After spending time blending their voices to do an homage to “Grease” for a Super Bowl commercial for T-Mobile, John Travolta, Zach Braff and Donald Faison might want to start working on a new tune.
You can already seem them at work. The telecommunications advertiser has posted several versions of the ad, in which the trio sing an updated version of “Summer Nights” that touts T-Mobile’s home Internet service over what’s offered by competitors. Travolta releases his inner Danny Zuko. Super Bowl viewers should expect to see it run on Fox’s broadcast of the game during the fourth quarter.
As fans might guess, the offer has Travolta crooning, “Tell me more, tell me more.”
“Chemistry cannot be created. It is or it isn’t,” Travolta tells Variety. “I love the dynamic between the three of us. It’s a special energy. I know it sounds odd, It’s like a special art to do musical comedy and advertising, that has a vibe, a frequency that is different than other types of performance. When I see all three of us together, I feel like we should do something else with this, you know?”
Last year, Faison and Braff, co-stars in the NBC sitcom “Scrubs,” sang a new version of “I Feel Pretty” for a T-Mobile Super Bowl ad. In 2023, they are taking the concept to a new level. “Zach and I are huge fans of musical theater, since we were kids,” says Faison. “We have been training for this for such a long time.” The pair knew the “Grease” idea was under consideration, says Braff, “but we didn’t know they would pick it.”
Travolta was tickled by the chance to have a little fun with his history with “Grease. “The commercial is “in keeping with the spirit of the movie, as well as being humorous about it. All this is tongue in cheek, which is what I love about it, why I said, ‘Yes.’ It was the first time we’ve ever been asked to use a ‘Grease’ song and spoof it, to be honest. I’m curious why it hasn’t happened before.”
Picking the song back up was easy. “I did the play, on the road and on Broadway, for a year,” he recounts. “It was part of my DNA, if you will.”
This isn’t any of the trio’s first Super Bowl ad. While Braff and Faison are reprising their roles from 2022’s T-Mobile Big Game spot, Travolta made an appearance alongside Martha Stewart in 2020 on behalf of Scotts Miracle-Gro. “I started in ads when I was in theatter in New York when I was 16, until I was 21 on ‘Welcome Back, Kotter.,” he says. “That was how you subsidized yoru career, with ads. I did everything from Pepsi to Honda motorcycles….Band-Aids, Safeguard soap.” There is a certain art and skill to making ads work, he says. “You have to squeeze a presentational concept into the performance. It’s a heightened reality, almost like a cartoon.”
Travolta, Faison and Braff get to show off more of their skills in a two-minute version of the T-Mobile spot that’s available online.
Brian Steinberg
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