GREASE: LIVE Mastermind Thomas Kail Shares Secrets from Set!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Grease Live will take place on January 31st on Fox, and I'm here in L.A. to catch up with its director, Thomas Kael

Systematic. Hydramatic. Ultramatic. Why couldn't we? Grease Live. This is a palette that had some scope to it

and so when David and I started talking about this with Alex Brzezinski, our live television director, and Platt

what we realized is there's an opportunity here to use some of the breath in the space

that's afforded you when you're on a studio and you have these you know these stages to try to

capture some of the scale this is a show that has a fair amount of locations and we also wanted to

embrace the theatricality of of the language that we love so much and and put that uh as best we

could front and center yeah i was going to ask you you're a master at stagecraft and now you're

entering this new world i mean what are the challenges been for you and what's it been like

for you. I mean it's been a thrill. I mean the reality is theater is theater is theater and tech

is tech is tech to quote Gertrude Stein which happens constantly on BroadwayWorld.com right

I wanted to be the first person to be like all right Alice be topless we got you. But you know the reality is the work that you that you done has prepared you in a certain way and you have the tools and you put them in your toolbox and you get on a plane and you come out here and say OK I can do this and this

I need to be better at that. Who can help me here? You know, how can I find someone to supplement, you know, what I know

And, you know, at the end of the day, it's a director working with actors

It's John Toland and Rob Carey, my writers and I, sitting down and trying to crack something and them coming up with six new good ideas

and me figuring out which one might work on a practical level. And that's what I've been doing since we were in a little black box in the drama bookshop

So all of that is still in you, and you just want to try to honor our community

Because for me, this is about not just Broadway. It's about off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway and regional theater and theater in general with a capital T

And I'm just so proud that we get a chance to share this show with so many people

Everybody loves Grease. Everybody has that first Grease moment. Was it the film for you

Was it a stage production? It was the film. I'm in the middle of Two Sisters and so there was no time in my life when I wasn't watching Grease

I think we owned three movies. It was Grease, It's a Wonderful Life and Grease 2

You will probably see me do a production of all of those at some point because I am all about Grease 2

I am too Grease 2 is one of my all favorite musicals and I will say that Paul and I were just talking about that Maxwell Caulfield all that Michelle Pfeiffer we obsessed Can I say something I off book and ready to go so Cool writer

I mean, let's get the latter. C-O-O-L. I am ready. I am ready. Oh, I see your new live one for next year

Yeah, well, I'll just try to get through this one and see what happens. I just loved how you've combined the best of the stage show with the movie

and created this new version of Grease. Yeah, well, we're trying. I mean, because we love the movie as much as anybody else

And one of the things that we're doing, and Korns and I talked about this really early on

was in, you know, in respect to, and with respect to J.J. Abrams

we have our Easter eggs. So we have things from the original movie that we've populated our version with

And so if you watch closely, it's like Highlights Magazine because I'm old and that's, we all remember that

Love that. And so, and then we also have our versions of

you know, so if they had something at that scale, we might have a smaller version

But if you look, you'll find something in every scene that's an homage in some way to the film

And the inspiration of the film, the detail of the costume and the specificity of those things

where you might be long as a master at that. And so that sense of collaboration

because the nature of fashion is it regenerates. So now you can go down to John Varvatos and see a leather jacket that probably looks like what they wear in 1959 and we setting ours in the period But we also wanted it to feel in a way like it could move and they could relate to it in a way that was completely contemporary to them So what are you looking forward to the most

January 31st? January 31st. The whole thing. I mean, you know, the reality is on the day

Alex and I will have, you know, planned as best we can. And then I'm going to be on the floor. I

mean, I guess I do my best Lauren Michaels and sort of walk around. I'm like, okay, it looks good