FIVE years after it was last performed on a Liverpool stage, Grease should be back with a bang.

It starts promisingly enough, with a lively on-stage band offering quick bursts of the musicals best-loved hits to get the audience in the mood.

But disappointingly the production then begins with more of a whimper, with sound problems leaving the cast appearing ill at ease as the hormonal teenagers of Rydell High.

The story needs little introduction: boy and girl have a sweet summer romance in late-1950s America but, after being reunited at school, the need to keep up appearances gets in the way.

Eventually true love wins the day thanks to some skintight leather trousers.

A sound system that seems to favour the orchestra rather than the singers, leaves our hero Danny Zuko (Ray Quinn) at times sounding like a choirboy with a sore throat next to his Sandy (Carina Gillespie).

Childwalls prodigal son has a real flair for comedy and his struts across stage as Danny struggling to keep up his bad boy image are a joy to watch.

But, albeit with the spectre of John Travolta hanging over the show, he seems out of his comfort zone as a leading man.