High School Musical

The second full-scale offering from the youth arm of PODS was the Disney hit, High School Musical.  The story mirrors the film version made famous by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.  The society opted for a cabaret-style seating arrangement and the full house was treated to pre-show snacks, a lovely touch.  It’s these little pieces of attention to detail that I’ve come to expect from the excellent PODS team.

The set was well constructed and gave the performers the opportunity to use the whole playing space across multiple levels, as well as the balcony spaces in the Paget rooms.

The large cast coped well with the musical numbers with great singing throughout as well as showing good energy in the dance routines that were well choreographed for the size and ability of the cast. 

Ollie and Lillie-Mai played Troy and Gabriella, made famous by the aforementioned Efron and Hudgens.  They did a lovely job leading the cast and sang well together, as well as on their own.  Both had nice characters and it was clear they were really enjoying being on stage and working together.

Siri and Austin were siblings Sharpay and Ryan.  I enjoyed their portrayal of the larger than life characters.  Full of energy and sass throughout the production.  Well done.

Clara was excellent as Ms Darbus.  Diminutive in stature but with a huge stage presence and character.  I certainly wouldn’t mess around in her lessons!  Great job!

A very strong performance from Gabriel as Chad.  Top quality American accent that didn’t falter once.  A talented young man!

Daisy did a good job in her multiple roles, particularly as the coach and Iona was full of energy and character as Taylor.

Martha gave a really lovely performance as Kelsi.  She sang well and had a great character.  Excellent job.

Beau and Harry gave myself and my fellow audience members lots of laughs whenever they were on stage as Zack and Jack.  Good job lads!

Other named characters added plenty to the performance, each with their own individual personalities and they should be commended for this.

This was a lovely performance of a musical I know very well.  One little piece of advice I’d give is to just slow down the delivery of dialogue so that those in the audience who don’t know the story can also follow along.  At times the general dialogue was a little too fast and garbled.  I’m sure this improved throughout the week as the nerves settled though!

Thanks once again to the PODS team for a great production and their warm welcome as usual.  I look forward to seeing you all again later in the year.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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