Before I was seduced by the Beach Boys to bleach my hair a silvery platinum — an early-’60s L.A. fetish for aspiring surfer dudes — I recall using tons of a glue-like product designed to slick back my hair just like Danny Zuko, the hero of South Whidbey High School’s musical “Grease.”

A remembrance of things past: sock hops and Johnny Mathis, Diana Gaiger in her poodle skirt, fumbling with the busted speaker at the drive-in, watching for Sputnik, duck-and-cover drills, avoiding classes after being cast in the school play and the sweet agony of breaking up and falling in love all over again. A smuggled beer, sneaking a cigarette — that, too. Drugs? Yeah, we had aspirin for the occasional headache.

And I’ll not soon forget the delicious scandal that erupted when Nancy Constans wore the first pair of Capri pants to school. The school board hastily called a meeting to revise the dress code.

Set on the first day of school at Rydell High in 1959, “Grease” tells the simple yet tangled love story between Danny (played by Gabe Harshman) and the girl he met on the beach during summer break, Sandy (Christina Atkinson).

The immensely talented cast and crew of “Grease” have captured the spirit of the times to perfection. The show-stopper “Summer Nights” was a revelation as Danny and Sandy simultaneously describe to their respective cliques — the “Greasers” and the “Pink Ladies” — individual versions of how their summer fling progressed, Rashomon-style.

It was hard to imagine I was in the high school auditorium rather than Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theater as the cast brought the complicated scene to life. Choreography, costumes, make-up — all were right on the mark.

Even set changes were cleverly handled as cast and crew moved props in silhouette while be-bopping across the stage in the darkness, a concept from the fertile mind of Director Donelle Sydow, a veteran of 40 high school plays.

“I was hoping to add a little fun to the set change process,” she said.

It works.

Unseen in the “grease pit” below the stage, musical director Chris Harshman prevented the music from overwhelming the actors. Whenever a song breaks out, the backup singers stay in character throughout.

Susan Sandri and Susan Vanderwood share choreography duties, their guidance most evident as Act Two begins with the high school hop in progress.

The leads showed a professionalism beyond their years, but they weren’t alone. Elizabeth Grant was effervescent as a blond cheerleader, Matt Bell swaggered as a greaser with a crush on his ‘49 Chevy, Jeff Potter astonished with his magical singing style, Kate Hodges radiant as the beauty school dropout with a terminally bad hair day, and Sahara Coleman who provided pathos as Betty Rizzo, a “Pink Lady” who goes too far at the drive-in.

This is live theater and there were glitches; occasionally the sound and lighting refused to cooperate. But technical manager Quinn Ianniciello is on top of things. “We’re trying hard to improve our timing backstage so everything flows smoothly,”

he explained.

Sydow noted the short lead time available for tech rehearsal. “We weren’t able to get up to speed until March 12 due to previous bookings, but it’s getting better.”

The dancing is a touch anachronistic; the Twist wasn’t invented for a few years and the Boogalu didn’t surface until the mid-sixties.

Really didn’t matter, as the sheer exuberance of the players swept the audience on a time-travel ride to a simpler time and place.

As much as I enjoy the 1978 movie version, I always felt the leads were a bit over-the-hill — at the time, John Travolta was 24, Olivia Newton-John was 30 — and I’ve always wondered how the story would play with real high school teens.

Now I know.

Bottom line? “Grease” is the word and the word is: Don’t

miss it!