Keke Palmer has been cast as Marty Maraschino ("like the cherry") in Fox's upcoming musical event Grease: Live, BuzzFeed News can exclusively reveal. The role, originally played by Dinah Manoff in the 1978 movie, is the first to be cast since Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens were announced as Sandy and Rizzo, respectively, in January.
Palmer, who will next be seen in Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens, is no stranger to musicals — she's sung on film (in 2012's Joyful Noise), on television (in 2013's CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story), and on Broadway (in 2014's Cinderella)
Grease: Live — written by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins (Broadway's Tony-nominated On the Town) and produced by Fox and Paramount Television — will air live Jan. 31, 2016 at 7 p.m. ET/ 6 CT (tape-delayed for PT).
Now we need to find out who will play Frenchy and Jan for the next generation of Pink Ladies to be complete...
But for now, this is what the cast looks like:
Keke Palmer as Marty Maraschino (Originally played by Dinah Manoff)
Vanessa Hudgens as Betty Rizzo (Originally played by Stockard Channing)
Julianne Hough as Sandy Olsson (Originally played by Olivia Newton-John)
