Grease

The MTWichita 50th Anniversary season cruises over to mythical Rydell High for Grease, the most popular back-to-school musical ever written.

In 1970, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey were community theatre actors in Chicago, who saw the recent musical Hair and loved its teen energy, honest sexuality, and rock and roll songs. They decided to try writing their own show, based on their high school experiences in the late 1950s, and they called it Grease, in honor of that era’s hairstyles. The show debuted in Chicago in 1971 and moved to Broadway the following year.

Critics were underwhelmed but audiences loved it and kept it running for 3,388 performances, a new long-run record for Broadway. A hit film version in 1978 added excellent new songs to the already tuneful score, and several successful Broadway revivals followed.

For its first-ever production at MTWichita, director Wayne Bryan promises a dynamically talented group of Greasers and Pink Ladies, bringing new life to songs from both stage and film versions, and paying special tribute to the unique place of women in the 1950s. Bring your best Hand Jive to the Capitol Federal Amphitheater lawn, and experience an evening of Summer Lovin’ that moves like Greased Lightning!