We wouldn't need expensive foreign oil if we could harness the energy in Mason Street Warehouse's world premiere of "What a Glorious Feeling."

From Gene Kelly's exuberant dance style to the smoldering passion of unrequited love and the bitter competition of two creative minds, this new script by Western Michigan University professor Jay Berkow calls for full power -- and this cast delivers.

Based on director Tom Mullen's concept, "What a Glorious Feeling" is a Hollywood-insider tale about the making of the 1952 movie classic "Singin' in the Rain." The story focuses on the explosive relationship between Kelly and Stanley Donen, his longtime pal and directing partner for "Singin' in the Rain." To complicate matters, Donen's ex-wife, Jeanne Coyne, is Kelly's assistant.

Dance is an attractive accessory in most musicals, but dance is the life blood of these characters. It's how they think, dream, fight, bond, seduce and jump for joy. The whole first act skates from one energetic dance number to another, barely giving the dancers time to catch their breath to say a few lines of dialogue.

With a few spins, leaps and a slide across the floor, Sean Martin Hingston introduces a Gene Kelly so believable you'll forget it's not really him. Likewise, Michael Gruber's formal carriage and reserved speech patterns create a Stanley Donen who sounds and looks like he just walked off a 1940s movie set.

When the two ignite the stage with the first two dance numbers, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Moses Supposes," their friendship and competitiveness is revealed better than any words could have.

Tall, sultry Colleen Dunn portrays Coyne, a femme fatale men would fight over. At Friday's performance her singing voice seemed strained and hoarse, but her dancing made up for it. She can communicate volumes with a seductive shake of her shoulders or kick an extraordinarily long leg straight up and hold it over her head.

This trio of Broadway guest stars is ably assisted by a couple of local performers. Western Michigan University student Brynn Curry is a spirited young Debbie Reynolds belting a tune or dancing right over a chair in the "Good Morning" number from "Singin' in the Rain."

Grand Rapids' G.M. (Bud) Thompson also gave a fine performance as opinionated producer Arthur Freed and inebriated director Busby Berkley.

Berkow has written some complex characters with believable conflicts. But one of the delights of his script is the witty comments these characters make about their contemporaries such as Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.

Even with a couple of flashbacks, Act I zips along smoothly, rising to a dramatic conclusion. Everything takes place in a dance studio at MGM, with mirrors on the walls that become a projection screen for various backgrounds and a couple of musicians on the side.

Act II uses an opaque screen for projecting some movie images and filtering others in a dream sequence. This effect works well in the final scene to bridge the reality of Hingston's Kelly with the fantasy of film.

Choreographer Jamie Rocco's lengthy dream ballet sequence uses video detail to provide a climactic revelation similar to the "Rosebud" moment in "Citizen Kane." The dream is presented in several short scenes interrupted by a buzzer, almost like rounds in a boxing match, an effect that's a little jarring but seems to add to the mounting tension.

Sometimes Act II feels disjointed, however. A barrage of too many elements coming from different directions. And after all that fighting, I expected some element of dissension at the end.

But Friday's audience of about 175 loved it, applauding every dance number and jumping up for a standing ovation. If local response is any indication, "What a Glorious Feeling" is going places.

As the script puts it, when Gene Kelly is dancing, it is "pure unadulterated joy."