High School Musical

“High School Musical” is an excellent choice for any Youth theatre group and tells the tale of two high school juniors – ‘Troy Bolton’, captain of the basketball team, and ‘Gabriella Montez’ a transfer student who is extremely academic. Against a background of pressure from friends and family and clashing extracurricular activities, they try out for the lead parts in their high school musical which causes division among all the school's students. They resist peer pressure and rivalry, from the high school diva ‘Sharpay Evans’, who will do anything not only to sabotage the friendship and romance between ‘Troy’ and ‘Gabriella’, but also to get the lead in the school musical. 

Norbury’s leads, Frankie Blincoe-Deval (‘Troy’) and Ffion Brighton (‘Gabriella’) were very well cast and gave convincing performances. Their number ‘What I’ve been looking for’ was sensitive and moving in the scene with Charlotte Thwaites (‘Kelsi Nielson’) who also gave a great performance as the shy but talented pianist and composer.

Meanwhile ‘Sharpay’ played by Maddie Henn constantly seeks attention, particularly from ‘Troy’ and does anything she can to disrupt ‘Gabriella’s chances of succeeding, both with ‘Troy’ and getting the lead part in the school musical. Maddie played the role with relish with plenty of attitude and made an excellent contribution to several musical numbers.  ‘Sharpay’s twin brother ‘Ryan’ (Adam Rowberry) also sang and acted well with great personality.

There were two adult contributions to the action in ‘Ms Darbus’ the strict drama teacher who dislikes sport and cell phones and this was played with convincing drama by Melanie Brown. Good support too from Graeme Sinclair as ‘Coach Bolton’ frequently clashing with son ‘Troy’.

Great support was also provided by other principals including Jack Brown (‘Jack Scott’), Francesca Hawkeswood (‘Taylor McKessie’) and Jordan Chan (‘Chad Danforth’) and all others whether basket ball players or cheer leader dancers were totally engaged in their performances. The choreography by Cat Reeves was exciting and well rehearsed, particularly the lengthy School Musical Megamix, which certainly closed the show on a ‘High’!

Sam Jeffrey and Vicky Lake moulded a very good production, but if I had one wish it would be for a different balance between orchestra and singers and a preference for the volume to be lowered during some dialogue. Nevertheless this was a great evening’s entertainment and one to be proud of.

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