Songwriter Justin Tranter Explains Why Their Pop Music Background Was "Perfect" For Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

04/02/2023 04:48 pm EDT

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is coming to Paramount+ this month, and it tells the story of how the first generation of Pink Ladies formed the iconic girl gang five years before the events of Grease. The show's first season consists of ten episodes that feature 30 original songs written by Justin Tranter. While this is Tranter's first foray into musicals, the songwriter has written hits for huge pop stars such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Kesha, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, and more. Recently, Tranter spoke with ComicBook.com about Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies alongside director and choreographer, Jamal Sims, and explained why going from pop music to Grease was the "perfect" transition. 

"Now I am definitely a Grease fan," Tranter shared. "And as you said, I come from pop music, and I felt I really had a right to be here because Olivia Newton-John brought in her main pop songwriter to write half of the songs in Grease. So I felt for me to take on my first musical undertaking, this is the perfect one to do it because there is, between a Gibb writing "Grease is the Word," and then all the Olivia songs, there were pop writers deep in the first one, so I felt like I'm allowed to be here." 

During the interview, we also asked Sims and Tranter about the show's choreography and if they have a favorite dance number from the series, and they chose a song from the third episode.

"Oh, gosh. It's really hard, honestly. Every song had its challenges, and every song I love so much," Sims shared. "One of the ones in the club, I don't know if you've seen that one yet, but it was one of my favorites because actually the story behind it and what we were doing, the contrast between what the song was about, these really terrible people, and then how we presented the dance in it was totally different, so that was really fun. I actually want to say that that was probably one of my favorites." 

Tranter added, "I can say, because I did not choreograph this, so I can say this honestly, I'm not bullshitting, your choreography in the club is actually brilliant ... When I was watching the dailies and there's a moment that I don't want to give away, there's a moment when they're all sitting at a table and I was just like, 'What the f*ck?!'" 

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the cast of Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, which debuts on April 6th. 

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