Harnessing youthful energy

Reporter: Paul Genty
Date published: 06 December 2011


HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, George Lawton Hall, Mossley
MOSSLEY AODS’s Next Generation youth company has had some startling successes in recent years, with shows that have reached far beyond the assumed capabilities of young amateur performers.

The thriving group flies and soars, as one of this show’s songs suggests, into the famously global phenomenon with an energy members probably don’t offer at actual school, and it’s very entertaining.

Sporty Troy meets nerdy Gabriella and both find they share a like of singing, much to the chagrin of peer-pressuring teens. Throw in a mean girl, overbearing teachers and other obstacles and gee, can those kids ever get together?

Well yes they can: everyone sees sense and we find out you can be yourself and if you are, your friends will support you. Which suggests the writers of this show had no friends at all, growing up.

The production, until Saturday, has Mossley’s traditional core values of performer energy, liveliness and confidence — even though in many cases, singing voices aren’t up to the incredible level of company members who have gone before. The show adds a big thrust stage too — so the dancers get right among the audience — plus motorised lights and a firework or two.

While our Troy and Gab (Ben Cupit and Beatrice Hewitt-Lee) are a cute couple, neither sings terribly well — though oddly, in the last 20 minutes or so both find notes they had previously struggled to hit.

Overall this is a show that nearly gets there: the cast members — all of whom work very hard — have a general tendency to rush, which doesn’t help diction, phrasing or the general sense of what is going on. There are balance problems too: the band, hidden behind the scenery, is frequently louder than the singers.

Director Lee Brennan and his colleagues seem to have put most of their energy into the kids’ energy: getting them to dance and sing strongly as a group — and when they do, the show takes off. But individual performances could be much stronger; in the crucial details of character, the evening loses some of its gloss.


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