High School Musical Jr

It was lovely to be back in North Wales again, and what a warm welcome we received.

This youth version of High School Musical is bright, lively and is a great show to get youngsters involved in theatre.

The story revolves around, two young people on holiday doing something different, in this case Karaoke, to what their peer group would expect them to do, on returning to school the couple, Troy and Gabriella, meet again when Gabriella has transferred to East High. Both discover that they are falling for each other, they would both like to sign up for the auditions for the upcoming musical but cannot let their friends down as they are involved in different clubs. 

The opening number by the Cheerleaders was bight, well-choreographed and gave an excellent opening number and this continued throughout the whole show.

Troy (Finlay Rose) and Gabriella (Isabella Aubert) made a delightful couple and the chemistry between them was obvious. Both had excellent voices and played the young couple torn between what they wished to do and not letting their friends and team mates down, with class. Bravo to both of you

Scheming Sharpay (Bella Russell) and Ryan Evans (Archie Davies) gave great performances as the “but I always get the part” teenagers. They played it with the confidence that the characters required. Lovely singing and movement. Well Done.

Emily Jones, as the slightly whacky Ms Darbas, stole all the scenes she was in. A great comedy actress with very good comedy timing. A brilliant portrayal.

Coach Bolton (Noah Lewis) as the Coach /father of Troy gave a good and mature performance especially when he is discouraging Troy and telling him his team needs him. 

Kelsi Neilson (Sasha Wright) and Jack Scott (Oliver McKinley) were both well cast and gave good support to the principles.

The Jocks and Brainiacs were all confident and all worked well together as a team.

This show has a double cast for certain roles and I was only able to attend one performance but I was assured that the other cast of Katie Belmont as Gabriella, Izzy Blackmore as Sharpay and Nova Anglesea as Taylor McKessie, gave great performances as well, so sorry to have missed you.

It is to be hoped that youngsters like these will keep the future of the theatre thriving.

All in all this cast has worked very hard to give the public a great production. It was true that “We’re All in this Together” and that must include Direction and Choreography and all the Production Team.

Thank you for the kind invitation, I really enjoyed my visit.

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