AT my age you can remember as an early teen hopping off with a few mates to see Grease the year it burst on to the screens with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. It was big then and it still is. So it shows the immense popularity of the the American high school musical in the minds of many. Grease was a throwback to a genre in Hollywood that had previously caught the summerstock, summer loving, sportsman meets singing girl kind of young first love entertainment. And so it is with High School Musical on stage at the Theatre Royal Windsor.

Anyone with a seven-year-old daughter knows you can't escape this world wide phenomenon. I try and do the garden and try to avoid the pseudo-west coast antics of the invading American teen "thang".But I've got to say this stuff was surprisingly great. In fact it was excellent.

The setting: East High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The players: the jocks (sportsmen); cheerleaders, braniacs (normally dorks but in this case respected) and the rest of the cast. The story: basketball player, Troy Bolton, whose dad is the school coach, meets a very intelligent new girl at school who can sing, Gabriella Montez.

So he wants not only to play basketball, but sing with this girl in the high school musical. However, his dad plus annoying brother and sister musical dweebs, Sharpay and Ryan Evans, who always play the leads in school productions, try to stop them while friends of the pair get them together. Simple really.

And that's the superb thing about this cracking Disney tour. The cast is excellent, with a number of players revolving in the roles. The pace is fast, the musical numbers and staging just brilliant, dancing superb, singing spot on and there's just enough syrup to remind you these kids are young and in love. Remember that.

Highly recommended and easy to see why the story has taken the world by storm My seven-year-old daughter Caitlin's verdict: "Dad, this was full of loveliness, full of niceness but it was even better to see it on stage.

"I love it on TV, but you really feel you're living part of it when you see it up close."

Just wish I didn't have to hear the American attitude "whatever" at home as much as I do. However, this is clean, wholesome stuff with a sweet ending. There are far, far worse things for a seven year old to be exposed to on our screens in this world than good musical entertainment with a happy ending. Until Saturday, March 1.

Paul Thomas (43) and Caitlin Thomas (seven)