Vape, Kyoto
Lara Strong and Scott Silagy. (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)
By Fern Siegel (Posted Nov. 11, 2025)
The Rydell High of the 1950s showcased in Grease has been updated. It’s now the class of 2026 — vaping replaces cigarettes, and the muscle car has been traded for a Prius. Students long to be TikTok influencers and sexual fluidity is out and proud.
It’s not Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta’s Grease.
It’s a clever, over-the-top parody that brilliantly sends up the 1978 movie’s sexist tropes, teen angst and adult cast, while shooting zingers at Scientology, Pulp Fiction and Xanadu. There’s even a brief musical nod to West Side Story. In short, Vape is a sharp, quick-witted comedy that employs Grease’s soundtrack, but with all new lyrics.
In an era desperate for laughs, Vape is 90-minutes of nonstop laughter. And the cast, from a pitch-perfect Lara Strong (Sandy) and Scott Silagy (a scene-stealing Danny), to its first-rate ensemble, Vape is smoking. Slee (a delightfully snarky Rizzo) is now dealing with menopause, not a pregnancy scare — an inside joke, as Stockard Channing was 33 when she played the role.
Such laser-focused skewering is courtesy of Catie Hogan and Sketchworks Comedy. Billy Reece and Danny Salles supply additional book and sassy lyrics.
Now off-Broadway at Theater 555, Vape satirizes some of the wackier aspects of the original, such as Sandy’s incessant desire to please Danny. “Hopelessly Gaslighted by You” underscores the boy-girl game play. “I’ve decided that Danny just doesn’t appreciate me for who I am,” Sandy eventually realizes, which gives the revised ending added punch. (Strong is from New Zealand; she nails Sandy’s accent and comic timing.)
“This school is stupid and the guys are gross, but we’ve been here so long, our veins are varicose,” the cast sings in the opening number, “Vape is the Word.”
It’s all so fantastically irreverent. Accompanied by Ashley Marinelli’s super lively choreography, Matthew Solomon’s character-driven costumes and David Goldstein’s economical sets, Vape rocks. Director Jack Potnick delivers a fast-and-furious production that can be summed up in one word: hilarious.
Kyoto ensemble. (Photo: Emilio Madrid)
Diplomatic intrigue makes for compelling political theater — especially when the issues are life-threatening. Scientists have long been aware of the dangers of climate change. But getting nations on board to regulate greenhouse emissions is no easy task, particularly when self-interest reigns supreme.
That’s the premise behind the thrilling Kyoto, now at Lincoln Center’s Newhouse Theater. Who knew climate diplomacy could be so fiercely theatrical! That’s thanks to Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, who crafted a riveting drama that portrays 1990s real-life summits and the one man responsible for sabotaging them. His name was Dan Pearlman, a Washington insider and Harvard-educated lawyer for Big Oil, masquerading under the NGO The Climate Council.
Pearlman (Stephen Kunken, who carries the show) doesn’t believe the science or the proposals to create legally binding emission targets for developed countries, like the U.S., but non-binding ones for the developing world, such as China. He sees it as undermining American power. China views any restraint as limiting her potential to catch up with the First World, while Saudi Arabia is fixated on sustaining OPEC’s energy dominance. Even the scientists, a sneeringly dangerous skeptic Fred Singer (Peter Bradbury) and climate-change scholar John Prescott (Ferdy Roberts) nearly come to blows debating what we all know to be true: Denying reality does not change it.
But in the high-stakes world of energy production, oversized egos and government leaders, the issues get cloudy. Worse: the rules and procedures of summits are designed to restrict, rather than further, action. And Pearlman, a master manipulator, is able to subvert progress by endless technical challenges. Decisions and loyalties can turn on a dime in this fast-paced show that superbly reveals the selfishness, absurdity and ambitions of its participants. It’s a wonder any legislation is ever achieved.
The Kyoto summit was the finale in a decade-long battle to achieve consensus and save the planet. All the heavy hitters are here: the U.S. (Kate Burton), Germany (Erin Darke), China (Feodor Chin), Saudi Arabia (Dariush Kashani), Kiribati (Taiana Tully), and the presiding Argentine chairman Raul Estrada-Oyuela (Jorge Bosch). Each plays their role, from a snapping, no-nonsense Burton to Darke’s sly Angela Merkel, with frightening conviction.
The intensity of the action is augmented by Christopher Reed’s sound design and Akhila Krishnan’s video design. Co-directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin make the nearly three hours zip by with lightning pacing, while ratcheting up the political tension. Who will win this global chess match? Kyoto delivers Shakespearean highs and lows that keep audiences on the edge of their seats.