High School Musical. Photo by Joan Marcus_________
Playwright: David Simpatico, Peter Barsocchini + 13 composers/lyricists
At: LaSalle Bank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe
Phone: 312-902-1400; $20-$78
Runs through: Sept. 2
By Jonathan Abarbanel
Cute Troy from East High School in Albuquerque, N.M., meets long-haired Gabriella on winter vacation. They reconnect when Gabriella's family moves to Albu-Q. But he's a jock and she's a brainiac, so their cliques clash. Differences melt away when they audition for the high school musical—everyone comes around for a happy ending and they win the big game.
Incessantly upbeat, Disney's High School Musical is predictable as it is thin, with far-from-memorable songs. But only two of 32 characters are adults; it's contemporary and energetic; and it has no swear words, violence or sex. Troy and Gabriella share a kiss only in the closing moments. This makes High School Musical absolutely perfect for pre-adolescent girls 8-14 who love drooling over cute boys, which the cast has in abundance. Indeed, the pre-teens have made High School Musical a phenomenon.
For the clueless, it debuted as a Disney Channel TV movie in January 2006, following which a soundtrack that twice hit number one on the Billboard chart, nine individual songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 and a DVD that sold 7.4 million copies. Disney created a live-performance version for schools, amateur groups and theater companies with adolescent-level programs ( with four such Chicago productions ) , and now Disney has mounted a Broadway-style professional version beginning a 60-city national tour here.
Unlike other Disney Broadway shows, High School Musical is about urban Americans, not animals or fairy tales; it's adapted from a live-action movie, not animation; it's without candelabra, puppets, masks, flying or other production magic. In fact, High School Musical is an old-fashioned book-and-number show with little story but tons of showmanship. It's played entirely within a high school, so Kenneth Foy's scenic design features lockers, lab desks, cafeteria tables and institutional lighting in splashy colors, as bathed by Ken Billington's bright, hot lighting.
Except for two rather nice love ballads, the 12 songs are exclusively uptempo mainstream rock eschewing heavy metal and rap. They're delivered in thunderous style—it's loud—by an exceptionally gifted young ensemble boasting big, fluid voices; lithe and flexible bodies; and energy to spare. John Jeffrey Martin ( Troy ) and Arielle Jacobs ( Gabriella ) are the best of the best and cutely sexy without being sexual. They easily command their scenes as placed by director Jeff Calhoun and choreographer Lisa Stevens, whose choreography is complex if not especially original. Inspired by club dancing and basketball, it has the loose energy of adolescent moves and grooves rather than the patterns of typical production numbers.
High School Musical offers little that's particularly memorable, and yet the whole is greater than the sum of its parts because every part serves the show in an exceptionally tight way. It may not be art, but the craftsmanship is impeccable and the bountifully talented cast is ingratiating, although far too white for an Albuquerque public school. Too bad the chief drama clique boy, Ryan Evans ( limber-limbed Bobby List ) , is a gay cliché who's left out when everyone's paired off at the end.
