Disney's High School Musical JR

High School Musical Jr is a one-act musical adapted from the Disney film, High School Musical. There are shades of Grease in the story which tells of Troy, the Basketball team captain, who discovers that the brainy Gabriella, a girl he met singing karaoke on his school trip, has just enrolled at East High. Their surprise decision to audition for the school show is thwarted, in the main, by the school’s leading lady and diva, Sharpay. 

The show has 17 small scenes which means there is a danger that so many scene changes will slow things up; but all props and items of scenery moved on and off quickly by members of the cast which enabled everything to flow efficiently.  Staging and Lighting design was good. Sound was a bit loud in a couple of places and there was the odd problem with body mics but these were dealt with swiftly. Costumes looked splendid.  American accents were well maintained but when using an accent there is always a danger of speaking too fast making dialogue unintelligible to the listener which was the case here at times. 

This was a fast paced show, in fact often quite frenetic, but it was great to see such a large group of mixed age performers working so well together and enjoying themselves.   Musical Director Joseph Hall had clearly worked hard with both the principals and ensemble to produce good vocals and really got the best out of these youngsters. In fact the ensemble work throughout was very impressive.  Choreographer Rori Saxby had trained the cast well so that the dances were all beautifully synchronised.

The show got off to a good start with the Cheerleaders enthusiastically singing Wildcat Cheer. We then met Troy and Gabriella who sang Start of Something New. Troy was well played by Zack Wymer and his duets with Gabriella worked well.  Charlie May Wallis was in fine voice as Gabriella. She very naturally represented the different aspects of the character and there was good interaction both with Troy and Taylor (Esme Latta) a member of the Brainiacs team.  Abbie Good and Michael Heslop, as brother and sister Sharpay and Ryan Evans, made a good duo in both singing and dancing. Both were ideally suited to their respective roles and Abbie portrayed the diva aspects of her character with great panache.

Good support came from those in the more minor named roles and indeed from the whole ensemble. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Ailish Collins as Ms Darbus, Leia Schultz as Chad and Ione Collins as Jackie Scott the News Announcer at East High.  

The whole cast put their heart into every number in which they were involved.  I particularly enjoyed Stick to the Status Quo, Bop to the Top and, of course, We’re All in This Together.  The latter, definitely reflecting the ethos of the company. This was a high energy show rehearsed and put together over one week.  Congratulations to the whole cast and to Director Jess Clifford together with all the ‘grown ups’ that guided these young people through a week of Summer School to performance standard.    

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