Retro : ‘Grease!’ Monkee : DAVY JONES’ LOCKER STILL FILLED WITH MUSIC

For Davy Jones, being one of the musical Monkees way back in the ‘60s “was the most joyous and memorable experience of my whole career and always will be. I am really proud of what we did with that and what we are still doing with it.”

The longevity of the group, whose hit songs included “Daydream Believer” and “The Last Train to Clarksville,” he says, “has been an important thing for my career. It has been a door opener. Success has a strange feel to it. Once you get successful, like I did with the Monkees, you get more attractive, you become more intelligent. They think more of you. If you get wrapped up in it and it overwhelms you, than obviously you fizzle out and fade. But if you just try to hold on to a bit of the reality of it, I think there is a possibility that you will have a longer situation.”

Jones, who just turned 49, is touring the country in the revival of the popular ‘50s musical-comedy “Grease!,” which opens Tuesday for a a six-day engagement at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Jones plays the slick deejay Vince Fontaine in the production that also stars Rex Smith (“Solid Gold”) and Sally Struthers (“All in the Family”).

Though he’s best known as a Monkee, the singer-actor is no stranger to the musical theater. Jones made a big splash on Broadway in 1964 as the Artful Dodger in the musical “Oliver!,” for which he received a Tony nomination.

(Jones and the “Oliver!” company performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” the same night the Beatles made their historic first appearance.)

Jones says he is introducing a lot of new people to the theater, “especially Monkee fans who are now grown up. They normally wouldn’t go to the theater,” he says in a phone interview from Chicago, where “Grease!” was playing.

“I think people have an image of the theater of being something that you go to wearing a bow tie and tuxedo. It is a little unfamiliar. I am not revolutionizing theater by appearing in it. I am adding, just as David Cassidy and Donny Osmond and a lot of the sort of teen heartthrobs, a few more bottoms on the seats.”

“The Monkees” TV series, sort of an American small-screen version of the Beatles’ feature “A Hard Day’s Night,” premiered on NBC on Sept. 12, 1966. The group--Jones, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork--became overnight sensations. Their albums hit the top of the charts, though at the outset members of the group didn’t play their own instruments. The series won the Emmy for best comedy in 1967, but was canceled in the spring of 1968 due to plunging ratings. A few months later, their one and only feature film, “Head,” co-written by Jack Nicholson, was released.

The group made a comeback in 1986 when MTV began rerunning episodes. Jones, Dolenz and Tork reunited and went on a successful tour. Nesmith, a successful producer, didn’t join the reunion.

Rhino Records has reissued the band’s nine original Colgems albums on CD, complete with bonus tracks. On the video side, Rhino will release “Head” on Jan. 25. Columbia House will release all 58 TV episodes in March. Rhino plans a limited-edition, boxed set of all TV episodes, plus their TV special “33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee” in September.

Jones says there is talk about all of the Monkees reuniting in 1996 for a 30th-anniversary tour and movie. This time around, though, he wants a piece of the monetary action.

“Now we all know actors don’t partake in the profits after a certain period,” Jones says. “If I get involved with the Monkees in 1996 I want an equal share, totally equal across the board--for the records, the videos, from every aspect of the Monkee logo. I will take an even share. We are all in it together. We are all promoting it together and we should all benefit from it.

“I would love to work with the Monkees,” he adds. “We work well on stage. Micky and I were in Vegas over Labor Day weekend. We played the Sands Hotel. We packed them in and the place went bonkers. We are not some obscure mid-’60s group that came and went. The Monkees touched a lot of people.”

‘Grease!” will be performed at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E Green St., Tuesday through Jan 8. Performances are Tuesday-Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Jan. 8 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices: $27.50-$50. For tickets, call 213-480-3232.