First-Look Revealed for ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ Series Coming to Paramount+
A Grease prequel series is coming to Paramount+ and will give us insight into the origins of The Pink Ladies. The show will take place before the events of the original 1978 film starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta and will feature a new cast of characters including Hazel (Shanel Bailey), Jane (Marisa Davila), Nancy (Tricia Fukuhara), Assistant Principal McGee (Jackie Hoffman), Richie (Jonathan Nieves), Cynthia (Ari Notartomaso), Buddy (Jason Schmidt), Susan (Madison Thompson), Olivia (Cheyenne Isabel Wells), and Wally (Maxwell Whittington-Cooper).
A synopsis of the series reads, “The series takes place in 1954, four years before the events of Grease, and follows four fed-up and misfit students who band together to bring out the moral panic that will change Rydell High forever and become the founding mothers of the first high school clique known as the Pink Ladies.”
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Famed song composer Justin Tranter has created 31 original songs for the series and has received high praise from the cast and crew with series star Marisa Davila claiming, “I worked on the show for seven months straight and I still listen to the music every day. There’s absolutely no way you can get tired of them. It’s a no-skip soundtrack. Justin and their team managed to mold together the old ’50s style of music with a modern day take on it.”
Series creator Abigail Oakes elaborated on the sounds we will hear in the series, sharing: “1954 is a very early part of rock & roll when it was transitioning from R&B. It’s R&B with an amp. We want to pay tribute to the real people who started rock & roll — Black musicians, Latinx musicians, who were at the forefront. We want those in the show.”
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Oakes also shared that fans of the original Grease “should be happy” with the series and that she isn’t trying to top the “perfection” of the original film, but she aimed to answer questions she had after watching Grease. “The original Grease is absolutely perfect. But then, I thought about it for a second and I thought, ‘What unanswered questions do I have from Grease?’ Because everything was tied up really nicely with Danny and Sandy. But I was like, ‘What was up with the Pink Ladies? Were those were girl gangs real?’ I started googling and I found out that there were real Pink Ladies at the high school of the original creator of Grease, Jim Jacobs.”
She continued speaking about her inspiration behind the series by adding, “Any time you do a period piece, you are using a little bit of a modern lens and you’re talking about what’s different and also what hasn’t changed,” Oakes continues. “It’s really interesting to go down both of those paths at once.”
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A release date for the series has yet to be announced, but Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is expected to premiere in early 2023 exclusively on Paramount+. Be sure to check back here at Chip and Company for updates and all things entertainment!
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