Grease: Cast hand-jive their way through infectious teenage musical at Manchester's Palace Theatre

With slicked back hair and hand-jiving their way through the trials and tribulations of turbulent teenage years, the students of Rydell High graced the stage of Manchester's Palace Theatre in a fresh new performance of Grease The Musical.

It's been 46 years since the iconic movie first hit screens in the UK, prompting winding queues outside cinemas across the globe - with You're The One That I Want soaring to the top of the charts.

But almost five decades later, crowds new and old can't help but still get down to the funky hooks and the sickeningly catchy songs to what is still one of the best selling motion picture albums, and films, of all time.

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Everyone knows the story. Boy meets girl in a fleeting summer romance, but once back at school the troubled teenagers of '50's Chicago face a rocky road. The audience watches the horny teenagers, who can't get enough of each other, navigate friendships, relationships and peer pressure.

The musical is synonymous with movie stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta - but many don't realise the stage musical of Grease actually came some seven years before the film.

Bursting onto the scene in poodle skirts and leather jackets, the ensemble kick off the show with gusto, high-kicking and rock-and-rolling their way through opening number Grease Is The Word, with moves choreographed by the exceptional Dame Arlene Phillips.

A digital screen displaying the Rydell High logo covers the stage behind, marking the dreaded first day of term. But appearing unphased by their return to studies after a fun-filled summer, the 24-strong cast beam from ear to ear as they belt out tight and note-perfect harmonies.

The production is truer to the original Chicago premiere than its movie counterpart, with the T-Birds instead referred to as the Burger Palace Boys, and Sandy’s character being American school newbie Sandy Dumbrowski (Hope Dawe) rather than Olivia Newton-John’s famed Australian character Sandy Olson.

Sandy is introduced to the Pink Ladies, dressed to the nines with full faces of makeup and pink bomber jackets complete with matching scarves. It's where she meets new pals Marty (India Chadwick), Jan (Emerald B), beauty trainee Frenchy (Alicia Belgarde) and the almost unbearably sarcastic Betty Rizzo (Rebecca Stenhouse), before spilling the gossip on her hot summer fling with school heartthrob Danny Zuko (Marley Fenton).

Stenhouse undoubtedly shines as the quick-witted Rizzo, unhappy about the reserved and somewhat bland newbie to the group, with comical eye rolls and sassy come backs - not to mention the powerhouse vocals to match, stunning in solo musical number There Are Worse Things I Could Do.

Chadwick's adaptation on the unsophisticated and older-than-her-years Marty is instantly likeable and comical, with Belgarde as Frenchy the perfect portrayal of the bubbly and giddy and pink-haired schoolgirl desperate to make a career for herself in the beauty industry.

The iconic Summer Nights swiftly follows, with lead characters Danny and Sandy belting out each half of the duet on either sides of the stage as they swoon over their hot summer together, much to the humorous disappointment of their peers.

The show moved seamlessly through each scene that followed, with the moveable set transporting the audience from high school to a diner – and to a dream world inhabited by pink-winged angels. School radio presenter Vince Fontain (Joe Gash) repeatedly appears from the studio on a podium at the very top of the stage to narrate each passing of time with cringeworthy rhymes and radio jingles that have the audience in hysterics.

Greased Lightning is another firm favourite, with Danny and his Burger Palace boys (T-Birds in the movie), Kenickie (Ben Nicholas), Doody (Kieran Lynch), Roger (Lewis Day) and Sonny (Sario Solomon) reprising the roles of immature and sex-crazed teenage boys who are more concerned about shining up an old banger to impress the girls than they are about their studies.

Nicholas sends the audience swooning in a tight white vest as he belts: "With new pistols, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks. You know that I ain't bragging, she's a real p***y wagon"

Musical highlights included Freddy My Love, a song written for the stage musical that sees Marty yearning for her supposed fiancé during a girly sleepover. There were audible giggles as the schoolgirls chugged white wine from the bottle and attempted to pierce Sandy's earlobes with a hairpin, as the Pink Ladies harmonised their way through the squeaky number.

Other memorable moments include Beauty School Dropout, with the cast transformed into pink-winged angels spinning their way around the stage as they surround Frenchy, who, having recently dropped out of beauty school, begs for a guardian angel to guide her. Born To Hand Jive is another impressive and fast-paced number, with the cast being flung around the stage during a school dance competition. Complete with spectacular lifts and synchronised dancing, it is a undeniably foot-tapping assault on the senses - in the best way possible.

The hammed-up American accents mean a few points in the show can become hard to follow. Words become difficult to understand and hear due to the US twang which is occasionally further drowned out by loud backing music. It is also important for audiences to differentiate between the stage musical and box office hit that so many cherish. There are songs which fans of the film may have never heard before, and the famed personalities of some of the pivotal cast are missing, more notably Marty's sex appeal and Jan's goofy and comedic flair.

The stormy love story of Danny and Sandy also feels underwhelming. Sandy's character in the stage performance makes fewer appearances than in the 1978 movie, and their romantic spark is surprisingly uninteresting. The audience instead finds themselves more invested in the newfound spark between Marty and the dopey and clueless Doody, played utterly brilliantly by Lynch, and both friendship groups' own personal fallouts sparked by hormones and the pressures of teen life.

Nevertheless, the pair wowed in their roles individually. Dawe leaves the audience teary-eyed with her breathtaking and memorable vocals in Hopelessly Devoted To You, with Fenton commanding the stage through the deliberately cringeworthy rendition of Sandy, as he admits he's 'in misery' without his beau.

Sandy's transformation from an innocent and conservative newbie into a too-cool-for-school rocker chick in the final scenes of the show is also a little overlooked. As she struts her way on stage in a black leather biker jacket, full face of makeup and heels, the audience wonder what they must have missed.

But an infectious performance of You're The One That I Want swiftly pacifies the hitch, as audiences join in with the cast in belting out the iconic hit. Sandy and Danny dance with one another as they finally admit their undying love to their pals.

The singalong doesn't stop there. Theatre etiquette is thrown well and truly out of the window during the dazzling Megamix finale, a mash up of every catchy hit that everyone had been dying to sing throughout. The audience jumps to their feet and are even encouraged to sing alongside the cast through fizzy and energetic snaps of Grease Is The Word, Summer Nights, Greased Lightning, We Go Together and You're The One That I Want.

Already on their feet, a standing ovation with roaring applause brings the bopping teenage musical to a euphoric end. The stage show, which is touring across the UK, is certainly 'the one that you want' for an uplifting evening of nostalgia, colour and fun, paired with catchy songs, vibrant dances and wonderful singing from the moment the curtain opens - just don't expect it to be exactly like the movie.

Grease The Musical is on at the Palace Theatre from October 8 to 19, with extra dates added due to demand. Tickets are available here.