This stage adaptation of Disney’s insanely successful TV movie boasts a tried-and-tested tale of love across the locker room. Essentially, it’s ‘Grease’, but without Brylcreem, Spandex or the slightest whiff of naughtiness. Gabriella’s a new-girl maths whiz. Troy’s the school basketball star. In no time at all (literally), they discover a passion for each other and, rather improbably, musical theatre. They must overcome their inhibitions, the vice-like grip of peer pressure, and a punishing school timetable if they are to follow their dreams, reach for the stars and… audition for their high school musical.
Peter Barsocchini’s impeccably modern ode to multi-tasking is blessed with a ridiculously addictive score and, on the vast Apollo stage, a stupendously talented, energetic cast. Mark Evans and Claire Marie Hall are refreshingly authentic as the heart-tugging, schedule-crossed lovers, and Rebecca Faulkenberry is a superb Sharpay, the school’s evil drama club queen and the show’s only real stab at comedy.
But what ought to have been a stunning, triumphant new musical is more a perfunctory, transient attempt to further milk the ‘HSM’ cow. Jeff Calhoun directs the action at blistering speed, but the sets and costumes are depressingly shoddy, the sound system is woolly and the glaring product placements are merely shameful. Furthermore, every (admittedly minor) alteration from the screenplay renders the stage version less funny and self-aware than the original. Luckily for everybody, it’s such an impossibly resilient, very fine cow of a musical that the screaming tweenage audience didn’t mind a jot, and could barely retain control of their pom poms. But both they, and the thoroughly deserving cast, have been sold short by Disney’s under- investment in what they knew to be a sure-fire hit.
