'High School Musical' on stage is slick and fun

A wall of sound from tween girls, including Reilly Salkowski, 7, daughter of the Star's At Home editor, Kristen Cook. She sat in sixth row center watching the play as she sang along, grinned and tapped her feet.

Reilly pointed out with the air of an expert that the production had new songs (two, to be precise), additional dialogue, and Sharpay's hair is a little too short.

But, Reilly said, "I like everything."

The eclectic audience of Reilly's contemporaries, high schoolers and middle-age parents seemed to agree — the standing ovation at the end was swift and enthusiastic.

And, oddly enough, it was deserved.

This is a slick production with scene changes done in an instant, strong voices and dancing, and more energy than it takes to light Winterhaven during the holidays. It was, dare we say it, fun.

"High School Musical," in case you've been living in a world absent of anyone under 10, first made its mark on the Disney Channel as a TV movie. It became a mad hit.

So naturally, those clever folks at Disney, who always know how to make a buck, put it on the stage and on tour.

The stage musical follows the same story line: Gabriella is new to East High, and is smart, real smart. Troy is the basketball champ. He's athletic, real athletic. The two discover they like each other and can sing together, and try out for the high school musical. But wait. Sharpay and her flamboyant brother, Ryan (Chandra Lee Schwartz and Bobby List reveled in the deliciously over-the-top characters), have always gotten the leads in plays. And besides, Troy is a b-baller, the captain of the team, and he wants to sing? Come on! His teammates are pretty scandalized. And Gabriella's brainy friends? Well, they can't believe she'd rather sing than do math problems.

Throw into this mix bouncy songs and, whoa, have you got a hit.

The stage play is a hoot to watch. The scenes move swiftly and cleverly from a locker room to a gym to a classroom to a science lab and even to a rooftop greenhouse.

John Jeffrey Martin and Arielle Jacobs play Troy and Gabriella with grace and expertise. Martin looks nothing like Zac Efron, Troy in the movie versions; he's a bit more macho. Reilly said it took just about two songs for her to forget about Zac.

Jacobs had the dark hair and perky cuteness that the movie's Vanessa Anne Hudgens has, but she was no clone of the movie Gabriella — she held her own.

The plot's thin, the characters shallow, the moral — be who you want to be — way too obvious.

But those were not issues that Reilly or many of the others seemed concerned with. They wanted the music, the dance, the characters, the story they had come to love in the movie. And that's what they got.

And at what a cost: Top tickets to this play are $56 — and there are no student prices. Balcony seats can be had for $20, but what 8-year-old would be happy trying to get a view of the stage from that far back? The high price — we blame Disney for that, not Broadway in Tucson, which generally has generous student discounts — seems obscene.

But when asked which she preferred, the movie or the play, Reilly didn't hesitate: "The play," she said.

A theater convert — now that's priceless.

review

"Disney's High School Musical on Tour!"

• Presented by: Broadway in Tucson

• When: 7:30 p.m. today; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

• Where: Tucson Music Hall in the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

• Tickets: $20-$56.

• Reservations: 321-1000.

• Running time: 2 hours.

• We have a winner: Rebecca Bonomo, 11, won our two tickets to the Saturday matinee.