Vanessa Hudgens Thanks Fans for Their Support After Emotional ‘Grease

Vanessa Hudgens’ “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” is the next-highest charting number. The 1978 film version of “Grease” starred Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in those roles.

However the 27-year-old vowed that her tragic loss wouldn’t stop her from playing Rizzo in Grease: Live on Fox on Sunday.

After the performances on Sunday night, Grease: Live received a ton of positive reviews from fans and critics alike.

Up next for FOX is a musical production of The Passion, which will air live from New Orleans in March.

Vanessa Hudgens managed to put on a fearless face when she performed just hours after her dad’s passing. Vanessa’s rawness as Rizzo was the talk of Twitter, Julianne Hough is THE sweet singing blonde meant to play Sandy and, well, Aaron Tveit. By comparison, NBC’s The Wiz Live production in December was seen by 11.1 million people. It was a little “Total Request Live”, which was a bit jarring, but overall, it was hard to deny “Grease: Live”‘s energy or enthusiasm.

The live show experienced a few technical slip-ups, most noticeably when the sound dropped during “Born to Hand Jive”, which picked back up under a minute later.

“I am devastated. Just thinking of my girl and praying for her strength today”, tweeted “High School Musical” co-star Ashley Tisdale. We got chills – and they’re multiplying.

The show had 1.2 million tweets, with the most-tweeted minute occurring at 8:31 p.m. ET, after Boyz II Men sang “Beauty School Dropout”. “She felt that her father would want her to perform, and she’s a professional and she knows that the show has to go on, as any actor of the theater or in a live event knows”, he continued.

Costar Keke Palmer, who did a scintillating performance of “Freddy My Love”, had great things to say about Vanessa after the show.