Drama High - The Making of a High School Musical- Page 2

[StockardFan]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:58pm

Well, I have to say....the more African than American thing was perplexing to me as well. I mean WTF?

That being said, that Jade is amazing. She's a great singer, has so much soul, and seems like a genuinely wonderfully sweet person. I thought all of the leads did a great job, and the costumes were wonderful!

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:59pm

Honestly, this documentary really blew the race thing out of proportion, our school isn't racially charged at all. Those couple of incidents on camera were the only stuff that happened, race wasn't that big of an issue as ABC made it out to be.

[Trekkie2]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:11pm

They showed my face! It was when Jade is waiting for the cast list to go up. By the way, they blew a lot out of proportion, and made everyone seem a LOT bitchier than they really are.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:14pm

What other musicals has your school done recently?

[Trekkie2]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:17pm

That was our 1st musical in a year and half. The one before was Oklahoma. This spring we're doing Into The Woods.

[regnad kcin]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:39pm

Ah Westfield! I went to WTW Woodson. Let me say you guys have a fabulous reputation theatre-wise. Any of you a little older? I CAPPIEd Hamlet (done sometime from 2002-2004) and it was my first published review. A brilliant show that I look back on so fondly. Well, time to watch!

[StockardFan]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 7:27am

Well they have to blow everything out of proportion to make it more interesting....LOL

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 9:38am

My High School was a sh!t hole compared to the facilities these kids have.

And I was also thinking, "Shut Up, white girl"!

"She sang it like this 'LA LALA LA" and it should be "LA LA LA LA"


And, I don't know if it was the editing, but who was really in charge? Things seemed very unorganized.


I did giggle over the first shots of the director, because there was this sticker on the wall behind him that looked like a cartoon bubble coming out of his head that said “DRAMA QUEEN.”

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 10:13am

I enjoyed the special and the kids were generally very sweet. I love seeing HSs that spend money on their theater program...and the support was great (not that one mom, however....I understand being upset that he failed some classes, but the passive aggressive discipline was disgusting, and the lack of encouragement...ick.)

I was impressed with the Evillene at the end when she was performing...she was perfect for the role, fat or not. She was not a good enough singer to play Dorothy, imo...fat or thin. The girl who did get the part sang it quite well, but looked like a wooden cutout.

I wish they had rethunk the Wiz' pantsuit...did not look good, but that boy can sing!

Rosacea girl (Dorothy understudy) seemed to be whiney, but I get the impression she was edited more that way to try for the "All About Eve" angle. I also think they were trying to find race issues.

How adorable was the kid who played the scarecrow?!

They did mention at the end that both he and Evillene won local theater awards for their perfs.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:16am

It's great that ABC devoted so much time on this, but it seemed they didn't trust that enough drama would come from just the producing of a musical, so they had to turn up the racial angle.
It's too bad they couldn't have found an interesting "coming out" story, from any of the many gay guys that were in that show. Now that would have been an interesting (and more appropriate) angle. It was musical theater, after all.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:29am

^ I wondered that too.

At my school I was it in our department. In fact, at the time several of the teachers thought I was the first (Or one of the first) out student in the history of my school.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:57am

Doodle, I'm LOL @ your rosacea girl comment.

And I meant to mention that horrible mother. I agree - I would have been upset about the bad grades, but she went way beyond that.

[Juliash]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 3:08pm

I felt SO BAD for the guy who was the Wiz's mother being like "YOU'RE FAT" on television.

SO NOT THE TIME AND PLACE.

He was LEGIT though.

[Juliash]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 3:10pm

Also...Schmerg...the whole time I've read your posts, I've been assuming you were British.

That is so weird of me...

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 3:12pm

"Addaperle's done done it again y'all!"

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 5:49pm

Well, I think there are maybe three guys in the theatre department at Westfield who are gay, and all of them are out as far as I know. There are actually more lesbians in our theatre department, me included, but we're also out, so I don't think it would've been very interesting.

doodlenyc, I agree with the costume of The Wiz, it wasn't very fitting, but I think besides that, all the costumes were really cool.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 9:28pm

I just finished watching it in tape. I am so glad that the racial thing wasn't a major part of the program. I think they really overdramatized the whole gospel music thing with the girls. I can remember the same thing happening when I was in school and we all got over it. I noticed the director kept describing Dorothy as being pretty among other things. Really thought Nick's dad was cool and his mom seems to care for him but is a bit overbearing. I really related with the Freshman who got into the play. That was me when I was in 7th grade and was the 1st person ever, and since, to get into the senior play. And that Jade! Wow what a voice!

It was nice to watch a bunch of high school students get excited over being in the school play. it seems that this school has some kind of program that is national(?) Maybe someone here from the school can explain as a few of the students won national awards for their performances in the show. But it took me back to high school when I thought that everything going on was the be all and end all and I was pulled in so many directions and had to deal with all the stress. All the things high schoolers go through! And I was going to be an actor just like many of these kids want to be. I must admit, I did get a bit misty eyed at points just remembering my high school days and being in the plays.

The director...well I really can't put him down. I am suspecting he never saw the original Broadway production. I could be wrong. (I saw it 3 times) I don't think he needed to make the statement about being more African than American. I wonder if ABC didn't have something to do with that to play up the racial aspect.All of these kids seem very intelligent and pretty well adjusted, and I was happy with the way they responded to the statement he made.

Very good program. To the OP, I wish our school's theater dept. had been as nice as yours!

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:00pm

Well, the "national awards" weren't exactly national. For high school students in certain regions of the country, there's this awards show every year called the "Cappies" which works just like the Tonys, but it's for high schools in the D.C., Virginia, Maryland metropolitan area, so they were more like regional awards, but it's out of 60 high schools in the region, so I think it's pretty special nonetheless.

And uncageg, I too think my school is pretty lucky to have as great a theatre department as it has. :)

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 11:50pm

Very lucky. Now One Song, were you the one in the blue sweatshirt when everyone was checking the list?

A few other thoughts, I loved how they used the "tornado" instrumental a lot in the show. One of my favorites from the show. I wasn't crazy about the fact that they didn't show any shots from the original stage production but used clips from the movie and the Wizard of Oz. I kept wondering if that had to do with copyrights or something. it seems ABC would have been able to get some stills from the Broadway show. After all, they were doing The Wiz! Especially since it was said that they wanted a black Dorothy. Oh, and that girl that really wanted Dorothy and didn't get it reminds me of someone I went to school with. I think every high School has one of those girls! (Or two!)

[One Song Glory]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 11:23pm

No, that's not me. I'm actually in the first two minutes of the special. When the music director Kelly Butler-Noel was singing "No Bad News" to the audition people, you can see me. I'm the girl all the way on the end of the second row wearing a really dark blue shirt (it's actually a shirt from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) next to a girl who is wearing a green shirt. I'm in that shot for a good five seconds or so. There's also a few seconds where you can see me dancing somewhere, but don't look for that, I dance horribly, ha ha.

I'm not sure if it was a copyright thing, my school had pretty much no control of what ABC did with the documentary once they finished filming.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 11:39pm

Lately I've been forming a lot of my opinions about the intelligence of high school students based on the main board on BWW, so it was refreshing to see the documentary just to prove that some youth do have a vocabulary suited for something other than text messaging.