The recent Fall 2007 production of Seattle Children’s Theatre’s Disney’s High School Musical, was a euphoric trip down nostalgia lane, harkening back to the great innocent beach blanket musicals without the implied sexuality.
I admit that before attending the production I had been quite dubious as to what all the hype was surrounding this production. I had not seen the television movie or any iteration thereof and was aware that SCT was one of only a handful of professional theatre for young audiences companies that had been granted the rights to the production. The official national tour was on the road and would be hitting almost all of the major metropolitan cities over the next year or so. And heaven forbid that the Disney Co. allow someone else to produce a title they held the rights to, but the clever negotiating and reputation of SCT must have been enough to assuage any concerns by the Disney suits.
Overall, I was highly impressed. The large scaled production was as high a caliber as any large scale touring production with a clean, effective design, slick staging and choreography and a cast that was blessedly gender, age and ethnically diverse. The set design by in-house SCT staff member Edie Whitsett utilized the high-school gymnasium as the framing device with smaller flying and rolling set units that were used to delineate the smaller scenes. The cleanliness of the design aided with the fluidity of the staging by Linda Hartzell and choreography by Kathryn Van Meter. The knockout number by Ms. Van Meter had to be the “Get’cha Head in the Game” which required the male ensemble members to sing, speak and sign an extremely intricate number staged as a basketball warm-up and game. It was executed flawlessly and received a well-deserved ovation from the audience.
The cast, numbering thirty by my count, only utilized eight Equity actors. The rest of the enthusiastic ensemble was comprised of many younger actors, most of which came out of the SCT’s Summer / Young Actor training program. If this production were any indication, there are bright things on the horizon for future SCT productions.
The production featured several notable Equity performer from past SCT productions—Khahn Doan as the over-indulged rich girl Sharpay Evans and Jayne Muirhead as Ms. Darbus, the quintessential drama coach of the show’s fictional high school both recently seen in Sleeping Beauty and Goodnight Moon respectively. As Sharpay’s brother, Don Darryl Rivera nearly stole the show as the foil to his over-bearing sibling.
The evening I attended, Linda Hartzell shepherded in a small delegation from the Disney Corp. including the writer and composter. From my vantage point a few rows behind and across the aisle, they thoroughly enjoyed the production and were highly impressed with many of the performances not the least of which were the actors mentioned above.
After watching the show and really paying close attention to the audience, I began to realize why this production has received so much hype. It is, for all intense purposes, the Grease for the Generations Y & Z . There is an exuberance that is contagious with the waves of sound and energy in the larger group numbers. It is “Up With People” meets American Idol, meets Teen Beat magazine. But with the feel-good vibe and energy come some very important messages targeted no doubt to the parents and older audience members—‘exposure to the arts in any way’ as touted by Ms. Darbus, the drama coach; the disparity of funding between arts and athletics; the status quo; and the most important message shared by several characters in the show . . . ‘you have to allow yourself to risk’—these were and still are fundamental truths of growing up as a teenager and making it through the dark tangle of high school.
