Disney’s popular movie, and now maybe even more popular stage production, has begun hitting youth stages throughout the country. And it has a line of fans wrapping around the block of the Elks Theatre in Prescott, Arizona waiting to get in, forcing an extended run of the show for Young Star Musical Theatre. And the line-up of theatergoers is in for a pretty good treat as the always-creative director Shmaine Posey and her cast take this cheesy but fun musical and make it even more fun and cheesier to good effect.

In one welcome touch, they begin the show as the film does with the first meeting of Troy and Gabriella at a ski lodge where they get suckered into doing a karaoke duet (the stage version calls for a flashback scene). Ensemble members and about a dozen or more excited audience volunteers kick it all off with a big New Year’s bash, providing party energy to the otherwise lulling Start of Something New song.

Caleb Chunglo is an unassuming, confident-but-not-arrogant Troy. All the other lead roles are double-cast, with Mallory Morganelli and Kristy Ann Wilson sharing the role of Gabriella. Mallory enjoys some fine duets with Caleb and her solo When There Was Me and You, as does Kristy who somehow manages to give good depth and refreshingly genuine personality to a pretty thinly written character.

The supporting cast is led by the outrageous Evans twins who line their clothes and their microphones with sparkly bling-bling. Sharpay even has her locker decked out with a star and pink paint (and a prominent mirror). A talented foursome takes on the roles, divided between the two casts. Charlotte Shipley is a riot with the voice, dance moves, and a creative, self-centered prima donna-ness that never misses a beat, with Alex Benavidez as her worshipping shadow of a twin brother. Heather Hancock and Nolan Sturdevant team up terrifically for the other Sharpay and Ryan, with Heather as an ultra-determined, humorously seductive Sharpay and Nolan as her dynamic and “fabulous” brother. All four nail their songs, beginning with their crazy warm-up techniques.

Marney Henze is a charming Taylor, Gabriella’s best friend, who reacts to her own conniving against Gabriella’s romance with palpable regret, while Taylor-Two Carly Jonovich is a standout with her remarkable sense of humor that includes a singular demonstration of “cheerleader talk.” Her mother is one of the two adult actors, with Colleen Jonovich as the school’s amusingly scary, melodramatic theatre director and Scott Reed as Troy’s father, the basketball coach with his head stuck exclusively in the game. The latter doesn’t quite know what to say when he walks in on the drama teacher’s detention period and discovers one of his players wearing a costume dress. As he orders them out to the basketball courts, he has to remind the cross-dresser to leave the dress, which immediately comes flying back to the coach from offstage.

Other standouts include Lizzie Place as a shy, humble, awkward playwright who is reluctant to look anyone in the eye, Jacob Clark as a jock who is immensely proud (and a little sensitive) about his baking skills, and Jake Jackson as basketball friend Chad Danforth and as a key part of a couple of the show’s ensemble highlights. Of which there were many. A good “auditions” scene featuring an interpretive dance routine that the drama teacher finds “very disturbing” and Jake Jackson as a ballerina who exits the stage by sliding across the piano on his back (much to the horror of Lizzie Place on the piano bench). Then there is the Mission Impossible music as the characters meet secretly to scheme a complicated plan to break up Troy and Gabriella. And, best of all, the hysterical slow-motion basketball game/brawl for the championship featuring great expressions and body language (including some Matrix-like moves) by the players and their rabid fans.

The cast also put on some good song-and-dance numbers including the basketball players’ Keep Your Head in the Game (very lively and in-step despite the fact that most of the actors really were jocks and had never danced before), all the frustrated classmates trying to force everyone to Stick to the Status Quo (with Carly Jonovich’s choreography capturing that frustration), and the big closing number We’re All in This Together that is sung and danced with precision and energy.

Performs April 5-21, 2007

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre