Vanessa Hudgens stars in TV's Grease: Live hours after father's death

Vanessa Hudgens took the stage Sunday night in Fox's Grease: Live in honour of her father, who passed away the previous day.

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The 27-year-old actress tweeted on Sunday that her father, Greg, had died the night before and thanked those who kept him in their prayers. Hudgens said he was suffering from stage 4 cancer.

On Sunday night, Hudgens took on the role of Rydell High's resident bad girl Rizzo. Julianne Hough and Broadway veteran Aaron Tveit starred in the leads as Sandy and Danny, with prominent roles also for Carly Rae Jepsen and Keke Palmer.

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With Grease, Fox entered into the new mini-industry of musicals on TV, an industry so far controlled by NBC, with its productions of The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, and The Wiz.

The show was based on the original 1971 musical Grease, by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, with some songs absorbed by the 1978 film version starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Broadway writers Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins adapted it for live TV, salting in sly jokes about the era and the actors.

Grease: Livewas captured by 44 cameras and performed on two massive Warner Bros. soundstages in Burbank, Calif., a three-hour show partially performed outdoors that even shrugged off rain showers..

Jessie J and Boyz II Men also sang during the production, while two actors from the 1978 film, Didi Conn and Barry Pearl, appeared in small roles.