For the Tweens, High School Musical on Tour

Tuesday night we went to High School Musical on Tour (the Paramount, through May 25). We have up until now stayed completely ignorant of all things HSM, other than knowing it was a surprisingly successful movie musical produced by Disney that had a Shiite-like following among the Hannah Montana set. Its success surprised even The Mouse, who quickly created a franchise that includes HSM 2 (soon to be HSM 3), HSM on Ice, and this touring live stage production. To make up for our n00b status, we brought along an HSM expert, 12-year-old Cassidy.

For those of you without tweens, HSM is the story of smart Gabriella and jock Troy, teens from different high schools who meet during their winter break, sing some karaoke together at a ski lodge, exchange cell numbers, and go back to their respective lives. Gabriella moves to Albuquerque's East High School, home of the Wildcats...and--completely coincidentally!--Troy. The show begins with a he-said/she-said recounting of their meeting (think "Summer Lovin'" from Grease) with their friends from the Archetype Depot. Troy's the basketball star, Gabriella's the academic decathelon star, and they both wind up trying out for the high school musical, Juliet and Romeo, written by Shy Asian Musician Girl. In matching teal, the high school drama queen, Sharpay, and her twin brother Ryan (sort of an understudy for Ugly Betty's Marc St. James) conspire against our two star-crossed lovers for the leads in the musical. Throw in the must-win brain brawl and the big game--both in conflict with the musical call-backs--and, well, you get the idea. It all works out, and all main characters (except Ryan, 'cause this is Disney...) pair up in the end.

No doubt, many of those in the audience who had seen HSM (say, more than 100 times) noticed that there are some differences between this production and the movie. Cassidy pointed out, for instance, that the detention scene was different than the movie, and some of the key dance moves in the "We're All in This Together" finale were missing. We did get some insights in the production you don't get on the DVD: Sharpay confesses to her brother that her reason for pursuing the lead in the musical is driven by the fact that in her "stay in your lane" world, she's the school play lead...and that's her identity. Without that, she's not, like, anybody.

The cast is strong, vocally and otherwise. Everyone looks and sounds like they should. John Jeffrey Martin's Troy does go a bit sideways when he adds a Chris Daughtry-like growl to his singing. While most of the songs are exactly what you'd expect, some of them were catchy enough (e.g., the Stomp-inflected "Get Your Head in the Game") to stay in our head the next day. The curtain call brought high-pitched screams worthy of a Jonas Brothers concert. All was as it should be...and, it must be said, not as bad as expected.

Review by Seattlest's special HSM correspondent Scott Garrepy. Photo by Joan Marcus