Hammersmith Apollo, London W6
As I took my seat in a row of six-year-olds dressed as cheerleaders, something told me I was probably not a member of this show’s target audience. The last time I felt this conspicuous I was the lone bloke in an auditorium filled with women in late middle age. We were watching Menopause The Musical. They seemed to wonder why I was there. So did these cheerleaders — and their parents.
The sideways glances subsided though when this bouncy Disney-produced musical got underway. It started life as a hit movie for the corporation’s TV channel and is set in an American high school that is about as far away from this country’s divisive mix of state, private and faith schools as it is possible to get. Now there are touring productions spreading across the world faster than bird flu.
Part-Grease and part-Fame — only with added texting — High School Musical is about a basketball hero called Troy who falls for the academic (or “brainiac”) Gabriella. These two would be great in the school musical, Juliet and Romeo, if only everyone would leave them alone. But there is this blonde bimbo called Sharpay who wants to play Juliet, fancies Troy and plots to break up the happy couple. And they come under even more pressure from their peers. Saying no to peer pressure is the show’s admirable main message, right behind the one that says you are nobody unless you have a mobile phone.
