Grease is a 1971
musical by
Jim Jacobs and
Warren Casey with additional songs written by
John Farrar. Named for the 1950s United States
working-class youth subculture known as
greasers, the musical is set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School (based on Chicago, Illinois'
William Howard Taft School) and follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love. The score attempts to recreate the sounds of early
rock and roll. In its original production in Chicago,
Grease was a raunchy, raw, aggressive, vulgar show. Subsequent productions sanitized it and tamed it down. The show mentions social issues such as
teenage pregnancy,
peer pressure and
gang violence; its themes include
love,
friendship,
teenage rebellion,
sexual exploration during
adolescence, and, to some extent,
class consciousness/
class conflict.