Synopsis

Act I

The musical begins with a Rydell High School Class of 1959 reunion headed by old maid English teacher, Miss Lynch, who starts off with a recitation of the school anthem ("Alma Mater"). She welcomes former cheerleader/yearbook-editor Patty Simcox Honeywell and class valedictorian Eugene Florczyk. Eugene gives a rousing speech, mentioning that the alumni who are missing from the reunion are surely present in-spirit. Suddenly, the greaser gang known as the Burger Palace Boys (known in later versions of the production as the "T-Birds") and their auxiliary, the "Pink Ladies", appear and recite their own parody of the Rydell anthem ("Alma Mater (Parody)").

The play fades away into Rydell High's first day of the new school year. The Pink Ladies sit in the lunchroom, and the Burger Palace Boys sit at the entrance to the school. There is a new girl at school, Sandy Dumbrowski. She describes to the Pink Ladies (Frenchy, Marty, Jan, and Betty Rizzo) how she and the leader of the Burger Palace Boys, Danny Zuko, had a brief love affair the summer before, which ended with unresolved love. In describing the fling, Sandy focuses on the romance, while Danny exaggerates to the other Burger Palace Boys (Doody, Sonny, Roger, and Kenickie) regarding the physical aspects of their relationship ("Summer Nights").

Sandy and Danny soon bump into each other at school, and while they are mutually happy to see each other, he brushes her off due to the expectations of his companions. As the Burger Palace Boys leave, Sandy is heartbroken, but the Pink Ladies calm her down and invite her over to Marty's pajama party. Shortly afterwards, the teenagers gather in the hall as Doody, the youngest Burger Palace Boy, shows off his new guitar. The rock star wannabe gives an impromptu concert in the hall ("Those Magic Changes").

At Marty's pajama party, the girls experiment with wine, cigarettes, and pierced ears; and talk about boys. Marty tells about her long-distance courtship with a Marine named Freddy ("Freddy, My Love"). That same night, the Burger Palace Boys are busy stealing hubcaps and teasing Kenickie about his "new" used car, Greased Lightning, which he proudly brags about ("Greased Lightnin'").

Danny sees Sandy again at her cheerleader practice, and tries to apologize for his behavior. Head cheerleader Patty Simcox interrupts and flirts with Danny. Patty informs Danny that track try-outs are nearing, and Danny tells Sandy that he will join the track team to prove that he is sophisticated. After Danny leaves, Patty and Sandy practice their cheer choreography ("Rydell Fight Song").

The Burger Palace Boys and Pink Ladies take their newfangled portable radios for a picnic in the park. Roger shares his love for Jan and his hobby of exposing his rear end to unsuspecting victims ("Mooning"). Rizzo teases Danny for falling for a girl who resembles the excessively proper teenage ing"nue, Sandra Dee, and the other greasers join in as she makes fun of Sandy, who has not arrived to the picnic yet ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee").

Sandy comes in just as the greasers finish making fun of her, and tells Danny that she wishes she never met him. Sandy leaves the picnic, Danny shrugs off Sandy's negative response, and the greasers pair off for the upcoming school prom. Danny teases Marty for not having a date, and the greasers all laugh, declaring that they will be friends no matter what ("We Go Together").

Act II

It is the night of school prom where everyone is having fun dancing in the gym ("Shakin' At the High School Hop"). Sandy is at home by herself, listening to the radio and crying over how much she misses Danny ("It's Raining on Prom Night").

Meanwhile, Kenickie comes into the dance with his date, Cha-Cha DiGregorio, a sexually provocative girl from a different school known as Saint Bernadette's. Kenickie dumps his date Cha-Cha and pairs off with Rizzo, whom Danny entered the dance contest with, leaving Danny with Cha-Cha. The MC Vince Fontaine, an enthusiastic radio disc jockey, begins the hand jive dance contest, and everyone eagerly participates as he tags the contestants out ("Born to Hand Jive"). In the end, Danny and Cha-Cha are the winners. Amongst the awards given to the couple, Danny receives two free drive-in movie tickets.

Sometime later outside of the Burger Palace hangout, Kenickie, Doody, and Sonny run into Frenchy. The boys are armed with household "arsenal", and reveal that, to their surprise, Cha-Cha was the girlfriend of someone in the Burger Palace Boys' rival gang, the Flaming Dukes. Cha-Cha told the Flaming Dukes about how she danced with Danny, and, as a response, the Flaming Dukes challenged the Burger Palace Boys to a rumble. Danny sprints into the scene, wearing a track suit after having joined the Rydell track team, to the disapproval and confusion of the other Burger Palace boys. Danny turns down their urgent invitation to the Flaming Dukes rumble due to time conflicts with a track race, which he sprints off to.

The three remaining Burger Palace Boys go into the Burger Palace for a snack before the fight, and Frenchy laments at what to do with her life, having dropped out of beauty school for failing all of her classes. The heavenly Teen Angel appears with a chorus of back-up singing angels and tells her to return to high school ("Beauty School Dropout").

Shortly afterwards, the three Burger Palace Boys exit the Burger Palace. They wait for the Flaming Dukes, but the rival gang never turns up. The greasers realize that Roger is missing. Just as they decide to leave, Roger finally turns up with a car antenna as his weapon, and the greasers criticize him for showing up so late with such a pathetic excuse for a weapon. Roger challenges the three Burger Palace Boys, who proceed to run off with Roger's pants and shoes.

