DISNEY’S HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
5-8 SEPTEMBER 2007
The Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury
 In September 2007 da capo bought High School Musical to stage in a 5 show run at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury.
The cast worked long and hard to produce a show bursting with energy and enthusiasm. Kelsey Morgan and Tim Norford drew the audience into their endearing teenage romance as Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montéz, whilst Nick Roud and Tiffany Murphy kept everybody laughing with their comical antics as twin brother and sister, Ryan and Sharpay Evans.
The cheerleaders wowed the audience with their polished dance numbers in Getcha’ Head in the Game and The Wildcat Cheer, lead by head cheerleader Claire Tonry. The highlight of their routines was the Wildcat Cheer Reprise - danced in a blackout, with glow in the dark pom poms!
All cast managed to bring the American high school atmosphere convincingly to the stage depicting the story of a regular group of students and all the controversy surrounding the cliques – brainiacs, thespians and skater dudes!
The thespians demonstrated their dramatic talents in the Bop to the Top Auditions overseen by Miss Darbus, the eccentric drama teacher played by Becky Skinner. They were overshadowed by a polished performance of What I’ve Been Looking For by Ryan and Sharpay. A more compassionate version of the song was beautifully sung by Troy and Gabriella, accompanied by quiet and shy Kelsi Nielson played by Clara Gibson. Later the skater dudes and brainiacs showed off their stuff in Status Quo. Martha Cox a brainiac, played by Chrissie Asteraki-Speer, shocked her school mates with her hidden talent, a secret passion for hip hop dancing! This caused an uproar response from the rebels. A buzzing dance number by all cast caused havoc in the canteen, with Sharpay ending in a sticky mess thanks to Zeke Bayliss played by Terry Ashbrook!
Troy and Gabriella celebrated their success in the first auditions in Troys secret haven, the rooftop garden, leading us into the second act with I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You. Counting On You described the cunning plot concocted by Taylor McKessie played by Louise Finney and Troy’s right hand man Chad Danforth played by Josh Furlong.
This caused Troy to say things he didn’t mean and Gabriella to overhear them. A truly gripping part of the show came as Troy and Gabriella reflected on their arguments and pressure from their team mates leading Kelsey and Tim to evoke real emotion from the audience as they reminisced in When There was Me and You.
Taylor led the braniacs to triumph in the Science Decathlon as the Wildcat basketball team won their championship basketball game, coached by unforgiving Coach Bolton played by Chris Ifill. This saw Troy and Chad working together to score the winning basket. Simultaneously Ryan and Sharpay gave a dazzling rendition of Bop to the Top for their call-back audition.
As an electric meltdown in both the auditorium and gymnasium occurred, Troy and Gabriella got to their call back audition just in time, accompanied by Kelsi. All the cast filed into to the auditorium to get the audience on their feet clapping, singing and dancing along with Breaking Free. The cast did a fantastic job of drawing the audience right into the story.
The whole story is linked by speech from the schools announcer Jack Scott, a character not seen in the film, but played by Greg Kite who filled in the storyline with interesting anecdotes. The Wildcat Reprise saw Jack Scott hook up with Kelsi as their bumbling encounter got the audience laughing again.
We’re All In This Together had everybody dancing in the aisles as the whole cast got on stage to give the show a vibrant finale. . . or so the audience thought!
The High School Musical Megamix does not appear in the film but combines all the favourite songs such as The Start of Something New, Status Quo, Getcha Head in The Game and Breaking Free into to one huge dance number cleverly choreographed by Maria Harvey. This sees even Coach Bolton get up and dance alongside his team despite his intolerance for the theatre throughout the rest of the show!
The whole production truly reflected the determination and effort the cast put into it and the audience response was overwhelming. Children coming to watch the show had to be pulled back from the stage as they tried to be near their favourite High School Musical characters! Overall the cast really put on a show to be proud of and delivered the singing, dancing and dramatical techniques they had been taught brilliantly.
|
