the question isn't why has grease been reissued . 
the answer to that one is easy : to celebrate the movie's 20th anniversary and to make more bucks for paramount's coffers because john travolta is once again a hot commodity . 
no , the question that ought to be asked is : should grease be reissued ? 
the answer is not an easy one . 
grease is a fun movie , an entertaining fantasy of the '50s , embodying all the cliches of that era . 
the music is lively and the dance numbers , choreographed by patricia birch , are energetic and high-spirited . 
travolta was at his pinnacle as a sexual icon , cool , but non-threatening . 
but grease didn't break any new cinematic ground . 
it was not a milestone in movie history such as citizen kane or easy rider . 
what grease is - or has become - is the highest-grossing musical in film history . 
ok , let's not be a spoilsport . 
grease is a fun and entertaining movie , even though it stretches credulity to see such performers as travolta , olivia newton-john , taxi's jeff conaway and the multi-talented stockard channing try to act like high schoolers . 
it's nostalgic to recall how good a dancer travolta was , and it's sad to think of what could have been had not a few missteps sidetracked his career . 
he could have become a musical comedy star in the tradition of gene kelly . 
cinematically , the musical comedy has basically gone the way of the dinosaur . 
between grease and 1996's evita . , you can probably count the number of movie musicals on one hand . 
two reasons have contributed to the demise of the genre : the first is that movie audiences have become more sophisticated , no , make that cynical and jaded . 
today , if a character began to dance and sing with no orchestra in sight , he or she would probably be hooted off the screen . 
today's audiences lack the innocence , that belief in movie magic that is required for a musical to succeed . 
secondly , a lack of talent . 
performers with the charisma , the style , the larger-than-life panache of fred astaire , gene kelly , ginger rogers and judy garland are gone . 
most singers and dancers remain on the stage , and those who do succeed in movies usually wind up in serious dramatic parts . 
a good example is gregory hines , one of the greatest dancers in the world . 
he danced a bit in the cotton club , tap and white nights , but those were essentially dramatic vehicles . 
so , perhaps the reissue of grease can serve a purpose . 
if audiences show enough interest , meaning if the re-release earns the studio enough revenue , it may spark a revival in movie musicals . 
perhaps not original musicals such as singin' in the rain , an american in paris or seven brides for seven brothers , but for broadway properties that have been in the planning stages for film adaptations for several years . 
at one time or another , according to the industry rumor mill , hollywood has been set to create an animated version of andrew lloyd webber's cats , a filming of the popular phantom of the opera as well as les miserables and chicago , the latter reportedly to star madonna . 
so , let this grease be the forerunner of an armada of movie musicals . 
let grease be the word that sparks this revival .