Catching up with the cast of 'Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies'
NEW YORK - "Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies" is now streaming on Paramount+. Tell me more, tell me more . . .
It’s a prequel to the beloved 1978 film "Grease" and original 1971 stage production. The series is set at Rydell High in 1954, four years before the film. Each episode features new songs and nostalgic style, but with a modern flair.
The series follows four outcast students that bond together to form "The Pink Ladies." FOX 5’s Ryan Kristafer chatted with two of the new cast members: Marisa Davila, who plays Jane, and Cheyenne Isabel Wells, who portrays Olivia.
"We stir up some trouble for the greater good, and I think when you’re forming a girl gang (I feel like I’m speaking from experience) you have to have a value system and a motto, and that’s something that we develop over the show – what it means to be a Pink Lady," Davila said.
Davila shares how the series contrasts from the iconic film.
"What’s so cute is that Sandy and Danny both kind of change themselves in order to show each other that they would do anything for each other," Davila said. "But something with our show is that we really prioritize loving each other for who you are, and not having to change for other people’s acceptance."
Sadly, the cast didn’t get to meet one of the original Pink Ladies, Sandy, the late, great Olivia Newton John before her passing last summer.
"The original cast was always in the back of our minds," Davila said. "Like we’re not trying to take their place, we’re not trying to replace them, we’re not trying to fill those shoes. That would be incredibly impossible. But we do want to be able to honor them. I wish she was able to see it. But I think now after the fact, it’s just kind of a gift."
All four Pink Ladies are a triple threat, like Wells, who is making her TV debut in the new series.
"It was so exciting stepping into the 1950s every day on set and having those costumes, the cars, it was amazing," Wells said. "She’s the tough cool girl of the group. I kind of call her "The Momma Bear" of The Pink Ladies because she kind of looks over everybody. She has so much confidence and care that she doesn’t really show. But when she does, she’s very much showin’ it!"
When it comes to music, you’ll hear a couple ‘Grease’ classics.
"Just kind of smoothly transitions you back into the nostalgia of it all, and then we take the ropes from there," Davila said. "We’re going to do it our own way. We have 30 original songs, we average about three songs an episode."
"Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies" is now streaming on Paramount+.