Vape
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 its 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.