Betty Rizzo

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Betty Rizzo is a fictional character from the musical Grease and its film adaptation of the same name. The stage show is a remarkably authentic snapshot of a tumultuous time in American history and American sexuality, and Rizzo is central to those themes. She is a senior at Rydell High and the leader of the Pink Ladies, the female counterparts to the Burger Palace Boys (renamed the T-Birds in the film in tribute to a famous Teen-exploitation drive-in film of the 50s). Rizzo is one of the Beats (commonly -- and derisively -- called Beatniks by others) who in the middle and late 1950s rejected mainstream values, morality, and art, trying to break through the facade of polite society to a more honest, more authentic way of living. The Beats' philosophy would eventually evolve into the less elitist, more political, Hippie movement in the 1960s.

In Grease Rizzo is initially hostile to the heroine Sandy, largely because she sees in Sandy the sexual repression and mindless conformity of mainstream 1950s America, and also partly because of Sandy's budding relationship with Rizzo's (presumed) ex-boyfriend Danny Zuko. Rizzo's hostility gets most confrontational in the novelty song "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee" (imitating "The Chipmunk Song" and other novelty songs of the period), in which she mocks Sandy for using as a role model a movie star like Sandra Dee, a false role model leading a fictional life. To Rizzo, this represents mainstream America, building lives on a false American Dream, believing that sanitized TV and movies were showing a real America. Interestingly, every male movie star Rizzo mentions in the song was reportedly a closet homosexual, a further commentary on the fake lives and repressed sexuality Sandy represents. In the stage show, Sandy and Rizzo even have a fist fight late in Act I.

After Rizzo and Kenickie become sexually involved, Rizzo fears she is pregnant and confides in Marty, another of the Pink Ladies. Marty immediately spreads the word, and Rizzo must deal with her classmates' gossip and judgement. When Sandy tries a peace offering, Rizzo defends herself and her way of life in the song "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", arguing that at least she is honest and open about her sexuality, that she is living an authentic life even if that life may be difficult. The song acts as a companion piece to Sandy's parallel self-evaluation, the reprise of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee," in which Sandy finally learns from Rizzo that she must reject her false role models and embrace ALL of herself, including her sexuality, that only when she is comfortable with herself can she be happy with Danny, leading to the rowdy, playful finale "All Choked Up" (replaced in the filme by the less carnal disco number "You're the One That I Want").