By Andrew Gans
13 Jul 2007

Question: When did you first experience Grease? Was it a stage production or was it the movie?
Osnes: I think my first experience was the movie, a long time ago. I grew up with the soundtrack. I knew all the songs — I had a tap dance in fifth grade to one of the songs from Grease [laughs], so it's definitely been in my blood for awhile.

Question: Tell me a little bit about working with Max Crumm.
Osnes: Max has been so great. We were really great friends during the live show. We both auditioned in L.A. I remember meeting him at the very initial audition. He kept making callbacks, and I did, too. We sat by each other in the very, very beginning. So that's been cool, to actually be along with him on the whole journey. He's been so fun already. He comes prepared, and everyone really loves him, of course. He's so funny and really very easy to work with. It's kind of fun because we talk about it a lot in that we do have a past. We've been friends for awhile, so that kind of helps in the scenes. It's not like I walked in on the first day of rehearsal, and it was like, "Here, this is going to be your Danny," and I had never met him before. We actually are friends, and we have that.

Question: What do you think he brings to the role of Danny that makes him a different Danny?
Osnes: I think he just is a different Danny. He's new, he's young, he's fresh.… Everyone pictures Danny, and it's the same thing time after time after time: good looking, leather jacket. I think Max will bring something totally new, totally fresh. [He'll] still stay true to the role but bring his personality into it. I think America fell in love with Max's easygoing personality, and they're definitely going to get that in the Broadway show.

Question: Going back a bit, where were you born and raised?
Osnes: I was born in Burnsville, Minnesota, and raised in Eagan, which is right by Burnsville. I've been in that area my whole life.

Question: When did you start performing?
Osnes: I did my first show in second grade. I was a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz.

Question: Were there any singers or actors growing up that you particularly admired?
Osnes: People ask me that a lot. It's hard because I'm not huge into celebrities. All of my music growing up, I listened to Broadway [shows]. I got to know a lot of music as I was growing up — people like Linda Eder, Sutton Foster . . . . But I've never really been like, "Oh, my gosh, this person is my idol," or "I want to do what this person has done in life."

Question: What was the first Broadway show you saw?
Osnes: My first Broadway show wasn't until I was a freshman in high school. It was my first trip to New York. I came with a group of theatre kids, and we saw four shows. The very first one was Contact.

Question: When did you know that performing would be your career?
Osnes: Pretty early. It was always my dream. I had been singing, dancing, acting since I was really young. I started taking dance lessons and voice lessons, and I did my first professional show in sixth grade.

Question: What was that?
Osnes: That was Madeline's Rescue at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. I have always really loved it, and opportunities have continued to come up for me. After high school I went to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point for a year, and I studied musical theatre. By that point, I was like, "This is what I want to do." I auditioned for their program and [was] one of seven kids that made it in their BFA Musical Theatre program. So I think my high school years were definitely like, "Okay, this is really what I love doing." I was doing things at school and also doing things outside of school, professionally, all throughout my high school career. It just kind of became my passion.

Question: Have you done productions where you've done eight performances a week?
Osnes: Yes, actually. The children's theatre does 11 shows a week! So I got used to that pretty quickly.

Question: So you're ready for the Broadway schedule.
Osnes: I think so. [Laughs.]

Question: How long are you and Max contracted with the show?
Osnes: I'm signed on for a year. The cast is on for a year, and then I don't know what's after that. People say, "Will it tour or will you stay with it?," and I'm kind of like, "I don't know." I think I would love to stay with it, depending on if I'm not Grease-ed out! [Laughs.] But I probably wouldn't tour with it because I have a husband [in New York], and we're starting out here, but I don't know. . . . [Also], NBC still kind of owns Max and I. After this year they have something where, if they want me for a TV show in L.A., they can talk to me about that. I could take that opportunity. I have to kind of okay everything I do for the following year through the network.

[Tickets to Grease at the Brooks Atkinson, 256 West 47th Street, are on sale by calling (212) 307-4100 or at the box office. For more information visit greaseonbroadway.com.]

DIVA TIDBITS
Tony Award winner Betty Buckley will return to the famed Manhattan jazz club, the Blue Note, July 17. Buckley, who recently played an acclaimed engagement at Feinstein's at the Regency, will celebrate her 17½-year partnership with musical director Kenny Werner during her Blue Note run. Entitled Songs for a Summer Night, the concerts will feature selections from her forthcoming CD "Quintessence" as well as a healthy dose of songs from her eclectic repertoire, which includes songs from the worlds of pop, rock, country and musical theatre. Werner has also penned a few new arrangements for the Blue Note gig. On July 17 Buckley will be backed by her trio, which comprises Werner on piano, Tony Marino on bass and Anthony Pinciotti on drums. The remainder of the run will also feature Billy Drewes on reeds. (Drummer Dan Rieser will sub for Pinciotti July 21 and 22.) There is a $20 cover charge at the bar and a $35 cover at the tables. The Blue Note is located in Manhattan at 131 West Third Street. For reservations call (212) 475-8592 or visit www.bluenote.net.

A new book celebrating the life of the late Ethel Merman will arrive in bookstores this fall. Brian Kellow's tome, entitled "Ethel Merman: A Life," is scheduled to hit bookstores around the country Nov. 5. The 336-page hardback will be published by Viking. Kellow interviewed more than 125 of Merman's friends and former colleagues for the biography, which also features never-before-published photos. The book, according to a press release, "reveals in great detail a side of Merman many are not familiar with. Merman was a tough-talking, hard-drinking woman of theatrical legend and a woman of enormous vulnerability, particularly where men were concerned, and she was in many ways lonely and deeply disappointed by the way her life had turned out."

Casting is nearly complete for the Hollywood Bowl's upcoming concert performances of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, starring Reba McEntire and Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell as, respectively, Ensign Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque. David Lee will direct the concerts, set for Aug. 3 and 4 at 8:30 PM and Aug. 5 at 7:30 PM. The duo will be joined onstage by Mia Tendora as Ngana, Sebastian Gonzalez as Jerome, Armelia McQueen as Bloody Mary, Janelle Velasquez as Liat, Jody Ashworth as Stewpot, Steven Hack as Professor, Aaron Lazar as Lt. Joseph Cable, Conrad John Schuck as Capt. George Brackett, John DeMita as Cmdr. William Harbison and Ron Butler as Henry. The Hollywood Bowl is located in Hollywood, CA, at 2301 N. Highland Avenue. Tickets, priced $7-$147, are available by visiting www.hollywoodbowl.com.

Casting is complete for the forthcoming Reprise! Broadway's Best production of On Your Toes, which will kick off the 2007-2008 season of the acclaimed series, which is now headed by artistic director Jason Alexander. The classic Rodgers and Hart musical will play UCLA's Freud Playhouse Aug. 14-26 with an official opening Aug. 15. Directed by Dan Mojica, the cast will boast "Frasier" star Dan Butler as Sergei Alexandrovich and stage and screen actress Stefanie Powers as Peggy with Jeffry Denman, Beth Malone, Brett Ryback, Jonathan Sharp Yvette Tucker and Diane Vincent. The ensemble will comprise Shell Bauman, Seth Belliston, Quintan Craig, Jennie Ford, Casey Garritano, Jeff Griggs, Chelsea Hackett, Joey T. Marshall, Melissa Paris, Aaron Pomeroy, Mark C. Reis, Katie Rooney, Jean Michelle Sayeg, Leslie Stevens, John Todd and Scott Weber. For tickets, call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101. For more information visit www.reprise.org.

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.