 |
| Students from Blue Valley North High School, in Overland Park, Kan., perform 'We Are All In This Together,' a number from
Disney's 'High School Musical.' Courtesy of Jill DiMartino/DiMartino Photography |
The REAL High School Musical
The sequel to Disney's cash cow premières tonight. How does the franchise play with actual drama teachers?
from the August 17, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 2
Page 1 | 2
"This summer, I had two students involved in a local professional production of 'High School Musical,' " says Karin Stratton, a drama teacher at Pike High School in Indianapolis. "I took my 6-year-old daughter to see it, and she loved it…. Disney got it right, stealing from both 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Grease,' plus not putting in too much 'lovey-dovey kissing.' It reaches right where the 6- to 14-year-old should be."
Its reach might even be profound. Curly-haired Disney star Corbin Bleu told The Denver Post he had met more than one fan who told him "HSM" had altered an outlook, even allaying thoughts of suicide.
At the creative end, Ms. Stratton suggests that the screenplay-type dialogue works for some high-school actors. Her own students find "HSM" "cheesy," she says, but they also know this: "It really does sell tickets."
"If you want to make money in your company, the way to do it is by hooking on to any and all movies and television shows that have plays or musicals of the same name," says Deborah Baldwin, artistic codirector of Performing Arts in Children's Education, a nonprofit organization in Columbia, Mo. Ms. Baldwin has no desire to stage a version of "HSM," which she calls fluff. She prefers dramatizations of young-adult novels such as "Bridge to Terabithia."
The money swirls when school and community theaters perform "HSM" – licensed by Music Theatre International (MTI) on Disney's behalf. Max Brown, chair of the theater department Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, Kan., staged four sold-out performances of the play last winter.
"We had lines around the school waiting for the ticket booth to open," Mr. Brown says. The production included big screens around the stage to show live-action shots. They weren't the play's only grand-scale feature. "The royalties paid are huge," Brown says. "For 600 seats per night, at $7 a ticket, we were charged $895 per show."
MTI declines to comment specifically on the number of organizations that have acquired performance licenses. "Several thousand already," says Jessie Johnson, a licensing agent, "with more coming in every day."
That doesn't mean schools need Disney to stage successful musicals. High schools that show up at the 5th Avenue Theater's awards run the gamut, director Anderson says, from schools with very little money to high schools that lay out tens of thousands of dollars on productions.
"We find that both groups are able to pull off really high-quality shows, and engage the kids in a major way," he says. Some take a professional approach, casting only the best actors. Others cast everyone who auditions. "They're very inclusive, there will be 200 kids in the show … and they're able to do something quite amazing. Having money really doesn't make a difference."
What does matter: persuading students to come out and sing. There, several drama supporters agree, "HSM" retains a starring role. "Does it bring lots of kids to the theater? It did for us," says Brown. "I think the larger question is, will they stay involved? We're doing 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' next year. I guess we'll see."
1 | Page 2
RSS feed
