High School Musical on Stage

A couple of firsts here. My first visit to a St Ives Youth Theatre since taking over from my retiring colleague, Julie Petrucci and even though I am a Grandad of numerous grandchildren this is the first time I have ever seen High School Musical. And what a great evening it turned out to be.

A complicated story which centres around the budding relationship between the East High’s star basketball player Troy Bolton and Mathematical genius Gabriella Montez who meet at a Christmas party where he sings a song and catches the eye of the drama teacher, who wants him to audition for the upcoming school play, which they are both temped to do. All of which is in direct conflict with both Troy’s commitment to the basketball team, coached by his own father; and Gabriella’s to the upcoming  Scholastic Decathlon, which East High have never won.

The set, constructed by Andy Davis, Brett Golding and Harry Lee and under the control of Stage Manager Chloe Rogers was the bare stage at the Burgess Hall with a very large apron which extended downstage on both sides plus a considerable amount of the auditorium floor, and much needed it was too with a cast of approaching forty! The backwall was black with various coloured fairy lights according to the scene. On the auditorium floor was a truck which depicted the classroom of The Brainiacs, a very floral backed flat lit with fairy lights for Troy’s own ‘den,’ and a basketball goal for The Jocks. All slickly brought on and off for their various scenes under the control of Stage Manager Chloe Rogers. The slickly controlled lighting was by Will Golding. The mammoth task of fitting out this huge cast with face mics, which all came in on cue and perfectly pitched fell to Olivia Price and Jack Whitlam. Superb job!

The first thing to say is what a wonderfully enthusiastic bunch of kids SIYT are, all of whom were obviously first and foremost thoroughly enjoying themselves. The opening scene of The Cheerleaders, Rebekah Bateman, Bella Cox, Florance Golding. Tegan Csepecz-Strong, Isla Simmonds and Grace Warner dressed in splendid East High Red and White outfits, (sourced by the wardrobe department of Liz Davis and Sarah Collinge) bursting on to the auditorium floor to give us one of many mesmerising routines, really setting the tempo. The splendid Choreography, which was extremely well drilled and uplifting throughout was by Jasmin Brennan. Terrific job!

The excellent band was conducted by MD Stephen Denman on Bass with Nellie Coss (Who was also the Vocal MD) and Alex Lambert on Keyboards, Jordan Ward and Sophie Wallis on Guitars, Adam Mansfield on Drums and Viv Scott on Percussion.

Charlie Stewart took on the lead of Troy Bolton very well indeed, a classic teenager with all the anxieties that go with it. At sixes and sevens with his love life and torn between his basketball prowess and his chance to sing on stage. Nicely done. Particularly liked his gang of Jocks, especially James Rowbotham as Chad Danforth, who appears to have real stage presence and great sense of timing. Well done also to Josh Wain, Finlay Stewart and Max Gilham who made up the rest of the Jocks. And of course, to Will Dak as Coach Bolton and Troy’s father.

For the Thespians, Orla Hilton as Sharpay Evans and Justin Ramsbottom as her brother Ryan were a class act when it came to dancing with some really superb routines. Both of them absolute naturals and the interaction between them often insulting each other as only siblings can, was really hilarious.   Well backed up by a great team of Alfie Collinge, Natalie Freeman, Mali James, Mathew Giles, Grace Warner and the Performance Arts Kids of Max Gilham, Florence Golding, Molly Hall Nefeli and Carys Prosser.

Afiya James in the lead as Gabriella Montez was most notable for her outstanding voice with some wonderful renditions such as ‘What I’ve Been Looking For’ and ‘When There Was You and Me.’  Obviously, a lady with a great future in Musical Theatre. Again, well backed up by the rest of the Brainiacs, Ilia Palmer-Masterson, Tegan Csepecz-Strong, Bella Cox, Summer Appleton, Isla Simmonds and Nefeli Tsopela.

My favourite performance, which once you cut through the American teenage slang and managed to understand any word that he said goes to Ben Chapman as student radio announcer Jack Scott. He sat in the most contorted positions on his plinth stage left and was just brilliantly animated especially with his use of the extended microphone, often casually discarded! Hillarious!

Well done also to The Skater Dudes, Rhu Maltby-Brown, Tom Kurkiewick and Molly Hall as well as Adults Elise Davis as Ms Darbus, Ms Tenny, Voice Over and Chemistry Teacher Summer Appleton.

Once I got into the American accent student slang, which I confess did take a moment or two I found this to be great fun, Director Katie Wellman did an outstanding job of putting across life in East High. You could say we were transported across the Atlantic to Albuquerque for the evening, the accents and mannerisms were that realistic!  Everything was covered including one student doing sign language for the deaf, which was very clever.

So well done Katie Wellman, her cast of Wild Cats and crew, thank you for a superb evening’s entertainment, I very much enjoyed this one and look forward to the next SIYT show! 

 

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