Ariana Grande shall be taking both her acting and singing talents as a checkerboard chick in the TV music special “Hairspray Live!” on NBC.
After appearing in “Scream Queens” Season 1 last year, the Grammy-winning songstress has joined the cast of “Hairspray Live” where she will play the role of Penny Pingleton.
In a post on Twitter on July 7, Ariana Grande said that Penny Pingleton has been a dream role for her since “Hairspray” opened on Broadway where the role was played by Leslie Ann Powers and Amanda Bynes in the 1988 and 2007 films, respectively, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
She also tweeted that she hopes to make Kerry Butler proud since the stage actress was the original Penny Pingleton when the Broadway production began in 2002.
Over at her Instagram account, Ariana Grande said that she has never been more excited for anything in her entire life.
Ariana joins a luminary cast that includes Martin Short, Derek Hough, Harvey Fierstein, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jennifer Hudson.
An award-winning Broadway musical
“Hairspray Live!” is based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that takes place in 1962 in Baltimore featuring teenager Tracy Turnblad whose dream is to dance on “The Corny Collins Show.”
When Tracy got a role on the show, she became a celebrity overnight and got acquainted with a colorful array of characters including the resident dreamboat, Link; an ambitious mean girl, Amber; an African-American boy in detention, Seaweed; and Seaweed’s mother Motormouth Maybelle, the owner of the record store, details Yahoo! TV.
Tracy’s mother is the determined Edna Turnblad who encourages Tracy not to lose hope in her dream to become part of the all-white “The Cory Collins Show.”
Ariana’s Penny Pingleton is the best friend of Tracy Turnblad, to be played by newcomer Maddie Baillio.
NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said in an official statement that the network is absolutely thrilled to round out an all-star “Hairspray Live!” cast with Ariana Grande, which he describes as one of the biggest recording artists in the world.
He said that Ariana is a Broadway baby at heart, having debuted on Broadway when she was 15 and that the songstress will be fantastic in the delightful role of Penny Pingleton.
Greenblatt added that they look forward to Ariana’s millions of fans seeing yet another side to the multifaceted performer and welcomed her with open arms to the incredible ensemble of artists.
“Hairspray Live!” is set to air on December 7 and marks the first time that NBC shall go into a live musical which would be filmed in Los Angeles.
A versatile celebrity
Ariana Grande is already a made music artist, there is no doubt about that. But she is proving herself to be a versatile celebrity as she has been into acting, where she actually originated from back during her Nickelodeon days, and of late, hosting TV shows.
She was so good in hosting several episodes of “Saturday Night Live” that some talk shows have booked her for guesting appearances and let her do the talking.
True enough, she never fails to amaze talk show hosts with her guesting as she always has a mouthful to say about a lot of things with regards to her career, her music, and even her infamous doughnutgate scandal last year.
She actually confronted her critics by lampooning her very own doughnutgate scandal in an episode of “Saturday Night Live” indicative of how mature she has become.
Ariana has also asserted her feminism time and again as she grapples with pop stardom. She has become a 22-year-old girl that comes into her own trying to balance growing up, love, and a lot of other stuff along the way.