Fox will honor Vanessa Hudgens‘ late father during the broadcast of “Grease: Live,” TheWrap has learned.
According to a Fox representative, the network will run a special tribute card at the end of the show in honor of Greg Hudgens, who passed away on Saturday night after battling cancer for the past six months.
“I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer,” Hudgens tweeted Sunday morning. “Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers. Tonight, I do the show in his honor.”
Hundreds of fans voiced their condolences for Hudgens on social media, urging her to stay strong and continue with her performance.
Hudgens is set to play the head Pink Lady, Rizzo, in the live musical, a role originated in the 1978 feature film by Stockard Channing.
Along with Hudgens, Julianne Hough will play the angelic Sandy and Aaron Tveit will play bad boy Danny Zuko. They will be joined by Keke Palmer as Marty Maraschino, Carlos PenaVega as Kenickie, Carly Rae Jepsen as Frenchy, Kether Donohue as Jan, David Del Rio as Putzie, Jordan Fisher as Doody and Andrew Call as Sonny.
The Paramount Television production will be directed on stage by Thomas Kail, and on TV by Alex Rudzinski. Broadway writers Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins wrote the script.
“Grease Live” airs live tonight 7 p.m. ET on Fox.