Pick the Pop Stars for Fox's Live Production of 'Grease'

Perhaps inspired by NBC's live, Carrie Underwood-starring Sound of Music, Fox has decided to stage a live, three-hour production of Grease, which will presumably star a bunch of pop stars and/or the cast of Glee, heaven forbid.

Perhaps inspired by NBC's live, Carrie Underwood-starring Sound of Music, Fox has decided to stage a live, three-hour production of Grease, which will presumably star a bunch of pop stars and/or the cast of Glee, heaven forbid.

On one hand, Grease seems like a better fit for an event like this than NBC's choices of The Sound of Music and the upcoming Peter Pan. For young folks, Grease is probably more accessible. For the executives putting this whole thing together, it's way easier to cast pop stars without the general outrage of Twitter's musical theater contingent. Grease is beloved, but no one is too precious about it.

So which pop stars should be cast in the movie? Vulture's Margaret Lyons pointed out that she made the case for Taylor Swift as Sandy in the post-Sound of Music days of December. It's a case others are making today. And look, it makes sense. Swift would totally get the good girl side of Sandy down, and she's basically rehearsed Sandy's transformation in the video for "I Knew You Were Trouble," a song about falling for a bad boy, namely Harry Styles. A potential Danny, perhaps?

On the other hand, Ariana Grande frequently dresses like a 1950s good girl, though she's been exploring more of her Pink Lady side recently. She also has a Broadway background, having appeared in Jason Robert Brown's 13. So, a Sandy? Better yet, a Frenchy. As for Rizzo? It's trolly, but let's cast pop's resident rebel, Miley Cyrus. Come on, you know you'd tune into see that, and it's not like Miley doesn't have a background in TV. On the other hand, if we really want to torment Taylor, let's cast her rumored ex-friend Selena as Sandy's number one taunter. 

Now, onto the guys. The current patron saint of all of all boy band members, past and future, Justin Timberlake, should obviously make an appearance as Teen Angel. Lyons and others have suggested Zac Efron for Danny, but he's already played a too-similar role in Hairspray. You could take your pick of boy band members if any of them can do American accents: Styles, for one; one of the pop punks from 5 Seconds of Summer for another. If we want to diverge from the pop star pool, Ansel Elgort, the star of the summer's upcoming Fault in Our Stars is a budding musician and trained in dance at the prestigious School of American Ballet. Choose Elgort.

Anyway! We've got some time before this actually hits the small screen. The event—working title GREASE LIVE—will air sometime in 2015, and will once again presumably teach young people that's it's cool to totally change for a guy.