“High School Musical” is jumping off television screens and dancing onto the stage.
The Disney channel movie, which premiered in 2006 and gained a cult following among all ages, including UCLA students, is now a stage musical. The show opens at the Kodak Theatre this Wednesday and runs until Dec. 23. The new production still centers on the sunny microcosm of East High and the relationship between basketball star Troy Bolton and math whiz Gabriella Montez.
The movie’s transition into a stage musical, however, provoked mixed reactions from die-hard fans.
“High School Musical” fan Aimee Hall, a third-year comparative American studies student believes that the live aspect of the performance will enhance the movie’s story.
“(The musical) will probably be better because it’s live theater,” Hall said.
However, Lauren Mayfield, a fourth-year English student, and also a “High School Musical” fan, is skeptical about the onstage production.
“It’s taking it way too far,” said Mayfield. “It’s just typical of Disney to milk it for all they can get.”
The original production of the musical adaptation opened in Chicago and has since been staged in theatrical venues across the country. Directed by Jeff Calhoun, whose former projects include “Big River,” the musical draws upon the movie’s narrative and features all of its catchy songs.
Even though the stage production keeps the movie’s story line and score, there are some changes that fans might react to.
Lizzie Weiss, the actress who plays hip-hop brainiac Martha Cox, believes that the movie’s stereotypical characters, such as theater diva Sharpay Evans, become more real in the onstage version.
“It’s even more relatable,” Weiss said. “We find out why Sharpay is the way she is.”
On the production side, choreographer Lisa Stevens drew her inspiration for the new dance sequences from how she envisioned the characters’ personalities. She devised their routines accordingly, incorporating the classic Broadway style of Bob Fosse into their dance numbers.
“I pictured that Ryan and Sharpay would spend their Friday and Saturday nights going through old classic (musicals),” Stevens said.
The various dance styles performed throughout the show, including hip-hop and jazz, reflect the diversity of the performers onstage. The high-schoolers range in age from 18 to their late 20s and have varying experiences in musical theater.
Some, like Weiss, have performed in numerous musicals, while other performers are relatively new to the field.
“It’s a diverse crowd with different levels of experience. It’s cast very uniquely”, Weiss said. “It shows that anyone can make it.”
This casting method emphasizes the message of “High School Musical” that students can move beyond their position within the high school hierarchy, and this message remains constant between the movie and stage show.
“They’re breaking free of the categories people place them in (and) being themselves regardless of what clique they’re usually associated with,” Mayfield said.
Hall believes that, though the musical may not suit everyone’s tastes, the child-like escapism of both the movie and the stage show will appeal to wide audiences.
“Most people harbor a secret love of Disney,” Hall said. “It’s a world away from anything.”