And the 1st Licensed Production of High School Musical Goes To.... — Page 3

they aren't even GOOD theater cliches in the movie
IT had SO much potential, but they don't know anything what real theater is like and what they did was "makebelieve theater" that thought they were brilliant because they made one tiny sondhim referance

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HSM is dumb, pointless, and has cheesy larger-than life characters. Enough said.
My camp did Into The Woods, but a watered down version.
Still, I played the Witch and it was fun.
I see a bunch of kids obsessing over that stupid movie, and now, I'd like to ram my head against a wall. Stagedoor does do some good stuff!

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I was in the Stagedoor production of High School Musical (as Ms. Darbus) and I've got to say it's not as bad as all of you are making it out to be... I mean I know I'm going to get thousands of posts back chastising me and telling me how wrong I am but I think it was actually alright. I'm definitely not going to go so far as to say it was amazing but... not awful.

I hadn't seen the movie when I was cast in the show so when people were making such a big deal about it I was kind of like Wha??? and then I watched the movie on my friend's Ipod and I was like oh dear god, the next three weeks are going to be hell. It's true that the movie completely sucks - I'm going to agree completely with you on this one... or almost completely at least. I have to admit I only watched the first half.

When we started rehearsals I realized that it is changed in many ways from the movie. There are more songs added in (quite a few more actually), characters have more depth - Darbus, for example, is an actual person rather than a charicature (and has a 3 page monologue - yay me), there are more scenes... It makes it feel like an actual story not just a Disney movie. I mean I'm not going to say it's completely undisneyified and should win the Pulitzer Prize but I *am* saying it's more meaningful and something I wouldn't mind watching the whole way through.

Obviously if you're going to see something like High School Musical you're not expecting the greatest thing ever but I do have to say that the stage show is much much better than the movie. However, I might be just a bit biased...

The set was done really interestingly at Stagedoor. Stage left had a classroom set up, stage right had like a locker room type thing, up centre were stairs that looked like the outside of the school/auditorium. That way you could have the classroom scenes and the basketball ones going on at the same time and you could have everything else happen centre stage. The set really was quite amazing.

Oh and the Getcha Head in the Game song was quite possibly the most hilarious thing I've seen in my entire life. They got five complete and utter theatre kids playing basketball in sync whilst dancing and singing. The balls ended up in the house too many times to count...

Again, I know that I'm biased but I do think that the stage version does require really talented kids - I mean we had to do these amazingly elaborate dance routines, play basketball, act our asses off, sing along to a backing track (which is surprisingly hard), all whilst keeping our "Disney smiles".

So. Don't knock the stage version of HSM until you see/do it. It's not the greatest thing in the world but it's not the worst either...

Good luck to all those who are doing it!

Do you have any pictures jenny?

Apparently there were quite a few differences - I only watched a little bit of the movie so I don't know many but hmm I shall ask other people in it... My monologue was in the classroom and I was mainly talking about the auditions and the "magic that is theatre". I don't have many pictures - just some backstage ones which I'm willing to share if you want. When I get the DVD of the performance in a couple of weeks I can do some screen captures and post them then if you're still interested...

The cast was:

Troy - Jordan Campbell
Gabriella - Andrea Ross
Sharpay - Olivia Baackes
Ryan - Dyland Tedaldi
Chad - Eric Reinemann
Taylor - Sarah Konowitz
Zeke - Cullen Heater
Ms. Darbus - Jenny Kett
Kelsi - Caroline Page
Martha - Charlotte Maltby
Coach Bolton - Justin Berger
Jack Scott - Jesse Kaplan
Ensemble:
Emma Pelosi
Meme Smith
Kyle VanZandt
Mark Rosenbloom
Natalie Kleeman
ALi Oremus
Chris Anderson
Lauren Bambino
Samara Bliss
Alexa Caruso
Dominique Cuoco
Breck Gallini
Lauren O'Neil
Christie Portera
Dia Seskin
Nikki Silinger
Emily Via

There were lots of newbies and quite a few long timers... It was an interesting mix.

I honestly don't know what people see in this movie. I thought it was dreadful. "Get your head in the game"? Shut up!!! But then, everyone loves it, so what do I know?

Yay Justin!

But, Meme only got ensemble? That is dissapointing for someone so talented, especially because she was Muzzy in Millie second session, so its a big step down.

Anyway, glad you had fun!

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Oh yeah! Second Session 2005, I met him for the first time. He was in Aida then, and he had the famous popsicle stint at the camper showcase, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room! But he is awesome!

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HAHA I heard about the popsicle thing!!! Poor Justin... Yeah he was one of my bestest buds at camp... aww i miss him...

And for the record I agree with thevolleyballer... If you don't like it, don't have anything to do with it. You have no idea how many times at camp people were like High School Musical is such crap. It just really pissed me off because there I was giving sooo much effort and people just kept going on and on right to my face... Someone came up and was like "Hey wanna hear a joke??? HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!" and it's like ok maybe it's not the greatest story but if people are going to be out there working on it at least respect the people and don't be mean about the show... ok so i've gone off on a tangent........... Hmmm I've obviously got some pent up rage towards the jealous people at Stagedoor...

I see how you're reasoning, Hairspraydoll, but there's also a huge amount of people, like on this board, who swear they won't come near the thing. Granted, I'm sure half of those who swear against it would most likely check it out, if given the chance, but if everyone continues to be mortified by it, then it may not be that big a seller after all. Of course, I'm probably completely wrong. :)

The stagedoor story is soo typical of some people there, but I still love it. I think I will be going 1 and 2 for my third summer next year. And the rumor is, second session C show is Sunday in the Park with George! How exciting is that! Seeing as I am alwas in Sondheims when I am there, hopefully I'll be doing that next summer.

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Two groups in my area are doing it this fall.