If you don’t like the idea of joining an entire audience mimicking John Travolta’s nasal “Naahhh-iiights” at the end of the Grease Megamix (or you don’t know what the Grease Megamix is), this musical is probably not for you.
Grease is an exercise in nostalgia, whether that was the original 1971 musical harking back to the 1950s, or current audiences revelling in memories of Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Sandy’s transformation might be Grease’s most iconic moment, but change isn’t really what this show is about – its world of unreconstructed sexism, innumerable pelvic thrusts and a heroine who only gains currency when she dons tight leather trousers is not being reinvented for the 21st century.
