The reason fans knew the performance would be a hard one for Hudgens was on Saturday, Vanessa lost her father after his bout with stage 4 cancer. Instead of pulling out of the production and leaving the Fox team to scramble for a last minute replacement, Hudgens made a decision to move forward with the special as planned in honor of her late father – and man did she deliver!
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The young actress had revealed her father’s diagnosis when she was accepting the 2015 Industry Dance Awards in L.A. Did the “electrifying” numbers make you think “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” than watch this on a Sunday night? What a strong woman.My new hero#GreaseLive”, added her “Grease: “Live” costar Mario Lopez, who played “American Bandstand” host Vince Fontaine.
The three-hour musical TV show aired live on Fox on Sunday – and went ahead despite heavy rain and high winds in LA. Though most deemed Hudgens’ role the show’s highlight, the rest of the cast all seemed to receive positive notices; including Julianne Hough (Footloose) as Sandy, Aaron Tveit (Les Misérables) as Danny Zuko, and Carly Rae Jepsen as Frenchy.
During the performance, Vanessa stormed the stage singing songs such as There Are Worse Things I Could Do. Keke Palmer, on the other hand, left me confused. Safety always comes first, but I’m sure we’ll be fine to do the outside portions.
Tell Us: What was your favorite moment from Grease: Live?
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.
Although the 27-year-old former High School Musical sweetheart had a substitute prepped to fill-in for her, the insider said, “she insisted on still doing this because her dad would want nothing more”.
Journalist Scott Neumyer tweeted: “Seriously INSPIRED performance by @Vanessa Hudgens tonight”.
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Vanessa with her beloved father Greg, who was a firefighter.
