Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies Songwriter Talks Working With the Legendary Jackie Hoffman

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is being released on Paramount+ tomorrow, and it follows the first generation of Pink Ladies five years before the events of Grease. The show features many young newcomers playing the teens from Rydell High, but musical fans will also recognize some legendary faces in the series. Jackie Hoffman, who recently played Ma in Glass Onion, is known for her work on both stage and screen, and she’s stepping into an already-iconic Grease role. Hoffman is playing Principal McGee during her Assistant Principal days. In both Grease and Grease 2,  Principal McGee was played by Eve Arden. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies songwriter Justin Tranter about working with Hoffman and her big number in the show’s fifth episode. 

“I’ll just talk about Jackie in the studio first,” Tranter began. “We had The Pink Ladies for the first two days I was recording everybody in Vancouver, and the Pink Ladies, they’re singing more like of the pop rock style of Grease, which you want to be a lot more specific about those vocals, and I need background vocals. I need this. And it’s a much more tedious process of really digging in. When it came to Jackie’s song, I’m a huge fan of her as a Broadway fan, we all know who she is, and she literally just sang through the whole song twice and I said ‘Please, that was the best seven minutes of my life. You can go home.’ Because as such a Broadway pro, it’s about her storytelling, it’s about the fun and the joy she brings to it. It was one of the best seven minutes I’ve ever had in a recording studio.”

Which Pop Stars Has Justin Tranter Written Songs For? 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies 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. During Tranter’s interview with ComicBook.com about Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, they 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.” 

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies debuts on April 6th.