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 Jocks and theater geeks end up singing together in 'High School Musical.' Roger Werth / The Daily News
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Kelso High School Musical: Pop culture blockbuster explodes onto Hilanders' stage
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:32 PM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe high school students align themselves into cliques like the jocks and drama geeks. Girls fight over boyfriends. They all chat on their cell phones in class — until the teacher confiscates them.
The story lines in “High School Musical” are overblown versions of what really happens in high schools, which is one reason the Disney series has become a pop culture blockbuster.
A stage version of the high-energy song-and-dance spectacular has come to Kelso High, with six performances starting Thursday night.
Kayla Cliffton, the Kelso junior who plays the female lead role of Gabriella Montez, was already a big fan of the series before she auditioned for the play. “Since ‘High School Musical’ first came out, I’ve been pretty much obsessed,” Cliffton said. “The music is awesome, and the plot you can relate to. You face it every day — the cliques and stuff.”
Thankfully, Kelso High isn’t as clique-ish as the institution in the musical, said junior Jimy McDaniel, who plays drama club regular Ryan Evans. “People don’t break out dancing” in Kelso’s lunchroom, he added.
Disney’s “High School Musical” has had a meteoric rise since the first TV movie came out in 2006. It was the Disney Channel’s most popular movie at the time, and the soundtrack topped the music charts. A concert tour helped make stars out of movie leads Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens.
“High School Musical 2” followed last year, and movie No. 3 is due in the fall.
According to the Educational Theatre Association, the stage version of “High School Musical” was the fifth-most popular show done by high schools nationwide in 2007, ahead of such established favorites as “Grease” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” (The not-so-new “Little Shop of Horrors” was No. 1.)
The “High School Musical” story line is loosely adapted from “Romeo and Juliet,” by that pop culture king, William Shakespeare.
This high school is ruled socially by basketball jocks, led by Troy Bolton (Kelso sophomore Spencer Halbleib). Montez, a new girl in school, aligns with the brainiacs in the science club. Brother-and-sister twins Sharpay and Ryan Evans run the drama club and have starred in all the productions so far. Sophomore Marissa Faubion alternates with freshman Amberly Orr as Sharpay, and Jimy McDaniel is Ryan.
Boundaries are crossed when Gabriella and Tony agree to audition for an upcoming school musical called “Juliet and Romeo.” The earnest drama teacher Ms. Darbus (sophomore Ashley Scott) and basketball Coach Bolton (senior Jordan Jackson) get into a spat over the best use of young Troy’s time.
Of course, love blossoms and Tony and Gabriella sing to each other — both on a balcony (don’t sit too far back in Kelso’s auditorium or you won’t be able to see the duet).
Songs and dances take place in classrooms, on the basketball court, in the lunchroom. Lines refer to Play Stations and iPods. In one number, the kids croon to each other over cell phones.
For director David Crayk, the cell phones are the biggest similarity with actual high school life. “That’s what we face a teachers,” he said “We really compete with that.”
Unlike Shakespeare’s version of the story, this one’s no tragedy. The young lovers both survive (otherwise, how could there be sequels?). The play goes on — on stage and in real life — toward happy endings all around.
Halbleib, who played Romeo in the Kelso’s winter production of “Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Too” the two shows do have their similarities.
“One’s a brainiac and one’s a jock,” he said of the young lovers. “Everybody starts to realize it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to stick to your own clique.”
Crayk is pleased with the turnout. He had 77 students audition, though between kids quitting or getting asked to leave, it’s shrunk to 42, with 13 more students helping off-stage.
Crayk enlisted Amber Lemiere, who coaches the school color guard, as choreographer. Musical director Rebecca Abraham leads a four-piece combo.
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