They Call It ‘Xanadu’: 5 Fun Facts About Olivia Newton-John’s Musical Fantasy Film
August 8 is a momentous day for Olivia Newton-John fans: It’s the anniversary of both her 2022 death and the 1980 theatrical release of her infamous film Xanadu.
In the film, Newton-John plays the Greek muse Terpsichore, who goes undercover on Earth as a mysterious woman named Kira and inspires struggling artist Sonny (Michael Beck) and the former big-band musician Danny (Gene Kelly in his final film role) to open a nightclub called Xanadu. Cue the lights, the glitter, and the disco-style music by Newton-John and the Electric Light Orchestra, all adding up to a roller-skating fantasia.
Xanadu was not a commercial or critical success, but it lives on, “Suspended in Time,” as a cult classic. Read on for trivia about the film and its legacy.
1 Xanadu was inspired by the films Down to Earth & Cover Girl
Everett Collection
Xanadu is based on the 1947 musical-comedy film Down to Earth, in which Rita Hayworth plays a version of Terpsichore who walks among the mortals in the disguise of an actress named Kitty and convinces a Broadway producer named Danny (Larry Parks) to revise his Broadway production about the Nine Muses of Olympus.
Kelly’s Xanadu role, meanwhile, is the same one he played in an earlier Rita Hayworth picture, the 1944 rom-com Cover Girl.
2 In turn, the film inspired the Razzies
Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
Xanadu, a $20 million production, only earned $23 million at the domestic box office, and it was a flop with critics, too. (Variety even called the film “a stupendously bad film whose only salvage is the music,” wherein the muses are “singing and zipping hither and yon, apparently looking for a script that will never be found.”)
That film and the 1980 musical comedy Can’t Stop the Music also inspired John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy to create the Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzies, the annual ceremony honoring the worst cinema of the year. At that inaugural Razzies, Xanudu won Worst Director and was nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Original Song.
“The key to Xanadu is, it was enjoyable in a way that was not intended,” Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “It was a failure as a film but not necessarily as entertainment.”
3 The soundtrack, at least, was a hit
The Xanadu soundtrack, produced by Jeff Lynne, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and boasted five Top 20 singles, including Newton-John’s No. 1 single “Magic.” And those songs’ popularity kept the film in fans’ cultural consciousnesses.
“I didn’t realize the following Xanadu had until I started touring again and started singing the songs,” Newton-John told New York Magazine in 2007. “Everyone loves to sing along to ‘Magic’ and ‘Xanadu.’ I think people connect with the music mostly. I also think everyone loves a bit of fantasy [and] everyone likes to escape a bit.”
4 Xanadu also gave life to an unauthorized stage show, a Broadway musical, and a comic book
ReMIND Staff
In an unauthorized 2001 Los Angeles stage show called Xanadu Live!, actors recited the film’s dialogue and lip-synched to its music. One audience member at that L.A. show was theatrical producer Robert Ahrens, who then got the rights to the film for the Broadway musical Xanadu, which opened in 2007 and ran for 49 previews and 512 regular performances, per Broadway.com. The Broadway show earned the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway Musical and received four Tony Award nominations.
The film’s story also reached the printed page with 1980’s Marvel Super Special #17 comic book. (“It begins with the first stirrings of dawn on a southern California beach and a plaintive music that drifts lazily on the sea breeze…” the books starts.)
5 Fans of the film might recognize two Xanadu-like Disney theme park entrances
ReMIND Staff
Exterior shots of the Xanadu nightclub in the film were filmed at Los Angeles’ Pan-Pacific Auditorium, known for its Streamline Moderne style. That auditorium was co-designed by Welton Becket, a friend of Walt Disney, according to D23. And fittingly, the building served as the model for the entrances to two Disney theme parks — Florida’s Hollywood Studios and California’s California Adventure. Unfortunately, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was destroyed by a fire in 1989, just three weeks after Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened.
Remind 
Oh What A Year: 1980
January 2020
Take a look back at our retrospect of the year 1980 where we celebrate the hottest in movies, music and TV.
Buy This Issue