years, and I wanted to try something a little different. More rock ‘n’ roll for a change, more ‘up’ tunes. I was always known for ballads before.”
“We decided to make some video concepts of the songs, perhaps to put them on cable television. Brian Grant is an English director who has done 300 recording films, and he’s very imaginative. We gave him the album and told him to work up ideas. He came back with storyboards that were brilliant.”
“My manager showed the films to ABC, and the network wanted a TV special. I was surprised. I don’t want to sound detrimental to television, but I thought that the numbers were too kind of ‘new’ for network TV. They’re experimental, the sort of thing you might find on cable television.”
“We added some dialogue and a couple of live numbers, but otherwise the numbers are the same as they were originally done each song a three-minute story. No guest stars at least no guests that are stars yet. That’s different from the usual television special.”
AT this point in her career, Olivia Newton-John seems to be searching for new challenges. She hasn’t done a concert tour in three years. She declined overtures for a re-teaming with John Travolta in “Grease II.” Except for European appearances last September, she has spent much of the past two years at home, “catching up on my personal life, seeing friends, being with my animals.” She has a small menagerie at her Malibu spread.
Her last film, “Xanadu,” hit the nation’s theaters with a resounding thud, though the album was a platinum seller. What happened to the movie?
“I thought the musical numbers were great, but the dialogue left something to be desired,” she commented. “I knew that while we were shooting, but there wasn’t much I could do. Then they changed the whole story midway through production, and that didn’t help. Although ‘Xanadu’ didn’t do well in this country, it was very successful abroad, and I understand the backers recently got their money back.”
OLIVIA plans to return to Australia next summer to appear in a non-musical film, “Kangaroo,” based on a novel by D.H. Lawrence. She would co-star with Bryan Brown (“Breaker Morant”) as a Sydney housewife during the 1920s and 1930s.
Many people think of Olivia Newton-John as an Australian. Although she grew up in Melbourne, she was born in Cambridge, England, to a Welsh father and German mother.
“My mother always insisted that I keep my English passport,” she remarked, “and that turned out to be a good thing. I first went to England as a double act with an Australian girl, Pat Carroll. When her visa expired, she had to return to Australia. I stayed on and started working as a single.”
By Bob Thomas, Associated Press