High School Musical Hits the Right Notes

Being a huge fan of High School Musical of throughout my childhood, I had very high expectations for this play, and to my delight, those expectations were met and even surpassed when I attended the matinee on April 21. The characters were well casted, and the plot stayed true to the original movie with a couple of comedic additions. All in all, the show was a success, and I would give it a rating of five out of five stars.

The major component of success for the play was the casting of the main characters. Jessica Blevins had a beautiful voice, and she accurately represented the slightly shy demeanor of Gabriella, one of the main characters. Josh Thomas, who played Troy, had great chemistry with Gabriella, which was one of my main concerns coming into the play. However, I was surprised to see how well they could harmonize and interact with each other on stage.

Of the supporting characters, my two favorite castings were for Ryan and Sharpay Evans, played by Nick Martinez and Rebecca Williamson, respectively. Nick had just the right amount of spunk necessary to play Ryan, and even the way he walked across the stage reminded me of the movie itself. Similarly, Rebecca delved deep and embodied the dramatic personality of her character. The cast, overall, had extremely good intonation and enthusiasm during each of the songs, even when they were performing complicated dance routines while singing.

The play had many unexpected comedic elements that engaged the audience throughout the play. For example, during the characters’ drama class, Deven Sharma, who played James, was slowly worming across the stage during the entire scene without saying a word, and another where a character randomly came out in a banana costume. Neither of these components were in the movie itself, but both seemed oddly hilarious in the moment. Likewise, the costumes and settings contributed to the overall atmosphere and made the play feel like it was actually within the movie High School Musical.

Regarding the technical aspects of the play, some of the audio was difficult to hear for the supporting characters at times, but the audio for the main characters was set up well. The music was well balanced with the characters’ singing, which had been an issue at Titan theatre performances that I had attended previously to this one.

This play had high expectations to meet, yet it fully surpassed them in nearly every element. Everyone I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed the play and agreed that it was a memorable performance. Looking back, this rendition of High School Musical showcased some of the best talent that Dominion has to offer and definitely is not one to miss.