Although we are in the midst of a snowy winter, FOX’s “Grease: Live” will help you reminisce on those summer nights.
With high school drama, complicated relationships and quests for self-discovery set to the tune of iconic, catchy songs, the 1950s-era musical seems to have it all. At the heart of the show? The T-Birds.
Danny Zuko (Aaron Tveit) leads the T-Birds with his right-hand man Kenickie (Carlos Penavega). Greasers Doody (Jordan Fisher), Sonny (Andrew Call) and Putzie (David Del Rio) round out the flock.
“Grease: Live,” which premieres Sunday, is FOX’s first live musical. Unlike its live musical predecessors, “Grease: Live” will house an audience during its performance.
“We are changing the live musical game here,” Call said. “We honor the people that we work with, so for everyone that’s putting on live musicals, it’s so brilliant that they’re doing it and we’re excited for them. But we are going to take it to the next level, and I think we are going to set the bar for what the live musical can be and should be and what should be done with the live audience.”
Call comes to “Grease: Live” after spending time on Broadway in high-energy shows like “Rock of Ages” and “American Idiot.” He said the live audience not only allows him to thrive, but also affects the overall execution of the long-adored show.
“Grease needs to be able to breathe a little bit … With a live audience, the jokes will land,” Call said. “It’s like a live audience back in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s on TV. It just brought a whole different level to the performance of the actors, and it gives the set a new sense of life and vitality. Especially for ‘Grease,’ it needs those fans, it needs the laugh, it needs the people that are so excited that they can’t hold it in — we don’t want them to.”
Just like their characters, the boys are all “laughs and giggles and fun” during rehearsals, Call said. He said he hopes their enjoyment of one another and their enthusiasm translates to both the live audience and audiences watching from home nationwide.
“It’s going to be this ultimate party, and every single person is invited,” Call said. “I can’t stress enough that as a performer, the more fun you’re having on stage or on screen, it will be conveyed in an honest manner to the audience, and I just think they will have a great time too.”
Fisher shared Call’s sentiment that having an audience contributes to the energy of the cast’s performance and the audience’s perception of the show.
“Rehearsals have been tedious in the best way possible,” Fisher said. “We are doing something very ambitious with the show and we are essentially reintroducing ‘Grease’ to everyone in our own special way, in our own special format … Everybody in this cast has experience performing in front of an audience, and we all know that you can’t replicate that experience.”
Fisher was first exposed to live theater in fifth grade when he joined the drama club to spend time with a girl he had a crush on. Although things did not work out with his crush, he did fall in love during the drama club — with theater. Watching musical films like “Grease” made Fisher realize that he had fallen into a passion he wanted to pursue.
“Something about watching [musical films] and feeling like I was a part of them in an immersive way is something I will never forget,” Fisher said. “Being on set essentially reviving the musical that’s loved by so many generations, transcending through so many decades, I had a couple of moments in this rehearsal process … where it was like, ‘I’m alive because I am suppose to be doing this. I am suppose to be doing what I love.’”
So whether you’re an original greaser or greasing up for the first time, Fisher said he hopes “Grease: Live” has the ability to create a common feeling among fans of all ages and leave audiences at home experience the same rush he did while watching the movie.”
“I would hope that there are kids watching [‘Grease: Live’], maybe even adults who become inspired to want to try and pursue whatever is it that they love,” he said. “That’s essentially what ‘Grease’ is about. It’s about finding community, about figuring out what you love and how to do it.”
A previous version of this story contained an additional quote from Call that was cut for clarity purposes. This correction is reflected in the story above.
