Kathleen Marshall to Direct Broadway Revival of Grease; Leads Will Be Chosen on NBC TV Series
(© Michael Portantiere)
A new revival of the musical Grease will hit Broadway in June 2007, directed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, and the performers who will play the leading roles of Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko will be chosen via a nationwide search that will be chronicled on the new NBC-TV series You’re The One That We Want. No other details on casting, creative team, or a possible venue for the production have yet been announced.
The TV series, from BBC Worldwide Productions, is expected to air mid-season and will allow the public to vote for their favorite performers. The show’s judges will be Marshall, who won Tony Awards for her choreography of The Pajama Game and Wonderful Town; Jim Jacobs, co-creator Grease; and David Ian, one of the upcoming revival’s producers.
Grease was written by Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical tells the story of Sandy and Danny; they have a summer romance and then end up at the same high school, where Sandy’s good girl ways don’t fit in with the attitude of Danny and his too-cool-for-school friends.
The show had an Off-Broadway run in the winter of 1972 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran for more than eight years and nearly 3,400 performances. That production received eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. A 1994 Broadway revival that originally starred Ricky Paull Goldin, Susan Wood, Marcia Lewis, Sam Harris, Megan Mullally, Billy Porter, and Rosie O’Donnell ran for more than 1,500 performances and earned three Tony nominations.
The 1978 film version of Grease, starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing, is one of the highest-grossing movie musicals of all time. A number of new songs, including “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” were added for the film but are not expected to be included in the upcoming revival.
Single tickets for the show are scheduled to go on sale on December 1. For group sales information, call 212-840-3890.
