#1
Posted: 11/26/06 at 5:05pm
Yesterday I took my daughter to the opening night performance of Disney's High School Musical at the BayWay Arts Center on Long Island. The rest of the run is already sold out, so I'm not going to give you a review or driving directions or anything like that. Just some feedback as a parent.
Something's different about this show. It's a generational thing. HSM seems to be a runaway hit with girls born between Rent and Mamma Mia, who are too old for puppet shows but too young for Avenue Q. And it might just be the Grease or Bye Bye Birdie of their generation. It may not be Tony material, but it is a tween phenomenon that deserves some respect and attention.
Btw, this is not the concert tour, which comes to Long Island at the end of December. But I think it could be the first New York City metro area production of HSM, which debuted as a TV movie in January on the Disney Channel and as a staged musical in August at Stagedoor Manor. Next year a hundred high schools will probably do it. This was put on by the Broadhollow Theatre Company, a non-profit that does 18 shows a year at three Nassau and Suffolk locations.
We have seen several other Broadhollow productions, including Anything Goes this year and Gypsy last year. HSM was of similar quality and competence. It was, however, the biggest crowd we'd ever seen at one of their shows. And while retirees made up most of the audience during our past visits, even parents were outnumbered at Saturday's 4pm matinee.
It's kids performing for even younger kids, primarily girls aged 5 to 12. Looking at the crowd behind us, there'd be two or three little girls with eyes barely above seatback level, then a parent's head, then a few more girls on booster seats, then a parent, then a little brother in his carseat. A few blue-haired oldsters here and there, but a solid half the house was pre-teen, five foot and under. Very few teens and almost no twenty-somethings!
The girls sat quietly and attentively for the most part, like they were happy to be there, exhibiting none of the bad kid behaviors we've seen on display at past holiday shows, except when they occasionally sang along to their favorite verses. For that minor transgression they can be forgiven, though they should be taught it has no place on Broadway (except perhaps at Wicked).
Many girls wore their favorite HSM t-shirts, which I'm still not sure if that's a good trend or not. Very few young ticketholders left their seats during the first act for bathroom breaks or chats with mommy, though they were decidedly more fidgety and restless during the second act. It's a long show (2.5 hours), so maybe a longer intermission with mandatory bathroom breaks and no sugar snacks might be what these munchkins need.
There are two casts rotating the leads. We saw Brett Campbell as Troy and Elora Rosch as Gabriella, with Victoria Fairclough and Justin Moniz as Sharpay and Ryan. The ensemble included 25 or 30 high school kids, many veterans of past Broadhollow shows. And just two adults, playing the coach and the drama teacher. Kind of like Spring Awakening without the chairs.
The big difference that we noticed from the TV movie was fewer scenes, less dialogue, and more narration by a DJ-like character named Jack Scott (played by Matt Riordan). All the TV songs are still there, plus two new ones: "Cellular Fusion" comes between the auditions and the cafeteria scenes in Act 1, as the kids scheme to derail Troy and Gabriella's plans to sing. Think of "The Telephone Hour" done with flip phones. In Act 2, "Counting On You" is a big production number -- a "Dance at the Gym" between the brainiacs and the jocks.
Oh, did I mention the dancing? There was a lot of it -- probably more than we've seen in any other Broadhollow show. And "Get'cha Head in the Game" may be the first musical theater use of basketballs as both a dance prop and a percussive instrument. Also, at the very end, during a post-curtain-call "High School Music Megamix," half the cast danced down the aisles, drawing out little girls from their seats. Afterwards, the tiny BayWay lobby was packed with autograph seekers and cast members. It was all very cheesy and tweeny and girlie, but parents beware: it's coming to a theater near you.
MTI's list of future productions of HSM
Something's different about this show. It's a generational thing. HSM seems to be a runaway hit with girls born between Rent and Mamma Mia, who are too old for puppet shows but too young for Avenue Q. And it might just be the Grease or Bye Bye Birdie of their generation. It may not be Tony material, but it is a tween phenomenon that deserves some respect and attention.
Btw, this is not the concert tour, which comes to Long Island at the end of December. But I think it could be the first New York City metro area production of HSM, which debuted as a TV movie in January on the Disney Channel and as a staged musical in August at Stagedoor Manor. Next year a hundred high schools will probably do it. This was put on by the Broadhollow Theatre Company, a non-profit that does 18 shows a year at three Nassau and Suffolk locations.
We have seen several other Broadhollow productions, including Anything Goes this year and Gypsy last year. HSM was of similar quality and competence. It was, however, the biggest crowd we'd ever seen at one of their shows. And while retirees made up most of the audience during our past visits, even parents were outnumbered at Saturday's 4pm matinee.
It's kids performing for even younger kids, primarily girls aged 5 to 12. Looking at the crowd behind us, there'd be two or three little girls with eyes barely above seatback level, then a parent's head, then a few more girls on booster seats, then a parent, then a little brother in his carseat. A few blue-haired oldsters here and there, but a solid half the house was pre-teen, five foot and under. Very few teens and almost no twenty-somethings!
The girls sat quietly and attentively for the most part, like they were happy to be there, exhibiting none of the bad kid behaviors we've seen on display at past holiday shows, except when they occasionally sang along to their favorite verses. For that minor transgression they can be forgiven, though they should be taught it has no place on Broadway (except perhaps at Wicked).
Many girls wore their favorite HSM t-shirts, which I'm still not sure if that's a good trend or not. Very few young ticketholders left their seats during the first act for bathroom breaks or chats with mommy, though they were decidedly more fidgety and restless during the second act. It's a long show (2.5 hours), so maybe a longer intermission with mandatory bathroom breaks and no sugar snacks might be what these munchkins need.
There are two casts rotating the leads. We saw Brett Campbell as Troy and Elora Rosch as Gabriella, with Victoria Fairclough and Justin Moniz as Sharpay and Ryan. The ensemble included 25 or 30 high school kids, many veterans of past Broadhollow shows. And just two adults, playing the coach and the drama teacher. Kind of like Spring Awakening without the chairs.
The big difference that we noticed from the TV movie was fewer scenes, less dialogue, and more narration by a DJ-like character named Jack Scott (played by Matt Riordan). All the TV songs are still there, plus two new ones: "Cellular Fusion" comes between the auditions and the cafeteria scenes in Act 1, as the kids scheme to derail Troy and Gabriella's plans to sing. Think of "The Telephone Hour" done with flip phones. In Act 2, "Counting On You" is a big production number -- a "Dance at the Gym" between the brainiacs and the jocks.
Oh, did I mention the dancing? There was a lot of it -- probably more than we've seen in any other Broadhollow show. And "Get'cha Head in the Game" may be the first musical theater use of basketballs as both a dance prop and a percussive instrument. Also, at the very end, during a post-curtain-call "High School Music Megamix," half the cast danced down the aisles, drawing out little girls from their seats. Afterwards, the tiny BayWay lobby was packed with autograph seekers and cast members. It was all very cheesy and tweeny and girlie, but parents beware: it's coming to a theater near you.
MTI's list of future productions of HSM
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