Picture: Fox
ITV2 will present an unedited airing of Paramount Television’s star-studded production of Grease: Live!, the first-ever live television production of the iconic story, on 3 February at 8pm.
Filmed and broadcast live in the US on 31 January and featuring a young ensemble cast, Grease: Live! draws upon both the hit crossover musical and iconic 1978 feature film to create a never-before-seen version with many modern surprises.
Grease: Live! stars Julianne Hough (Safe Haven, Rock of Ages) as the angelic Sandy – Rydell High’s most talked-about newcomer; Aaron Tveit (Graceland, Les Misérables) as bad boy Danny Zuko; Vanessa Hudgens (Broadway’s Gigi, Spring Breakers) as bad girl Rizzo; Keke Palmer (Scream Queens, Masters of Sex) as sassy Pink Lady Marty Maraschino; Carlos PenaVega (Big Time Rush) as Kenickie, Danny’s tough-guy sidekick; and multi-Platinum Grammy Award-nominated singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen as Pink Lady and beauty school dropout Frenchy.
Vanessa Hudgens tweeted the sad news on Sunday morning that her father had died from cancer, just hours before she was due to appear in the eagerly awaited broadcast. However, she vowed to still perform as planned, in tribute to her father, a former firefighter.
The live event also features special cameo appearances by multi-platinum pop superstar Joe Jonas and his pop-disco band DNCE as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers; actor and television host Mario Lopez as Vince Fontaine in the high school dance scene; and Grammy Award-winning R&B group Boyz II Men as Teen Angels, singing ‘Beauty School Dropout’.
Plus, two stars from the original 1978 film Grease, Didi Conn (Frenchy) and Barry Pearl (Doody), also make an appearance. English singer-songwriter Jessie J will give a live performance of the programme’s title track, ‘Grease (Is The Word)’, written by Barry Gibb. Carly Rae Jepsen will also perform an original song, ‘All I Need is An Angel’, composed by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Brian Yorkey.
Grease: Live! is produced by Paramount Television. Acclaimed film, television and theatre producer Marc Platt (Wicked, Into the Woods) is the executive producer; Tony Award-nominated director Thomas Kail (Hamilton, In the Heights) is the director overseeing the stage direction and Alex Rudzinski (Dancing With the Stars) serves as the live television director. The live television adaptation is written by Broadway writers Robert Cary (Anything but Love, Ira & Abby) and Jonathan Tolins (Buyer & Cellar, The Last Sunday in June).
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