Vanessa Hudgens triumphs in emotional "Grease Live" hours after her father dies of cancer

Vanessa Hudgens as the character Rizzo performs "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee" in Grease Live.

VANESSA HUDGENS lived up to that old show business credo, "The show must go on" when she performed in Grease Live Sunday night, just hours after her father passed away.

I'm not sure where the Filipina/American actress and singer found the strength to carry on but she did and the audience was rewarded with what could probably be the best single performance by one of the enormous cast in her emotional rendition of "There Are Worst Things I Could Do."

RELATED: Vanessa Hudgens in "Grease Live"

The rave reviews of Hudgen's performance revealed that there is more promise for the 27-year old than being another on the endless list of Hollywood ingenues. With the eyes of the world, including her showbiz peers, focused on her performance in light of her father's death a day before, her career just got boosted a couple of notches. 

Hudgens' performance generally drew praise from critics:

Hudgens’ Rizzo was impassioned, if not exactly original; the actress is continually proving herself to have more talent. Hudgens announced on Twitter yesterday morning that her father died the night before from stage four cancer. But rather than leave it to the understudy, she dedicated the performance to her father, and certainly from watching her onstage, she seemed to radiate energy and determination. Stockard Channing might be proud. - Sonia Saraiya/Salon

In fact, I'd say the biggest story of Grease: Live was Hudgens’ rendition of “Worse Things I Could Do”. It was a remarkable performance on its own, though her tears and sheer emotional force seemed to take on new meaning in light of the recent death of her father. It was naked, mesmerizing, pyrotechnic and sad. And it felt at once polished and controlled and fully spontaneous—a rare combination for live TV. In a landscape full of meticulously-maintained prestige television, where everything is over-scripted for either sheer bubblegum entertainment or critic-pleasing virtuosity, a moment like that is something special. - Eric Thurm/Slate

And then there was Vanessa Hudgens, the former High School Musical star who recently played the title role in a good but uninspired revival of Gigi on Broadway. Here she was all but unrecognizable as Rizzo, the Channing role of the wise-cracking, tough-shelled leader of the Pink Ladies. With her hair in an Annette Funicello cut, her doe eyes at odds with frequently pursed lips and a limber ferocity that turned the dance at the gym into the Dance At The Gym as if she was Anita in West Side Story, Hudgens stole the show. - Jeremy Gerard/Deadline

Playing the role of the original bad girl and leader of the Pink Ladies, Betty Rizzo, Hudgens delivered the performance of a lifetime in the midst of what one could only assume was an incredibly painful day. Her two emotionally layered solos, “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” and “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” ranked as some of the night's best performances, particularly the latter in which Hudgens was unafraid to tap into the character's heartbreaking declaration of vulnerability. - Cole Delbyck/Huffington Post

Hudgens also dominated the Twitterverse as tweets came in from Hamilton producer Lin-Manuel Miranda and her peers, including boyfriend Austin Butler.

At the end of the production credits came this touching dedication. Hudgens' dad, Gary,  would have been proud.

On Sunday morning, Vanessa Hudgens tweeted out an announcement, just hours ahead of her performance as the iconic Rizzo in Fox’s live staging of “Grease.” She wrote, “I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer. Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers.” And she added, “Tonight, I do the show in his honor.”

This morning, after all the hoopla generated by her performance and as the sun rose over Los Angeles, Vanessa Hudgens tweeted this.