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The Broadway equivalent of "You Asked for It" — that old Art Baker TV show which spanned nine years of the '50s — kinda occurred Aug. 19 when the granddaddy of high school musicals, Grease, slid into the Brooks Atkinson for its third Main Stem coming.

As promised (if not indefatigably ballyhooed), this new edition is populated with People Choices in the leads of black-leathered "Danny Zuko" and his Miss White Bread, "Sandy Dumbrowski" — Max Crumm and Laura Osnes — cast in the most public manner possible, in front of all America on NBC's reality show, "Grease: You're the One That I Want."

Crumm, for one, looked like he had just crossed the finish-line when he arrived at Roseland for the opening-night party. "It's a hard way to get here," he said of his public preamble to stardom. "We were judged by millions of people, and we had to audition every single week from January to March — it was insane — then get critiqued immediately after we'd done our song." By comparison, actually doing the play was a piece of cake.

Regardless of what it took out of him, he was happy to be where he was at this point in time. "It feels extremely special. It also feels like I'm dreaming. Everything happened so fast. Broadway is such a loving community. The people here are the best people to work with — it's all the best — the best of the best are here, and I'm glad to be a part of it, man."

Osnes was also in the throes of having a dream come true and dealing with the reality of that reality. "Doing the auditions," she recalled, "I felt I had to prove myself week after week after week, but America believed in me enough to get me here. It's so rewarding to stand on that stage every night. At the end, people leap to their feet and roar."

Sandy is no stranger to her. "I played her once in a dinner theatre in Minneapolis," she said. Plus: "I've seen it at least two or three other times on stage, seen the movie I don't even know how many times, and I've had the CD of the show since I was young."

But she credits her director-choreographer, Kathleen Marshall, with really getting her into the role. "Kathleen has been a dream to work with. I feel I've learned so much from her. I learned a lot about Sandy, about myself and my capabilities. She has stretched me, challenged me to be the best I can be, and she has been so encouraging in the process."

Director Marshall, who is a Tony-winning choreographer as well (Wonderful Town), is an expert at drawing excellent work from Broadway-new performers, as Harry Connick Jr.'s Tony-nominated turn in The Pajama Game readily bears out, and she insisted her two new stars didn't require T.L.C. coddling.

"Not at all," she said, "no more than you would with the leads in any other productions. We have 14 people here making their Broadway debuts so it's not like they're getting any kind of special treatment from me."

The instant commercial take-off of her Grease does not surprise Marshall. "Our first few weeks have been really terrific. I think it's a combination of the phenomenal popularity of Grease and the fact that this production stars two people that people know. People want to come to see people they know on stage. They know Max and Laura. They're rooting for them. They voted for them. Both get entrance applause every night, and, after the show — you should see — there are 200-300 people out there at the stage door waiting for their autographs.

"Y'know, it's unbelievable. The power of television is an incredible thing. I think we're nurturing both a new generation of performers and a new audience for Broadway shows. I keep getting stopped at the back of the theatre by families telling me they've taken their family vacation to come to New York and see this particular Broadway show, and, for a lot of them, it's their first Broadway show. I think it's fantastic."

Of course, there has been some industry backlash to the you-decide-America casting process employed by this Grease, but Marshall shrugged this off. "All I can say is that whoever is boycotting the show doesn't seem to be hurting us. That's why there are so many different shows on Broadway. That's why Baskin-Robbins has 31 different flavors. Not everybody likes the same thing, and that's fine. It would depend on the show if I would do this again. Obviously, this experiment works with Grease because it's such a popular show and because it's young people. I mean, you wouldn't want to cast Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett this way, but there are shows this would work for. Absolutely."

The first-nighters included Grease alums from all levels of entry. From the original production: Carole Demas ("Sandy"), Marilu Henner ("Marty"), Irene Kristen ("Patty"); from London: Deborah Gibson ("Sandy"); from the 1994 revival: Jo Anne Worley (Miss Lynch); from the movie: Didi Conn ("Frenchy"), Barry Pearl ("Doody") and Annette Cardona ("Cha-Cha") — plus a whole posse of "Grease: The Ones That I Didn't Want" exuding good will for Crumm and Osnes and not a hint of lynching them: Jason Celaya, Ashley Anderson, Ashley Spencer (a second-place "Sandy," now a first-class Amber in Broadway's Hairspray), Matt Nolan, Kevin Greene, Kathleen Monteleone, Chad Doreck, Juliana Hansen and Allie Schultz.

A stalwart "American Idol" star who has flicked effectively on Broadway and off and now numbers among "The Bold and Beautiful," Constantine Maroulis weighed in on the occasion, you can be sure. "I'm here to celebrate The Great American Musical and support the young talent. Opportunities come in many different ways, whether it's a television show or an open call. We all have dreams."

Rob Marshall, director of the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2002 ("Chicago"), had a special reason for being in that number on opening night. "Something called my sister's work," he didn't have to explain — but did. Let the record show he has made all of her opening nights.

He promised to pry himself loose from Hollywood and resume directing and choreographing for Broadway again — but first he must do the belated (like "Chicago") movie version of Nine. "It's a gorgeous score, and we're reworking it for film so it's really a new book. I've been working on it since the beginning of the year. We'll probably be shooting next March and, hopefully, come out with it in December '08."

Right now he's knee-deep in casting the thing. "We've seen probably every feature-film actress in Hollywood for the women. We're casting in New York, in Los Angeles, in London, in Paris and in Rome, so it's been a huge undertaking — and we're still doing it.

"Sometimes, there are real surprises. It's just like casting 'Chicago' because we don't know what film actors can sing. Sometimes there will be a surprise, and sometimes they'll be a disappointment for someone you really love as an actor and they just can't sing it."

Fresh (very fresh) from the "Hairspray" flick and bouncing with energy, Nikki Blonsky said her pilgrimage to Grease was because she had spent the past year of her life with the movie's Danny Zuko. "He's [John Travolta] my mom," she smiled sweetly.

Also attending: TV's Stephen Colbert with daughter Madeline, Spring Awakening's Tony-nominated Jonathan Groff and Tony-winning John Gallagher Jr. (both duly noting a different brand of teenage angst), producer James Nederlander Jr., Curtains' Edward Hibbert, Crista Moore, Anthony Fedorov with girlfriend Lisa Rodriguez, Hairspray's Beaver Clea — er, Jerry Mathers, New Kid on the Block John Knight and a tie-less Nederlander-er, Nick Scandalios.  Continued...