High School Musical based on the Disney film. Book by David Simpatico. The Troubador Theatre, Wembley Park, London | 03 January 2027. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell
Photo credit: Matt Crockett
High School Musical
based on the Disney film
Book by David Simpatico
The Troubador Theatre, Wembley Park, London | 03 January 2027.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell
“A great night out.”
Grease has a lot to answer for when it comes to musical set in American high schools. East High is not a patch on Rydell High, but this zestful and splendidly choreographed version of the first of Disney's three High School musicals produced 20 years ago starring Zac Effron, who became a teen heartthrob, is a copper-bottomed audience pleaser. Set in the gymnasium of the school with the audience seated on either side as well as in front in the main auditorium of this cavernous theatre it opens with the school cheerleaders getting everyone on side. The plot is simple – Troy Bolton (Tobias Turley) has met Gabriella Montez (Leonor Correia) on a ski holiday, and they have fallen in love. When she turns up at East High as a pupil they are faced with a problem. He is captain of the Basketball team of which his father, played by Harry Judd of McFly, is coach, while she is in the more academic section of the school. The resident drama teacher Mrs Darbus (KayCee Stroh, who was in the original film) is putting on Juliet and Romeo, an updated version of Shakespeare. The school queen Sharpay Evans (Caitlin Tipping doing nasty splendidly) believes the role is hers by rights, but when Troy and Gabriella turn up to audition – well you can guess the rest. The usual pupils from high school movies make up the rest of the cast, everyone sings, dances and plays with basket balls to great effect, and a good time is had by all including the audience. Harry Judd doesn't get all that much to do but KayCee Stroh certainly does, Turley – you know he is the basketball star because he is the tallest person on stage – and Correia sing the songs by various composers pleasantly and everyone performs the dazzling choreography by Aaron Renfree as well as it is possible to do, leaving one wondering how they had enough energy left when at curtain call the cast gave one more marathon dance performance with the audience on its feet moving in time and taking pictures. Every cliché of the genre is there but that is the whole point. This is immersive theatre at its very best with the odd surprise among what you expect to happen like the scene when the lovers seated on a bench with an illuminated moon behind them suddenly soar up to the rafters and the seat floats from side to side while the cast perform one more dance down below. Directors Joseph Houston and William Whelton of Hope Mill Theatre, where the show started its life, have kept the action bubbling along and also caught just what it was that made the original films a success, although why audiences here, who went to schools that were nothing like any American High, are in seventh heaven is anybody's guess. Top marks all round. If it has to be done, then this is how to do it.
Cast
Harry Judd – Coach Bolton
KayCee Stroh – Mrs Darbus
Tobias Turley – Troy Bolton
Leonor Correia – Gabriella Montez
Caitlin Tipping – Sharpay Evans
Luke Bayer – Ryan Evans
Char Burnett – Taylor MxKessie
Jordan Benjamin – Chad Danforth
Simeon Beckett – Zeke Baylor
Olivia O'Connor – Martha Cox
Yna Tresvalles – Kelsi Nelson
Curtis Patrick – Jack Scott
Alexander Black, Alison Driver, Mary Francis, Sonia Gil-Lubeiro, Tamsin January, Joseph Lennox, Andree Phipps, Meg Salsby, Kade Stenson, Ethan Vun, Eddie Zuckerman – Ensemble.
Bart Johnson – Announcer
Eleanor Bye, Conor Luke Drury, Lucas Morlotti, Katie Mulligan – On Stage Swings
Harriet Caplan-Dean – Dance Captain
Creatives
Directors – Joseph Houston & William Whelton
Choreographer – Aaron Renfree
Set Designer – Andrew Exeter
Sound Designer – Matt Peploe
Lighting Designer – Rory Beaton
Costume Designer – Sophia Pardon
Musical Supervisor – Katy Richardson
Musical Director – Audra Cramer
