Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center is a 1,500-seat theater that is, truth to tell, a glorified high school auditorium. Where better to see this revival of Grease, the high school musical? Hairstyles change, but some things stay the same, and Grease is still a fun show. The big dance numbers, "Summer Nights" in Act 1 and "Born to Hand Jive" in Act 2, are irresistible.

The plot revolves around two couples, as plots of comedies usually do: Danny Zuko (Jorge E. Maldonado), the heartthrob tough guy who falls for good-girl Sandy (Jessica Lea Patty), and Kenickie (the excellent Ben Dibble), leader-of-the-pack who loves but don't-give-a-damn Rizzo (Stacey Harris). Everybody gets to dance and sing and make out. There are school hops and pajama parties and would-be rumbles. The prim teacher (Maureen Torsney-Weir) gets a moment of abandon and the DJ (Tony Braithwaite) turns out to be a perv, but a harmless one.

The guys — Tom Dooley, Robert McClure, Joshua Lamon and Chris Faith, led by Maldonado and Dibble — are the stars of the show. They are all knockout singers and dancers, and they've all got the moves (dorky or sexy, clumsy or cool). When they are on, the show is really on; when they're not, it loses its energy. They capture the style of the era in one perfect gesture — the combing back of their gorgeous greasy hair.

The girls — Nina Fluke, Sarah Bolt, Heather Hawkins and Maggie Lakis, led by Patty and Harris — all have good voices and good looks, but they don't seem like high school girls (Harris, especially, seems far too sultry and sophisticated and well-dressed to be the defensive, gum-snapping, tough-cookie Rizzo is) nor, for that matter, do they seem to be friends. Their comic moments aren't funny enough, which makes the poignant moments not poignant enough.

Part of what the show is about is how hard it is to be a teenager. It's also about how much fun it is to be a teenager, and for that the timing has to be snappier and the pace more electric than it is. The opening scene, the pointless setup of a high school reunion, is particularly labored, so the show doesn't get off to a wham-bam start. Jennifer Childs, who directs, is used to small stages and quieter shows, and she hasn't quite found a way to translate her perfect comic timing to fill up this immense space.

And then there is the moment when one girl offers another girl a cigarette: "Try it. It ain't gonna kill ya." An ironic chuckle runs through the audience — everybody is nostalgic for the days when everybody still believed that.

GREASE Through Sept. 11, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, 130 Tomlinson Mill Rd. Marlton, N.J., 856-983-3366, www.sjtheater.com