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?

The production was slick, bright, cheerful, youthful and funny. The set is colourful, and evokes a true '50s atmosphere with its layout. The stunning lighting adds that movie, pop concert feel and really makes you want to get up and dance...which by the end, everyone is doing! 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 and get the crowd warmed up during the overture of the infamous songs! 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 some amazing dancing, some brilliant characterisation and some note perfect singing. 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, and there was not much wrong with this production. The only thing I would say is that the cast seemed a bit old to play High School Graduates! 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 the small rolled but brilliantly funny Vince Fontaine and of course Craig Urbam as Danny, possibly playing it better than John Travolta in the film and the young well voiced Haley Flaherty starring as Sandy were just that little bit above the rest. Make no mistake, though, the cast  were all professional and brilliant 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 just seems to lack something to make it worthy of five, nethertheless go and see it, get on your feet, sing, dance and enjoy. For Grease Is the Word!!

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