High School Musical is NOT, and I mean NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT being made into a Broadway Musical.
You know how I know? Because they have officially confirmed that the NEXT Disney Musical is called "The Man in The Ceiling" so look for THAT, and NOT High School Musical.
However, it IS true that High School Musical's script and music is available for High Schools to perform. (Unfortunetely, my friend's High School is going to be doing the show -_-' You probably know where this post is going) Sooo, basically, you're watching a High School put on a show about a High School trying to put on a High School show. The thing that annoys me about High School Musical is this:
It's modernized Grease
Guy meets girl over break, during New Years. He doesn't know she's going to be going to his school, he comes back, tells his friends about her, she tells her friends about him, they meet, he's too different than her, and she's too different than him. He's sporty and cool, and the hero of the school. She's new, smart, and preppy, and their friends don't like each other very much.
It just so HAPPENS that this whole Musical thing brings them together because they can both sing very well.
The whole thing is COMPLETELY over sung, over listened to, and completely over rated, and so when I saw it, I didn't think it was as amazing as everyone else thought. While everyone else was buying the special edition of the soundtrack and watching the special on TV about how to learn the dances, I was one of the few who really felt indifferent about the whole thing. Now, I think it's just completely blown over. To tell you the truth, I don't think that Ashley Tisdale or Zac Efron actually completely sound like that.
It's unfortunate, but ever since RENT came out in theatres, teenagers were so crazed over that. And now, the people who never heard of RENT before the movie, are singing La Vie Boheme, acting like they know the entire story behind the musical, when all they know is "Angel, Collins, Mimi, and Roger all have AIDS, and Angel's SO sweet, and Mimi's a skank" and it's like "Uhhhh... do you have any idea what ELSE is behind the story?" And really, they don't.
Then, all of a sudden, High School Musical comes around. The script isn't good, not ALL of the music is memorable, and the actors aren't all they're cut out to be. Really, if Disney wants to really bring back the fad of original musicals, maybe they should try getting Stephen Schwartz to write a musical for them, since he was completely RIPPED of Wicked's glory because of another FAD musical that appealed to teens and young adults. One of the reasons Wicked is SO popular is literally because of "Popular", "Defying Gravity" and "The Wizard and I", which is even MORE unfortunate because these teens ignore the musical's good songs like Dear Old Shiz, I'm Not That Girl, and One Short Day.
So let's go back to this High School Musical shall we? A musical that has maybe 1 or 2 memorable songs that are over sang, over played, and over rated by these wannabe singer TEENAGERS who use these songs, and the popular songs from RENT and WICKED for Auditions, when they have no idea how SICK and TIRED Casting Directors are of hearing "Defying Gravity, Popular, The Wizard and I, Without You, One Song Glory, Out Tonight, and Seasons of Love" They don't want to hear these anymore, and NEITHER DO I!
As a performer, I know better than to sit there and make someone listen to a song that they've probably heard over and over and over again all day long, and they want to hear something different, so I choose something by Jason Robert Brown, or something from Ragtime, or something from Jeckyl and Hyde, or a musical where no one actually NOTICES how great these songs are, and how they show off a voice better than some of these other songs.
So what do I feel about High School Musical? It was a fad, and it's going to be pushed away and ignored as soon as the next teenage musical hits the stage. Lord knows it's going to be A Chorus Line, which is being revived this Fall. It's a show with a lot of solos and it appeals to those wannabe dancers/singers/actors who want to make it big on Broadway. It has a whole bunch of nobodies who are AMAZINGLY talented, which is going to make even MORE people believe they can make it big on broadway if they try and try and try again.
But hunny, sitting there listening to the same musicals that are popular nowadays over and over again until you've memorized that one special song you can't wait to show at your audition, and having 13 years of some two-bit dancing class, and 2 years of an acting class you've taken in HIGH SCHOOL is not going to get you to Broadway, and it's NOT going to last.
High School Musical, in my opinion, is NOT WELCOME anywhere on Disney Property, be it the Tomorrowland Theatre or the ABC Theatre in MGM Studios
What they NEED to bring to Broadway, or even spice up and return to Disney World is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because it was in Berlin and didn't last as long as it SHOULD have because critics nowadays don't know art when it SMACKS them in the face. THAT is the reason why Jason Robert Brown's Parade, Urban Cowboy, The Last Five Years, and Songs For A New World didn't last on Broadway.
((By the way, I LOVE Wicked, A Chorus Line, and RENT as much as the next person, and I believe it should have won more than the two awards that it did, because they're amazingly written and they show more heart and spirit than most shows on broadway, but you can admit that it's true you've heard WAY too many "For Good"'s at your last Graduation))
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