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We're hearing it all over the South Sound these days: "We're gonna bring you a season of the classics!" As one troupe after another announces its 2011-2012 schedule, that cry of fiscal desperation, always delivered by the house manager with insincere enthusiasm, is ominous music to a theater critic's ears. Board logic insists people only come to material they know. Comparing the houses of Sweeney Todd and the newer, more obscure Proof in Tacoma lends support to this dictum. I haven't seen Sweeney Todd; it might be great. What I know is, lighting issues aside, Proof's a well-acted show that deserves to be seen. But choosing a season from the few dozen straight plays and musicals known to every American brings definite risks, all of which haunt Paradise Theatre's production of Grease.

To read Christian Carvajal's full review of Grease click here.

[Paradise Theatre, Grease, $10-$22, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday through July 3, 9911 Burnham Dr. NW, Gig Harbor, 253.851.7529]