I spent one week babysitting my cousins over winter break. And so, by no fault of my own, I just so happen to know every single word to the High School Musical soundtrack by heart. I even might have it on my iPod. Okay, okay—I just may be a secret HSM fanatic.
I love the utter corniness of Disney’s uber-simplistic version of high school, where the main characters don’t even kiss until the sequel. So when given the option to see High School Musical live, I hauled out to the National Theatre.
We fought our way through the HSM-t-shirt-clad elementary school children and the adults accompanying them, as well as some adults who, weirdly, appeared to be alone. I finally sat down in the middle—it’s a very odd experience watching a Disney show surrounded by old men and their legal pads, and at last the show began.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Disney classic, allow me to summarize. Troy and Gabriella meet on New Years while on ski vacations with their families. But because they come from different worlds—Troy is a basketball star and Gabriella is a math genius—they obviously can’t be together at their clique-obsessed high school, until they work up enough courage to try out for the school musical. Troy rules the Jocks, while Gabriella hangs out with the Brainiac crew. The movie is filled with show-stopping, cheesetastic song-and-dance routines like “Stick to the Status Quo” and “We’re Breaking Free.”
The live musical fell far short of the televised original, most notably in the main characters’ performances. Watching Troy was just not the same: I missed Zac Efron’s sparkling eyes, his orange fake-tan and his perfectly styled bangs. It was much harder to laugh at someone relatively normal looking, John Jeffrey Martin, who in no way resembled Kermit the Frog. Gabriella was played by an incredibly erratic actress named Arielle Jacobs, who caused me to look away most of the time she was onstage. I never thought I’d say this, but I actually missed Vanessa Hudgens’ acting capabilities. The many duets the leads shared were lifeless, and the two actors shared very little chemistry. I found myself longing for the sparks between Zac and Vanessa (or Zanessa, as I like to call them). Sharpay (Chandra Lee Schwartz), the blonde drama queen, was even more annoying and shrill in real life, and Troy’s token minority teammate Chad (Shakiem Evans) was too plain without Corbin Bleu’s bouncing cork-screw curls.
Because of the lackluster lead performances, the supporting cast had to step it up, and they certainly did. Sharpay’s brother/man-servant Ryan (Bobby List), rendered more fabulous on stage than on film, was hilarious and stole every scene he shared with Sharpay, vigorously defending jazz squares to the end. Kelsi (Olivia Oguma), the playwright, transformed her originally mousy role into a very entertaining Troy-stalker, armed with an accordion. During one of the more memorable scenes, the characters are in detention with the drama teacher, stuck doing various acting exercises. Zeke (Ben Thompson)—one of the jocks—plays the part of an earthworm, believably inching his way across the stage; Ryan somehow ended up on his knees singing the opening line of The Lion King. Needless to say, this caused quite the commotion from the audience.
The show itself was not up to the Broadway level: the choreography was fairly weak, and the songs failed to truly impress. (Although some audience members may disagree; the final number, “We’re All in this Together,” caused several little girls and their moms to dance in the aisles. Too cute, really.) The musical shifted around some plot points, and unfortunately eliminated several quotable lines, including: “What the heck are those two doing in a tree?” and “Sometimes I don’t want to be the basketball guy. I just want to be … a guy.” There were new songs, and new lyrics to old favorites, making it hard for people to sing along—not that I would know.
All in all, I would not recommend this show for anyone over the age of 12. My roommate and I spent much of the time staring off into space, although Ryan and Kelsi did manage to crack us up a couple times. I would, however, like to put in a good word for the HSM movies, especially if you were that kid who looked forward to the Disney Channel original movies each month (Zenon the Zequel, anyone?). Just embrace their mushy, corny version of the high school experience and you’ll be hooked.
