‘Grease’ Is the Word at PMT (Thurs., 3/7/24)

GREASE (musical) by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Pittsburgh Musical Theater. March 7 – 17.

PMT’s ‘Grease’ features Broadway musical performers Davis Wayne (Danny) and Maya Santiago (Sandy). (Photo: DNapps Productions)

Before Grease was the word, it was a shockingly gritty urban theater piece that mixed raw, raucous humor with frightening depictions of life among the tough kids at a big-city high school. This original Grease was staged by Chicago’s Kingston Mines theater company in 1971. It became an underground sensation, and writers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey were told it had mass-market potential—if they would tone down the language, brighten up the script, and write more songs, turning Grease from a “play with music” into a full-blown musical. The Grease that we’ve come to know since then is much tamer, but not exactly lame. It has won generations of fans via live productions worldwide. The 1978 movie, with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, was a box-office winner. Now see it live: Pittsburgh Musical Theater serves up Grease with a starry cast led by Maya Santiago as Sandy and Davis Wayne as Danny. Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Cultural District. (M.V.)

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