On the heels of the widely watched live reboot of The Wiz, which starred well-known acts such as Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo, David Alan Grier and Mary J. Blige, FOX is now contributing to the growing list of made-for-TV musical remakes with their version of the beloved classic Grease, and we've got the first looks to prove it! The original, starring Olivia Newton-John and John Trovolta, premiered in 1978. The remake is set to star Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit, with Vanessa Hudgens and Keke Palmer also taking on iconic roles. Hudgens is set to play the ultra sexy (and majorly complicated) Rizzo, While Palmer takes on the quirky character of Marty.
Press shots can be seen on the show's Facebook page, and Palmer shared her excitement in transitioning from Scream Queens, the horror parody show she currently stars in on FOX, to Grease.
"What's next for Zayday? ...Marty!" she wrote on Facebook. "Catch me in #GreaseLive Sunday, January 31 on FOX."
Palmer is no stranger to the musical theater stage. Before her stint as the sassy and smart Zayday on Scream Queens, the Akeelah and the Bee actress did a stint on Broadway as Cinderella, making history as the first African-American (and the youngest) woman to do so—a fact Palmer didn't take lightly. "I grew up watching Brandy as Cinderella, and I always hoped I would have the opportunity to do something majestic," she told InStyle. "Still, I never thought I'd be playing such an iconic character at only 21 years old."
Doing Broadway also mentally prepared Palmer for future roles such as this one, which she must appreciate looking back. After the run of Cinderella, she also told InStyle, "Broadway mentally pushes you," she said. "It gave me another level of discipline that I didn't know I could reach, and a level of belief in myself that I didn't really know I had."
Catch a glimpse of the new Grease cast on their Facebook page, and watch Palmer and the rest of the cast do a pretty mean hand jive in the video below.
