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How did you wind up auditioning for Grease: You're the One That I Want?

Max Crumm: I was living in Los Angeles, doing random auditions for TV shows, movies and commercials. I didn't even see an advertisement for this show. One of my friends saw it and said, “Hey, you should try out for this.” It was really just a last-minute thing. I didn't think anything might come of it.

Laura Osnes: I was playing the role of Sandy in Grease at a regional theatre in Minneapolis and thought maybe I had a shot. The director there let me leave to go to Los Angeles for the audition and I kept making it further. I ended up leaving [Minneapolis] a month early to continue with the TV show. Sandy's one of those roles that I've always been right for, so it's very exciting.

What have been some of your bigger challenges in this process?

Max Crumm: For me, it's been staying on top of everything. I've never really been the lead in a show. Convincing myself that I could do it has really been a challenge for me. Also being able to stay healthy.

Laura Osnes: Yes. Our presence here is so valuable. Everybody's coming to see us because of the television show, and that's a lot of pressure. With the fans at the stage door, I feel obligated to sign everything and take a picture with everyone, and it's so rewarding to be in that position but it's difficult to balance that with staying healthy and ready to do a show.

It must be daunting to put a new spin on two iconic characters. What's unique about your Danny and your Sandy?

Max Crumm: My Danny is different because I tried to make him a much more relatable character. I think in the past that Danny has sometimes been portrayed as too old or muscular.

Laura Osnes: Both of us are different from the conventional look for these characters. But America voted us here, so hopefully they know what to expect. Kathleen Marshall has been really great about incorporating a lot of us into the characters. She hasn't put any pressure on us to be something that we're not.

Kathleen Marshall was one of your judges on the television program. What is it like working with her now as your director and choreographer?

Laura Osnes: She's been really great. We were treated the same as the rest of the cast members. We don't feel like we're anything different.

Max Crumm: I echo that, because she has really just been a dream of a person to get to know. She has been such a huge supporter of Laura and me through this entire thing.

So, what's "the word" about performing on Broadway?

Laura Osnes: I've performed in theatres that are equivalent to this size, but there's something about the magic of Broadway that's indescribable. It's so special to be in a Broadway theatre on a Broadway stage, knowing those people have probably had their tickets since the television show aired.

Max Crumm: It's theatre heightened in every possible way. It's having the best of everything to work with.

Laura Osnes: The big moment for me is taking the Broadway bow and being the last person to bow. I've always been on the other side, in the audience watching and dreaming of that, and now I'm the one on stage. It's definitely a dream come true!

Get information on and tickets to Grease.

Read the rest of the interview on GenerationBroadway.com.

On July 14th, Shubert Alley went to the dogs (and cats) with BROADWAY BARKS 9!, a star-studded dog and cat adopt-a-thon for New York City animal shelters and adoption agencies. Hosts Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore joined a galaxy of Broadway stars for this special benefit, presenting the animals for adoption. Here are some of the smiling faces that were on display. Photos by Neal Freeman.

For more information on Broadway Barks and for help finding animal adoption agencies near you, visit BroadwayBarks.com.

New Line Cinema's film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray is fast on its way to becoming a Hollywood blockbuster. John Travolta leads the cast as Mrs. Turnblad, the cross-dressing role originated on Broadway by Harvey Fierstein. The musical is in turn based on the 1988 John Waters film of the same title.

Meanwhile, the Broadway production of Hairspray continues to pack ‘em in at the Neil Simon Theatre. Lance Bass, formerly of the boy band *NSYNC, joins the show on August 14, a day before the production celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Finally, die-hard Hairspray fans now have the chance they've always wanted - to sing along! A new sing-along version of the Hairspray film debuted in select movie theatres on August 3rd . Available in more than 50 cities across the country, this special edition of the film offers sing-along tracks for audience participation during musical numbers.

The Bard on Broadway

Randy Quaid is set to star on Broadway this fall in the Shakespeare-inspired Lone Star Love, opposite Broadway veterans Robert Cuccioli and Dee Hoty. This show transplants The Merry Wives of Windsor to the Wild West shortly after the Civil War. Confederate “Colonel John” Falstaff works his charms on the wives of two wealthy cattle ranchers, with an eye on their husbands' land and money.

A number of Broadway shows over the years have similarly borrowed from the Bard for their source material. Here are a few of the more noteworthy:

• West Side Story - A retelling of the story of Romeo and Juliet's “star-cross'd lovers,” set among gangs on Manhattan's pre-gentrification West Side. The show was created by Broadway legends Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and Arthur Laurents.

• Kiss Me, Kate - Cole Porter's musical comedy set backstage during a production of The Taming of the Shrew. The show's leads - who also play Shakespeare's Katherine and Petruchio - are ex-spouses whose relationship is as rocky as that of their on-stage counterparts. 1949 Tony Award® (Best Musical).

• Two Gentlemen of Verona - It began as Shakespeare in the Park, and then moved to Broadway in 1971 with an infectious score by the composer of Hair and a rainbow cast that celebrated the energy and diversity of New York during the heyday of rock ‘n' roll. 1972 Tony Award® (Best Musical).

• The Boys from Syracuse - Rodgers and Hart's tuneful version of The Comedy of Errors. The title is an inside joke about the Shubert Brothers, theatrical impresarios who originally hailed from upstate New York.

And this fall, Broadway fans who prefer their Shakespeare performed “by the book” can check out a new production of Cymbeline directed by Mark Lamos at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. Previews begin in November.

The 60th annual Tony Awards telecast (in 2006) has received two Primetime Emmy nominations: for Outstanding Special Class Program and Outstanding Musical Direction. The latter nomination recognizes the work of Elliot Lawrence, who has served as music director for the Tonys every year since the first network telecast in 1967. Other Broadway names included in the list of 2007 Emmy nominations include performers Ian McKellan, Elaine Stritch, Eli Wallach, Kate Burton, Alec Baldwin, Mary-Louse Parker, Edie Falco, and Neil Patrick Harris; as well as Curtains director Scott Ellis and Avenue Q composer/lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx.

The Buzz

Before it closed, the revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company was filmed for public television's “Great Performances”...Spike Lee will direct a new Broadway production of Stalag 17, the 1951 prisoner-of-war drama this winter...Claire Danes will star opposite 2004 Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife) this fall in Pygmalion, the George Bernard Shaw play on which My Fair Lady is based...Hank Azaria will star on Broadway in The Farnsworth Invention, a new drama about the early days of television, this fall. The play is by “West Wing” scribe Aaron Sorkin...2005 Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) is slated to star in Mark Twain's 1898 play Is He Dead? on Broadway this fall. Twain's comedy about the rise in value of an artist's work after his death was never performed, and was only rediscovered in 2002...The hit Off Broadway musical In the Heights, about love in upper Manhattan, will transfer to Broadway this winter...The Tony Awards have added two new categories for 2008: Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical.