‘Laverne & Shirley’ sweethearts reunite and find that ‘Grease’ is the word

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 9:58 a.m.

What: "Grease."

When: Today through May 30; 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 9:30 p.m. Fridays; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Saturdays; 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. The show is dark on Wednesdays.

Where: MGM Grand Hollywood Theater.

Cost: Monday through Thursday and Sunday nights, $51.50; Fridays and Saturdays, $57; Sunday matinee, $38.50.

Information: Call 891-7777.

They go together like rama, lama, lama, kadingy, kading-a-dong.

Cindy Williams and Eddie Mekka, probably most remembered for their roles as Shirley Feeney and her beau, Carmine "The Big Ragu" Ragusa on the hit television show "Laverne & Shirley," are together again.

The two star in the play "Grease," which opens tonight at the MGM Grand Hollywood Theater.

The play takes the audience back to a time when pierced ears and makeup were rebellious and leather jackets were a uniform for bad boys.

"Grease" is a window into a simpler time anyone can look back on with nostalgia, Williams said.

"There's something very, very comforting about the music and the storyline," Williams said. "It was a time of innocence -- when a prank was fun, and not something dangerous."

Williams' career has "coincidentally" revolved around that era. Her big break was in the 1973 movie "American Graffiti" about the lives of teenagers in the '50s, and the Shirley Feeney character she played for eight seasons on ABC was the perfect picture of sock-hop virginal innocence.

Over the years Williams has appeared in many TV shows and movies and most recently starred in an episode of Showtime's "Beggars and Choosers."

But she was thrilled to be on stage and to go back to the era that has treated her so well in "Grease," in which she stars as Miss Lynch, the vivacious teacher.

"I've always wanted to do a musical, not that I do a lot of singing and dancing, mind you," Williams said. "Musical theater has so much energy and it's so much fun -- fun, fun, fun -- to be on stage and be in the middle of that."

A return to that innocence within the theater is what keeps "Grease" so popular, she said. The play has been a theater staple since it opened on Broadway in 1972. It was turned into a hit movie in 1978 (which will be shown Friday at 8:05 p.m. on WTBS, Cox cable channel 7), and a critically panned sequel followed in '82. A third movie, "Grease 3," is in the planning process.

The play transports audiences back to the days when elders were still respected and the teenage world was made up of fast cars, true love and good times.

"In the '60s, when I went to high school, teachers weren't afraid to remind people of their p's and q's and do it with humor," Williams said. "There's no humor in the world anymore."

For example, Williams' college initiation into a social club had her in stitches, but would probably be construed as some sort of slight towards someone or something in today's society.

"We had to dress up like bears and go into a restaurant and order something to go," she said. "Nowadays, it's gotten to be very intense, the world, and ('Grease') takes place in a time that was soft and mirthful.

"It sounds so hokey in this day and age but that's the truth: We could all use a shot of happiness."

Mekka, who has lived in Northwest Las Vegas for six years, agrees.

"It's very nostalgic, it's from the innocent part of our lives," Mekka said of the play. "You couldn't use the word vo-de-o-do-do because it was a filthy word suggesting (sexual) penetration."

That innocent sense of humor has been eradicated by sinking family values, he said.

"I never thought 'Grease' would rise to the occasion where that would be the most decent thing around," he said.

Williams told producers in November that Mekka would be good for the role of the singing Teen Idol. Mekka had played other roles in past productions of "Grease" around the country.

"Cindy called and, bada boom, bada bing, she said, 'Hey, the guy doing Teen Idol canceled out and I told them you live right up the street,' " Mekka said. "It never dawned on them. Cindy and Eddie in 'Grease' -- that's a great idea."

Although the two had a good chemistry on stage, Mekka said, it took the arrival of his daughter five years ago to bring "Angel Face" and "The Big Ragu" (pet names their "Laverne & Shirley" characters had for each other) together. Williams called Mekka to dispense baby advice and offer congratulations.

"We became best friends," Mekka said. "It's funny, after all these years. Her and I, we are probably the closest of 'Laverne & Shirley' people now."

Mekka had been coming to Las Vegas since the '70s, and fell in love with the town after falling in love with his future wife at a convention.

While on "Laverne & Shirley" Mekka also starred in another sitcom, "Blansky's Beauties." The Las Vegas-themed show was filmed at Caesars Palace in 1977 but was quickly canceled. This became an unfortunate theme of Mekka's career.

"I've had kinda bad luck as far as that's concerned," Mekka said. "God knows I've had the opportunities, it's just that for one reason or another it didn't work out."

Mekka has kept his career alive with touring plays, appearing in small roles on TV shows and performing his variety act on cruise ships and nightclubs around the country.

"I do a lot of Sinatra and Tony Bennett stuff and talk about working (on) Broadway, where I came from," Mekka said.

He also shows a clip from "Laverne & Shirley" because he knows he will always be Carmine to fans.

"If the public was in charge of my destiny, I'd be a superstar," Mekka said. "It bothers me in the respect that the powers that be, the casting people, can't get past that because they are the ones who are supposed to get past that."

Mekka has had multitudes of bit parts, playing mobsters and cops, mostly. Two years ago he did "The Jamie Foxx Show" and played a Mafia character saved by Foxx.

Life imitated art in a scene where Mekka's tie gets caught in an elevator door and Foxx cuts the tie, saving the character's life.

"The day we were filming the (prop) guys got a little carried away and they pulled the scarf so tight that I was really hanging by my neck," he said. "They cut off circulation in my windpipe. I couldn't scream but I was screaming and Jamie saw me and cut me down like he was supposed to."

Another five seconds and Mekka would have played his last role, he said.

"I was convulsing and talking, saying, 'Let's get the shot,' " Mekka said.

Then there are the perks that come with the distinction of having played one of America's better-known TV characters. While on location in Louisiana for a TV show Mekka stopped in at Carmine's Pizza, just for a lark. But it turned out that the joke was on him.

"The guy named it after me," Mekka said. "I thought it was a joke but when I walked in there were pictures of me all over the place."

A year later he popped in while on a national tour of "The Goodbye Girl" with the entire cast in tow to dine at his namesake pizza place. The owner treated.

"Carmine can go anywhere," Mekka said, "and get a free meal."

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