"Grease: You're the One That I Want" Picked Up for More Live Shows; Newton-John Guest Judges | Playbill

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News "Grease: You're the One That I Want" Picked Up for More Live Shows; Newton-John Guest Judges NBC has picked up "Grease: You're the One That I Want" for two additional live episodes. The network also announced Olivia Newton-John will be a guest judge on the first live show.

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Olivia Newton-John Photo by Aubrey Reuben

The NBC talent competition — which debuted Jan. 7 at 8 PM (ET) and airs Sundays in the same time slot — will hand over the casting reins to America when the show begins live episodes Jan. 28 (7-9 PM ET). Check local listings. (The pick up brings the total episode count to 11, according to an NBC release. The show was originally scheduled to air nine times.)

Newton-John, who played Sandy opposite John Travolta's Danny in the "Grease" film, has already appeared on the show, providing her words of wisdom and advice. Also scheduled to appear are veterans of the Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey musical (from both stage and screen), including Jeff Conaway (Kenickie in the film and a Danny replacement in the original Broadway show), Adrian Zmed (Danny replacement in original and revival, Johnny in "Grease 2"), Marilu Henner (Marty replacement in original Broadway run), Lucy Lawless (Rizzo replacement in revival) and Barry Bostwick (the original Broadway Danny Zuko).

Jai Rodriguez (Rent, "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy") and Marissa Jaret Winokur (Tony Award winner from Hairspray) will also participate.

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Young (and some not-so-young) hopefuls belted out their best Grease show tunes for the diplomatic director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall, co-creator Jim Jacobs and British producer David Ian (a reality television staple) in the reality program. "Access Hollywood" co-anchor Billy Bush and U.K. television and theatre star Denise Van Outen host the show, which has already narrowed the field down from the talent pools of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The new Broadway production will feature the Jacobs-Warren Casey songs made famous by the original musical, including "Summer Nights," "Greased Lightning" and "We Go Together" as well as the four additional film songs "Grease is the Word," "You're the One That I Want," "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy" interpolated into the score.

Paul Nicholas and David Ian Associates, Nederlander Presentations and Phoenix Productions will produce the Broadway run of the show capitalized at $10 million. The box-office advance — which doesn't hit the Broadway stage until July 24 and has yet to announce a theatre — had already passed the $1 million mark within two days of ticket sales.

Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster outlets. Group sales for Grease are available by calling Nederlander Group Sales at (212) 840-3890.

The NBC official website for the show can be found at nbc.com/Grease.

 
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