John Heller, Post-Gazette Amy Perry, center, as Sandy, sings with members of the Pink Ladies in the first act of "Grease" at Shaler Area High School.

By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The lyric from the musical comedy "Grease" replaying in my mind right now is "You're the one that I want," because it also serves as the title of the Sunday night reality show in which the next Broadway revival of the musical is casting the roles of Danny and Sandy right on national TV.

	AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Click the picture for a multimedia presentation on the Shaler Area High School production of "Grease."

But the most appropriate lyric in "Grease" for Pittsburgh is "We go together," the upbeat end to Act 1. Its tune has all that late-'50s, adrenaline-coursing, pop rock bounce, but add the words and you have the perfect expression of the high school musical spirit, which is all about everyone joining in to put on a show right there in the school auditorium.

Yes, it's that time of year. The Post-Gazette's chronological list of high school musicals in greater Pittsburgh stands at 113, and you can check it out online, where there are also alphabetical lists by show title and school. The first happy explosion was last weekend, when 16 schools came blasting out of the starting gate.

Included among them was Shaler Area High School's "Grease," which is being performed for a second weekend -- tomorrow and Saturday -- so you don't have to take the critic's word, you can check it out yourself. If you can get in, that is. I hear the rush was such that some folks were turned away at Sunday's matinee.

Back to that keynote song. I'm a great believer is resurrecting the forgotten folk poetry of popular music, so here's the full verse:

We go together like
rama lama lama
ke ding a de dinga dong,
remembered for ever like
shoo bop shoo wadda wadda
yipitty boom de boom.

They sure don't write them like that any more, do they? It takes you back.

Actually, "Grease" debuted in 1971, when the '50s already were subject to post-'60s reassessment and nostalgia. Its songs aren't authentic but imitative, which means they can go right for the heart of the times, which is always clearer in retrospect.

	John Heller, Post-Gazette As Danny, Michael Brewer, bottom left, hangs out with his friends in "Grease," which continues tomorrow and Saturday at Shaler Area High School. Click photo for larger image.

The show starts with a reunion of the Rydell High (named after Bobby, no doubt) class of 1959, set at some vague future time, then flashes back to senior year, with all its dramas and divisions. The frame is never alluded to again. In fact, the plot is full of dead ends and disconnects, like an aborted rumble that seems mainly an allusion to "West Side Story." Some songs, such as "It's Raining on Prom Night," are inserted without any rhyme or reason except that they're good songs, which does seem sufficient.

It's all about peer pressure, who's going steady with whom and other high school dynamics, mainly having to do with mating rituals, but "Grease" isn't a show about plot -- it's about youthful hormones and a series of mainly energetic, pop-happy songs.

In '50s terms, that means focusing on the "bad" kids of the day, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. So, along the way, there's serious commentary on the trauma of being teenaged, a surprise in a show known for its fluff. "Grease" dramatizes the pressure to be disdainful and cool, which is at least preferable to geeky self-promotion. It also addresses the pressure to have sex or at least pretend to have had.

And in Rizzo's great ballad of independence, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do," there's a feeling protest against the flirtatious virginity of such period icons as Sandra Dee and Doris Day. (Some of these references probably need as many footnotes as World War II, but grandparents should be useful translators.)

Here and there, the language even turns salty, if not raunchy. For me, the biggest shock is seeing kids light up cigarettes, whether real or pretend. We've become such puritans, it's good to see a school willing to stage the period right.

LeeAnn Guido and Janelle Miller co-direct, with careful choreography by Sandi McKissock and Lindsay Wygal leading a capable all-student musical combo of six. The show starts slowly. At Friday's opening, the cast sometimes seemed uptight, needing to let loose physically and have more fun. But there are limits: A friend told me she heard a lot of ad-libbing Sunday. Loose doesn't mean getting in the way of the play.

The show really gets rolling with the girls' slumber party and kicks into high gear with the guys' "Greased Lightnin'," where they do some energetic choreography.

	John Heller, Post-Gazette Michael Brewer, portraying Danny, gets a final spray before the curtain goes up. Click photo for larger image.

Overall, the girls are stronger than the boys, with better voices. But the boys have stage presence to compensate for vocal deficiencies, especially Mike Brewer's appealing Danny and Jerimiah Skertich's swaggering Kenickie.

As Sandy, Amy Perry's voice has a pleasing country-western timbre. But nothing about her performance impressed me so much as her complete aplomb when a baby in the audience had a crying fit right in front of her, the parents seemed unable to cope, and she carried on without a quiver.

Jordan Metcalfe has wiry strength and a fully expressive voice as Rizzo, and she makes her big song into a thrilling anthem. Christine Wagner has the show's best acting skills as Jan, but Chelsea Peluso's Frenchy and Brandi Painter's Marty are also clever comic creations. Leah Moushey never lets the unsympathetic role of Patty get her down.

I could go on. Ethan Wills Sandy, playing Sonny, has a nice way with "Rock 'n' Roll Party Queen," and one of the best collaborative numbers is "Beauty School Dropout," when the chorus members -- some coming through the audience -- appear in shampoo smocks and curlers.

If any Shaler Area students or families are watching that Sunday night reality TV show, they have something to measure their school against. My impression is that it measures up well in drive and desire.