Stage gets schooled with Disney hit

Media Credit: Courtesy of DISNEY STICK TO THE STATUS QUO - Upbeat songs and acrobatic choreography bring the charm of the famous Disney made-for-TV movie to the stage. Popular songs like "Stick to the Status Quo" and "We're All In This Together" made the National Theater audience groove.

First aired as a movie in 2006, "High School Musical" soared to popularity unseen by previous Disney Channel Original Movies. Then came the sing-along and dance-along versions so that fans could trip over their preadolescent limbs while learning the moves to "We're All In This Together." Then the album, with those sugar sweet but oh-so-catchy lyrics, climbed to the top of the charts, becoming the top-selling album of 2006.

The live tour version of "HSM," now showing at The National Theatre until Feb. 17, was inevitable. Its hopeful message-told through high-energy, acrobatic choreography and music you'll hum to yourself on the Metro-seems to have struck a powerful chord at a cynical time. It's an affirmative antidote to the morning's headlines.

Save for a few necessary tweaks, the live musical sticks closely to the plot of its parent cinematic version. Leads Gabriella Montez (Arielle Jacobs) and Troy Bolton (John Jeffrey Martin) fall in like (this is a Disney creation, after all) at a ski resort over winter break. But their affection-so simple when crooning together in a vacation karaoke contest-becomes challenging when Montez discovers she's transferred to Bolton's New Mexico high school.

In their high school, where cliques rule, science-nerd Montez and all-star basketball boy Bolton cannot date. When they audition together for East High's production of "Romeo and Juliet," their high school's social structure devolves into chaos.

Musical number after musical number try to instill in the leads the inexorable reality of high school: You need to stick to what you know. But the characters follow their hearts, accomplishing their dreams with teamwork.

What a relief for preteens everywhere! You are finally free to be the beautiful, freakishly smart, musically talented and athletic person you are! Middle school would've been so much easier if this movie had been part of our Zeitgeist.

Continued...

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