Grease: Live, Starring Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit, Will Have Live Audience

Director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) and designer David Korins (Misery) have announced new details of Fox's upcoming Grease:Live, which is set to air on January 31. Unlike NBC's recent live musicals, Grease:Live, which stars Aaron Tveit, Julianne Hough, and Vanessa Hudgens, will feature a live on-camera audience and immersive four-wall sets.

"My feeling always, about Grease, has been that [it] felt like a party and everybody was invited and that's what we’re trying to do with our production," said Kail during a recent press conference. "We had a lot of really blue-sky conversations about all the things that this could be and really early on we settled on this idea that we could try to create and use and harness the energy of a live audience."

"There's an energy and an undeniable vitality that real humans give back to real humans that are performing that we want to try to capture and exploit," Korins echoed.

The audience, who will not be costumed, will be in the hundreds of people and will be visible in scenes "where people would exist," according to Korins. Some scenes, like those in the gym, feature a 360-degree, four-wall set where the audience will be part of the action, creating a near-immersive experience. Shot on the Warner Brothers lot in L.A., Grease: Live will be filmed in a total of three separate locations.

"We're on two sound stages and we're outside on, what they call, one of the Midwest streets on [Warner Brothers]' back lot," explained Kail. "The show is actually going to be traveling during those wonderful commercial breaks and sometimes during the scenes. We keep telling the company, 'If you can do this, it's like high-altitude training — you really can do anything.'"

Though there's no official word on how the onscreen audience will be selected, Korins suggested that the show will use traditional means like lotteries and contests to find its audience rather than selling tickets.

It has also been announced that Grease: Live will create an official cast album, but no release date has been selected.

Grease: Live stars Aaron Tveit as Danny Zuko, and Julianne Hough as Sandy, with Vanessa Hudgens as Betty Rizzo, Carlos Pena Vega as Kenickie, Keke Palmer as Marty, Carly Rae Jepsen as Frenchy, Kether Donohue as Jan, David Del Rio as Putzie, Mario Lopez as Vince Fontaine, and Ana Gasteyer as Principal McGee.

Adapted by playwrights Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, the broadcast production of Grease is based on the original stage musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey and its 1978 screen adaptation. In addition to Kail and Korins, the team includes music supervisor Tom Kitt (If/Then), costume designer William Ivey Long (Disaster!), and choreographer Zach Woodlee (Glee).