High School Musical
Production: High School Musical
Venue: Central Hall
Rating: ***
If you bought tickets to Happily Ever After’s production of High School Musical then you were no doubt prepared for the cheese-fest that awaits you. If so, you would not have been disappointed.
Fraser Moyle as Troy Bolton and Jessi Black as Gabriella Montez do a decent job; singing, dancing and acting about as much as their roles require. The cast, as a whole, are strong, with some good harmonies and just about enough enthusiasm to keep the audience interested for 90 minutes.
One element of the production which really stood out was the choreography, which is slick, energetic and well-rehearsed; no mean feat considering the sizable cast and relatively small stage. The set was particularly impressive, using a number of spaces around the Hall to keep the action fluid.
In fact, had only one gripe: the frequent appearance of a bizarre narrator-figure known as “Jack” to read out announcements and perform sexually-explicit dance movements. His appearances were met with whoops every time, however, so perhaps it was just me that felt that any sexual chemistry should have been generated by Troy and Gabriella rather than this character.
But then again this was a very faithful production of High School Musical and, sticking to this, the Disney principle dictates that any physical attraction can only be implied. So moving past my disappointment that the words ‘grown-up version’ clearly never crossed the director’s mind, overall it was pretty clear that the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show.
There were a few problems with microphones and audio equipment but, for a first night, even these weren’t too distracting: the broad range of American accents also caused a stir from time to time, with Troy’s father, not making much effort to pretend he was over 21, resolutely speaking in a British accent throughout. Troy himself occasionally dipped into ‘Landan’, too.
If you don’t like the films then seeing this production may still be fun if you’re willing to suspend cynicism and absorb the energy. If you’re a fan of the franchise then singing ‘Breaking Free’ with 600 people is definitely going to be worth the £6.
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Only problems were accents and a character which everyone else liked? Sounds worthy of a good **** to me [pun intended]!
My gripes with the contradiction aside, well-written article for a first review
Actually, the guy who plays Coach Bolton (Troy’s dad) is turning 23 this year, which I think makes him the oldest in the cast…
“with Troy’s father, not making much effort to pretend he was over 21″ Nick, playing Coach Bolton, is 22
ahhh what do people expect from high school musical?? its cheesy and fun and you go and watch to enjoy yourself, loosen up. Its fab!