High School Musical On STAGE. It was EPIC.
Yes, I saw it. YES it was AMAZING. An area high school was doing a production of it and I said...there's NO WAY I'm not going! I'm going to break it down a little because otherwise I might forget something.
The show itself was rearranged a little and had some completely new scenes not in the movie, dropped a secondary character and added a new character. Which is fine--most stage versions of shows are different than their movie counterparts, although the new character seemed a little extraneous, and I missed the other character. I liked the cell phone tag scene before "Stick to the Status Quo", and the "ball of noise" during Darbus' detention (instead of painting set pieces, et. al.) Unlike in the movie, Zeke was in detention too, and Coach Bolton came to get the boys, and when they notice him storm in, Troy covers his mouth, Chad covers his eyes, and Zeke covers his ears: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. LOL. During the day after Darbus collects the phones and before detention, Sharpay and Ryan call each other. Gabriella asks Taylor how they have phones, and Taylor rolls her eyes and says "they have spares in case their agent calls", which got a big laugh from the audience.
ALSO: For anyone who has the soundtrack: That song "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" that isn't in the movie is in the play. Troy and Gabriella sing it on the rooftop garden. Oh, and Gabriella's solo "When There Was Me And You" is a duet with Troy and Gabriella--but she's in one place and he's in another.
Im going to further break this down by character.
Troy--one of the two best actors in the show. And a great voice. In the cast bios from the program he seems to have the most extensive history in musicals. My least favorite song in HSM1: "Getcha Head In The Game" is really fantastic, mostly because of the part where he solos "Why am I feeling so wrong? My heads in the game, but my heart's in the song......", and the dancing in that song on stage makes it a lot cooler to watch.
Gabriella--She did a very nice job. I'm not a big fan of her character to begin with anyway, but the actress did do a very good job.
Sharpay--the other of the two best actors in the show. I think she might have somehow managed to be more Sharpay than the Tizz. This from a high school junior! "What I've Been Looking For", and "Bop To The Top" were both amazing.
Ryan--singing and dancing wise, he was amazing. The actor was a good actor. The character--was different. Though he was still "coded" gay as they say, he went off with Martha during the last scene. That is not even my big complaint, this is TX, after all, I'm not even surprised. He was a villain in that he did what Sharpay wanted, but then he went around apologizing and tattling on her about all of it. He wanted very much to be accepted by the others, which doesn't surprise me given what we know about him in HSM2 and 3, but he's not the same Ryan Evans you all saw in HSM. And that's stuff written into the play, not the actors problem at all.
Chad--The casting director for the play must be a fan of Corbin's hair. Because this totally white kid playing Chad had Corbin's hair. Here, a picture for you all of the main six in the jump poster: http://www.brazosportisd.net/bwood/student_life/activities/Choir/index.htm (I don't know how long it will be there for, the show ended today). Anyway, the actor did a great job with Chad. The one thing that disappointed me was that for the entire show he was either in the basketball uniform, or the windpants/jacket the bball students wear on game day, and so there were no t-shirts with funny sayings. Also, (and this is Chyan related) whoever wrote the stage version I think secretly shipped them. Even though I'm pretty sure the stage version existed before HSM2, though I'm not sure. Anyway, during Darbus' detention, she made them do an acting exercise called "Ball of noise". Whoever catches the ball of noise has to act out a scene, and the rest of the students have to do sound effects. Chad did an acting scene, and Ryan did a baseball scene! It was hilarious! However, as you'll see below, Stage!Chad does not keep his crush on Taylor a secret at all!
Taylor--Also did a good job. In the scene where Chad and team and Taylor and brainiacs were plotting to get Troyella to drop out of the callbacks, she says some phrase (I forget what) in French, and Chad says "I love a woman who can speak German!" and Taylor looks at him confusedly and says "Danke Schoen!", which I think is my favorite Taylor line.
Kelsi--Did a great job. My favorite line from the play is one of hers, because its so funny. In the scene where Kelsi is telling Troyella she can practice anytime she says "and I can even come to your house and wake you up in the mornings, if you want, and I can bring my accordion. It's mobile!"
Zeke--Good acting. talked all about baking and Sharpay for the whole play. You would not have even known he was a basketball player if it weren't for A)his constant hanging out with Troy and Chad, B)his gameday uniform, and C)Stick to the Status Quo.
Martha--Good acting. perky. In a non-Stick to the Status Quo scene, while summoning Gabriella to some point offstage, goes "Hip Hop Hooray!", which was kind of wierd.
Ms. Darbus--Excellent actress. As good as Troy and Sharpay, actually. And hilarious too! Totally nailed the "Darbus thang". I especially loved when Darbus told Bolton that even though the jocks aren't as good at what they do as her kids are, they still get ten times the money from the school board. It was quite funny.
Coach Bolton--Good acting. Did not like the scene where Troy stays after practice after missing and he kept calling Troy "Bolton". He's your SON, DUDE. Okay, so yeah, they don't just leave it, Troy says something to that effect 'Its TROY". But still, the fact that they wrote it that way at all bothered me. The big fight scene between Darbus and Bolton was hilarious though.
Jason--MISSING. It was so sad, because I love his cluelessness! But there was no Jason. (There were other b-ballers, and I suppose one of them could have been him, but no one with significant clueless lines or anything.)
Jack Scott--(and yes, he always uses the last name). "The Voice of East High". He's the school radio dj. Has little interludes in between scenes. Not sure why they added this guy, but oh well.
Anyway, it was AWESOME to be up close watching these kids do this.
Unrelatedly, are there any old "I Dream of Jeannie" or "Bewitched" fans out there watching "Wizards of Waverly Place"? You know how Justin and Alex's teacher is Mr. Larrytate? As in Larry Tate, Darrin's ad exec boss on "Bewitched"? And then tonight on the new episode, TJ turns his girlfriend Jennie into a 40 year old art teacher who Alex has to change back, and her 40 year old art teacher name is "Miss Majorhealy". As in Major Healy, Major Nelson's goofy friend and coworker? I'm going to keep a look out for more of these, I think it's awesome Wizards is recognizing that the magical element is not something they came up with.