Included in the praise of her Grease: Live performance was tweets from High School Musical alums, both speaking of how proud there were of Vanessa Hudgens taking the stage despite mourning her father’s passing. I know what losing a parent 2 cancer is. She announced she would continue on with the show in her dad’s honour. Her There are Worse Things I Could Do was a highlight of the evening, especially considering her father passed away just last night.
Advertisement
Hudgens – who is in a relationship with Austin Butler – revealed last August that her 65-year-old father had been diagnosed with stage four cancer.
“Imagine you had Vanessa Hudgens’ day, and doing that”. Her solo, “All I Need Is An Angel”, was the only new track that was written specially for Sunday’s telecast, and – as expected – she was sensational in it. But what made tonight even more special was seeing her alongside the original beauty school dropout, Didi Conn. She said, “From the first time I saw it, I kind of just remember it being a part of my childhood”.
While Hudgens said she always thought of herself as Sandy (Newton-John’s character), she eventually warmed up to the idea of playing Rizzo, originally played by Stockard Channing. I hate cancer with every cell of my being.
Grease: Live also starred Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Keke Palmer, Kether Donohue, Mario Lopez, Carlos PenaVega, and Carly Rae Jepsen.
Vanessa is set to play Rizzo in the Fox network’s reinterpretation of the hit musical.
Sunday night Fox jumped on TV’s live-musical bandwagon in a big way, delivering an ambitious, exuberant and eye-boggling adaptation of “Grease“.
Along with Vanessa, Greg is survived by his younger daughter, Stella, and wife Gina.
It certainly didn’t hurt that “Grease: Live” had at the helm one the hottest directors on Broadway at the moment – Thomas Kail, of “Hamilton” – who along with an excellent cast brought energy, drive and enough revisions and welcome updates – most notably a diverse cast – to nearly make you forget the 1978 movie.
Advertisement
Fox’s live TV musical overcame technical glitches, a rare Los Angeles rainstorm and the death of a key cast member’s father to score rave reviews on social media and elsewhere.
