When Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs wrote their first version of Grease (then called Grease Lightning) almost 40 years ago, they wrote from recent experience. The Day the Music Died was just 11 years gone. The T-Birds weren't the T-Birds yet; they were the Burger Palace Boys of Jacobs' Chicago haunts. The Pink Ladies were no ladies, as booze, tobacco, Mary Jane and barely protected sex were prevalent. It's due to TV's Happy Days and the family-friendly movie version of Grease that we've accepted a sanitized oversimplification of an entire decade.

South Puget Sound Community College and Saint Martin's University have allied to mount a new production of Grease, but parents expecting a carbon copy of the beloved Travolta adaptation (1978) are in for a rude awakening. "In crafting our production," director Colleen Powers warns in the program, "my goal was to bring back some of the edginess." True to her word, these are "the ‘bad kids' of the era," with "obscenity laced" dialogue. It's no 8 Mile, thankfully, but it's also no watered-down Rebel Without a Cause.

What it is, in fact, is fun, and loads of it. The songs are as catchy as you remember; it's just that some of the songs you remember aren't there.  "Grease," "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy" were written for the movie.  Powers' only concession to Travolta fandom is to include "You're the One That I Want," as did the recent Broadway revival. I enjoyed the Olympia Chamber Orchestra's rock combo, especially John Beach and Dylan Hermensen on saxophone. I miss raunchy sax solos in rock music, don't you?

These actors look like actual teenagers, unlike the stars of the movie. (Stockard Channing was 33, for God's sake.) They're not all terrific singers - falsettos are a hurdle throughout - but Ryan P. Craig and Julian Fajardo contribute plausible crooning. I liked Emilie Esther Ann Schnabel's blonde bombshell Rizzo, and Steven Walker hoofs his way through a fine Danny Zuko. Eliza Fowler adds comic relief and a lovely backup singing voice, and Justin Smith's eccentric persona transforms Eugene into an overzealous goofball - albeit one with a totally anachronistic hairstyle.  The company seems to be having a lot of fun, so it can be forgiven for such historical revisions as a presciently integrated Rydell High and some shot-in-the-dark pronunciations of "Shelley Fabares." In this version, she appears to be related to Brett Favre.

I dug Sarah Sugarbaker's unconventional set, Heidi Mabbott's props and Aaron Ping's sound design, especially those crackling drive-in speakers.  Whoever found or built the coupe Kenickie loans Danny deserves a Rydell letter jacket. Yep, it's Kenickie's - Travolta used his Saturday Night Fever clout to yoink the song "Greased Lightning" for the movie. This ain't your daddy's 1950s, kids.

Not long after the curtain rose, the deep-voiced teenager directly behind me started singing along with "Summer Nights." No one asked him to do that, of course, but it means Grease is still an adolescent favorite as it enters middle age. I like that. I remember seeing it with my mom and little brother at an LA drive-in back when movies debuted at the drive-in. When it ended, Mom asked me if I thought Black Leather Sandy was sexy. The question confused me, as I wasn't sure what the word sexy meant. I was 10.  Now I'm old enough to tell Sandy to put some damn clothes on before she leaves the house.

Grease

Through Nov. 21, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
$7.50-$12.50
Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Performing Arts, 2011 Mottman Rd., Olympia
360.753.8586