In the next scene, Danny and Sandy are in Greased Lightning, watching a drive-in movie. Danny tells Sandy how upset his buddies are at him, and how sorry he is for his companion's behavior during the picnic. After Danny offers Sandy his ring, he attempts to get intimate with her, but moves too fast, and she leaves. Danny misses Sandy, and wishes that they could be together again ("Sandy").

Several days later, Sandy and the greasers " without Danny ? are having a party in Jan's basement as Doody, on guitar, performs alongside Roger ("Rock 'N' Roll Party Queen"). Rizzo is worried that she is pregnant, but tells Kenickie that he is not the father, and rejects offers of comfort from the other greasers, who leave the party. Rizzo is left alone with Sandy, who questions Rizzo on why she rejected her friends. Rizzo responds by saying that she is a better person than others make her out to be ("There Are Worse Things I Could Do"). Rizzo leaves, and Sandy decides what she needs to do to fit in with the greasers ("Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" (Reprise)).

The next day, the Burger Palace Boys are hanging out at the Burger Palace. Patty Simcox comes in, miserable and emotionally hurt. She tells them that Danny quit the track team and gave the finger to the coach. The Burger Palace Boys laugh and congratulate Danny, who returns. Sandy comes in alongside the Pink Ladies, having transformed herself into a greaser's dream date. Danny is delighted at this change and the couple express their mutual feelings for each other ("You're the One That I Want").

Afterwards, the other Burger Palace Boys and Pink Ladies cheer for Danny and Sandy being together again. They happily invite Patty to watch The Mickey Mouse Club with them at Roger's house, and she agrees. Rizzo reveals that she is not pregnant, and she and Kenickie reunite. All ends happily, and the Burger Palace Boys, the Pink Ladies, Sandy, and Patty sing about how they will always be friends to the end ("We Go Together" (Reprise)).

((Here we are, lovelies, the place to post if you feel so inclined! As always, please respect the setting, and have fun! Pretty sure the cast won't mind if the audience sings along with some of these!))

Josh's commitment to the Shanachie offered Dru the perfect excuse to get out of Tirisano for a few weeks. She wasn't going to let her husband perform without her support, and besides, she'd been a member of the Shanachie companies for a couple of years herself. Though her uncle was still Prince of Tirisano, she'd been obliged to take on more duties as his health failed. But Julius wouldn't deny her this.

So there she was, sat in the box the Grangers habitually used when they visited the theater en masse, with Josh's father, Duke Oliver of Roslae, and his brother and sister-in-law, James and Keira. This would likely be Josh's last production with the Shanachie, and Dru had made certain that he had no inkling that his family would be there to see it. It was a surprise, and one she hoped wasn't going to put him off while he was performing.

It was always interesting, performing any show for a second run in a different role. Eregor found himself reminiscing about the Shanachie's earlier production of Grease. When Doran had asked him if he minded having a one-song part this time around, he just shook his head. "I got to be Danny last time, and I have to say, I was damned good in the part....but this is an entirely new cast except for myself, with new chemisty and bucketloads of talent. It's not about being the Star, but rather about putting on a great show together."

Then he paused and looked over to where Josh—all dressed up as Danny—was chatting with Saila and Dorian and Sabine. "Besides, he makes a pretty decent Danny, too!"

"Better than you?" asked the youth with a grin.

"For this production?" Eregor gave a little nod. "Yeah. Now get back up in the lighting loft, it's almost showtime."

Jan was fun: carefree and enjoying just hanging around. Lirssa embraced that part of the role with the same ambitions — to enjoy it and have fun. And that was fed by the interaction of the cast, as well. The months of performances and the rehearsal for this show had molded newcomers into seasoned performers, and veterans crafted perfection in their respective roles.

So, Lirssa embraced the silly, sweet side of Jan as well as the sometimes over the top production values, coming to a curtain close each night with energy and delight. There was always something about being on a stage that could amp up that starshine smile.

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Tell me more, like does he have a car"

When she discovered what role she'd been given, Saila couldn't help snickering a little, for a whole lot of reasons.

For one thing, she was to be the squeaky clean ing"nue. Part of that came super easily — Saila missed jokes and had to have casual references explained to her all the time. The feeling like a foreigner in a very strange land with no bilingual dictionary — hey, that part was a breeze, too. She even had to smile to herself when the Pink Ladies "taught" her how to smoke, recalling suddenly the night she'd bummed her first cigarette off a certain Raychicago.

What made her laugh the most, though, was that her boyfriend had actually been around in the '50s. It was his favorite era, and even the fashion choices had mostly stuck for him, up to and including the muscle cars.

...So much so that his own siblings teased him sometimes by calling him 'Zuko'. And now Saila got to be Sandy.

It was her first truly-lead role, and she and Sabine stayed up celebrating it on the night they were cast. It was exhilarating to have come so far in such a relatively short period of time, and even more so to have someone who could just as easily have landed the role instead be so genuinely happy for her in her success. Of all the things she had come to love about the theater so far, it was this that she loved most: making a real friend among her castmates.

A friend who sang an entire solo dedicated to making fun of her, mind you, but Saila didn't care. She'd come to love playing adversary to her friend as much as she loved snickering with her about it afterwards.

It was a little bittersweet to work with Josh - a great actor and positively on point as Danny, but only because she'd never really gotten to work this closely with him before, and rumor had it this was his last show with the company. She was thrilled to learn that his whole family had apparently come to see him, though, and she was sure to congratulate him on his performance and wish him well on his future travels when the final curtain fell.