It doesn’t matter if you’re the original or a prequel; it’s what you do with your cast. Now, Rise of the Pink Ladies, a prequel to the 1978 musical Grease, has a cast responsible for bringing these characters to life as audiences have never seen before.
Rise of the Pink Ladies is a 10-episode series set in 1954, which is four years before the original John Travolta film takes place. The premise reads, “Before rock ‘n’ roll ruled, before the T-Birds were the coolest in school, four fed-up outcasts dare to have fun on their own terms, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever.”
Who is in the cast of ‘Rise of the Pink Ladies?’
Grease is still the word as Paramount Plus announces cast of Rise Of The Pink Ladies series https://t.co/XAmCwckEkO pic.twitter.com/AybI1EG3MM
— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) January 31, 2022
Paramount Television Studios president Nicole Clemens announced in a statement, “We are thrilled to unveil our new original series that will introduce an incredible cast of young stars in the making and electrifying musical numbers you will fall in love with.”
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So far, the cast of Rise of the Pink Ladies features several rising stars, making this a potentially valuable springboard for new artists. That includes Marisa Davila playing Jane, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Olivia, Ari Notartomaso playing Cynthia, Tricia Fukuhara as Nancy, Madison Thompson playing Susan, Shanel Bailey as Hazel, Jason Schmidt cast as Buddy, Johnathan Nieves as Richie, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper playing Wally, and finally Jackie Hoffman as Assistant Principal McGee.
Paying homage to the original
If a person wasn’t a T-Bird, they were likely part of the Pink Ladies cast. In the original Grease, that clique was played by Stockard Channing as Betty, Didi Conn as Frenchy, Jamie Donnelly as the quirky Jan, and Dinah Manoff as Marty. This modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet follows the tumultuous romance between Travolta’s Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, played by Olivia Newton-John, set against the backdrop of their cliques not seeing eye-to-eye.
Alathea Jones leads the project as director and executive producer, while Annabel Oakes serves as writer and executive producer. “Annabel and Alethea have managed to brilliantly capture the spirit of the iconic beloved classic film,” Clemens feels of the crew responsible for plotting this series out, “which like Rise of the Pink Ladies, is both set in the past but relevant to the present.”
Paramount+ will host the series, which has begun production to meet a release date set for later in 2022. It may also be joined by another proposed Grease prequel entitled Summer Lovin’. Will you watch either?
