The 1950s was a decade of American culture, one which saw musical artists like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry breaking through - acts who were later to influence everyone from The Kinks to The Beatles, and in so doing have affected music forever. It has always been a decade famed for its films as well - James Dean's pictures are perhaps most famous, but the most perhaps famous "'50s" film actually began as a musical. And was made in the '70s. Grease was originally meant as a musical which looked back to the '50s and its music as the "golden days" of rock 'n' roll. Since the first production, though, the show itself has never looked back, going from strength to strength. Currently it's showing at the Bristol Hippodrome, but how good is this production?

It's off to a flying start with the name of the producer - David Gilmore. The production was slick, bright, cheerful, youthful and funny. Oh, and loud. The set is colourful, and evokes a true '50s atmosphere with its layout. The band are also up above the stage, which makes a nice change from being stuck down in the pit where nobody can see them. The look and feel of the show is fantastic, as a result of which the atmosphere in the theatre was almost closer to that of a rock concert than a play.

We all know the story, of course, from the film - a high-school romance which touches on true emotion in places, but never slips into the trap of taking itself too seriously. Helping the storyline along nicely are songs like Summer Nights, We Go Together, Sandy and of course the perennial primary-school-disco favourite, Greased Lightning. The first Act was incredibly energetic, with an encore added to the latter song and some fantastic dancing. The second was slightly less up-tempo slowing down after the dance contest at the start, but still very lively, and towards the end reached its peak with You're The One That I Want and an unbelievable encore (probably the longest of any that I've seen), and never letting things get lazy or clumsy. Concentration was clearly very high throughout, the only minus point for me being that one or two of the songs looked a little bit mimed to me. Still, no matter, the music's what matters, and the humour - and there was plenty of that as well, perhaps most notably Danny Zuko's truly hilarious walk.

From such a strong cast, it seems a shame to pick out one or two stars, but Paul Burnham as Vince Fontaine and Irene Warren starring as Sandy were my personal favourites. Make no mistake, though, the rest were all very good indeed and would get a mention were it not for the restrictions of time and space.

Overall, four out of five for this one, it's an enjoyable night out and a really unmissable one, but this production could be a little better. Who knows, it might just have been first night glitches, and the little points where nothing that should stop one from going to see it anyway. Fantastic!

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