Sunday, October 21, 2007
'High School Musical' destined for stage
'Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Sing out Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay and Ryan. Even before 'High School Musical' became the celluloid Holy Grail of entertainment for adolescent girls everywhere, the idea of a stage version was being contemplated by the folks at Disney."
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13 comments:
They just did High School Musical at a small theatre in my hometown over the summer. I was really shocked to hear that the rights had been releases so soon. I understand why though, it isn't like Lion King, where they know they'll be making money off of it for years and years. It may just be temporary phenomenon and they need to make money on it while they can.
i agree with chapel. a cleveland youth theatre also did a production of hsm this past year and like her i was suprised that they could even begin to stage this show considering it had been just a year sine its original release. it also paid off and definitely brought in numbers and money for the theatre so i guess even though i consider it a sell-out it says something that the show was able to make such a huge dent on box offices across the country...
This is definitely a cash crop for disney. It allows any range of production on the show and it's accessible to nearly everyone.
It seems like it is well on it's way to being the next grease. Whether it wants to be or not.
On the plus side, if it is drawing people into the theatres hopefully it will inspire more people to go out and see other shows (besides Legally Blonde) as well as getting people involved in the arts.
Two high-schools back home (not mine) performed High School Musical very close to eachother, and if I remember correctly they both made a huge profit from the show. I'm so conflicted for the encouragement of a show with such a shallow plot, but at the same time it is encouraging younger kids to be involved in theatre. Although, these kids getting involved will probably want to continue these purely "pop" shows without any sort of plot. There are just too many pros and cons for my head to get a grip on.
It's a dark day for theatre. Why would they ever put on a show called "High School Musical" that has absolutely nothing to do with real theatrical works. I must admit I did watch the movie to see what all they hype was about. If the tour is anything like what I saw on TV (it's Disney, it will be) then I may just have to build a tomb stone in the scene shop and lay flowers on the grave of American youths ability to enjoy theatre.
I have actually never actually seen a high school who put on a production of high school musical, and actually I confess never seen the movie. However I have seen the ripple effect in teen popular culture that this show has created, and I think that this issue strongly parallels the whole Legally Blonde situation. These are musicals that have gained strong influence with the teen and preteen audience. And if this gets them into the theatre who knows, maybe they will come back.
My mother was choreographer for a production of it in my hometown, and as it turns out Disney jumped on it as quick as they could. The movie hadn't been out but two months and they were allready calling us to see if we were interested in doing a production. I've seen the movie, but I didn't see it when that school did it. My mother told me no to come.
I must say, I am very impressed with Disney's business savvy in this case. To jump to the conclusion that they needed to have the theatrical rights to it from day one and were ready to quickly turn out a script to be performed on stage is quite impressive for their economic research department. But still, it is sad to this musical take the place of other...better written works.
what i find interesting is the fact that most of the times we try to stay away from doing productions of shows which have already been done in the past...these shows include most recent musicals of producers, hairspray, and dreamgirls however, take it from disney to break that rule with highschool musical...however if this stage version of the movie is raking in the bucks...why not do the other musical movies...thought the rights might cost a pretty penny, you would think the profits would out weigh the initial costs
This takes on the same effect that shows like "wicked" and "Legally Blonde" have done in the past. They continue to make efforts in attracting that preteen, adolescent female population. Take for instance the merchandise that has been sold at Legally Blonde....pink sweat pants with the words "pink" on the ass???
An interesting marketing scheme that has proven itself incredibly profitable.
It’s very funny to look at the pictures of the set for High School Musical. It is a multimillion dollar set that is trying to look like something that has been sitting in a high school theater for the last three decades. I wonder how many more flavors of High School Musical we can be expecting. After the TV movie there was the arena concert tour with all the “kids” from the first movie. Then there was a whole lot of regional and summer stokes putting HSM up. Then there was the second movie that aired this summer. Now we have the Broadway production. Disney is really riding the wave on this one. I foresee a TV series, a learn how to sing with the gang from High School Musial video, a learn how to dance with the gang from High School Musical Video, and many other quality products.
No! no!!!!! no!!!!!! I hate that a lot of the public view this as the next up and coming wave of theater. Smart for those venues who want the money, but this is such a stupid piece of entertainment that it makes me sad to think that this is our only way to make money. The show doesn't promote a particularly positive message to teens in my opinion. I am hopeful that this fluff will get people in line to experience actual theater. Florida is working on a HSM on Ice...gag.
so, i've never seen the damn thing. and i feel grateful for it. i've heard it's entertaining though, which is good. but more important is that the staged version of this show has now brought new life to Theatres. At a time when Theatres are struggling to pack seats because of competitoin with movies, it's relieving to know that the excitement of live entertainment is still there, and coming back with a vengeance. Also, the show is about the "magic of theatre." Cool, teaching kids about theatre and how great it is. Fabulous. More people out there trying to get jobs as theatre professionals because they saw and loved High School musical? Not so fabulous...for us.
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