Watching “High School Musical’ at the Kodak Theatre on opening night, my first thought was, ‘Okay, so it’s no ‘Chorus Line.” The second thought was no matter how the musical is reviewed, it will not deter nor encourage people to see the show because children and teens will clamor to go because of the popular Disney film by the same name. The television film chronicles two opposites, a brainiac and a jock, who support each other in trying out for the school musical. The film line wasn’t overly complicated and worked because the two leads were charismatic and had nice chemistry. The message was simple: don’t get pigeonholed in a clique; follow your heart. Many parents were pleased that there was finally a film that didn’t glorify ‘bad’ kids, and that girls actually were dressed like teenagers, rather than sluts. The musical follows the same plot line with a character addition, a school announcer who moves the story along and two new additional songs. The announcer is annoying and the two additional songs are as forgettable as the rest of the score. If you don’t have children, there’s no reason to see this show. If you do have children and they’re under 10, don’t bring them to an evening performance’and I don’t want to hear how mature, intelligent and gifted your children are and how they belong in a seat. The two-year old sitting in front of me was up and down, and in and out of laps so often that it was beyond distracting. Luckily, the production is routinely loud and we couldn’t hear what she was complaining about. With only a few exceptions, it was nonstop cast on the stage most of the time, belting songs. More than once I looked over to the sound engineer, who is situated on the orchestra level seating, and watched the green and yellow lights on his board, wondering if he could do some sort of volume control, just to contrast the different songs. ‘There is much more participation from the student body in all the scenes, more integration of the full company in the telling of the story,’ said composer Bryan Louiselle in a press statement. The extra participation resulted in every scene starting to look and sound the same. Unfortunately, with the exception of the basketball number, even the choreography looked the same. On an artistic level, there’s not a lot of story, the songs are nondescript and the chemistry is missing from the leads. The set is clever: using moving lockers, the stage is instantly transformed into classrooms, locker rooms, the cafeteria, a gym and an auditorium. There are a few laughs. The student playing an earthworm was funny, and Bobby List as Ryan Evans, the hen-picked twin of Sharpay Evans, the scheming drama student, was excellent. There are films that have been turned into critically acclaimed musicals, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Fame’ come to mind, but in the first case, the musical was transformed into a visually artistic piece that made the live performance into classic theater. In the case of ‘Fame,’ a more compelling story line lets us feel for individual characters; they weren’t cardboard characters who had the feel of video game characters like those in ‘High School Musical.’ This show will do well, not because of its own merits, but because of the popularity of the film and the merchandizing. Part of going to the theater is the magic of the environment. The Kodak Theatre is modern, with soaring and graceful curves and architecture. It is a lovely place to watch a show, but common sense should dictate that if you purchase tickets to take children to an evening show, please dress them appropriately. T-shirts and baseball caps are what are worn to sporting events. Remind them they are not at home–close the bathroom doors when they’re in public places. I can only imagine what the attendants in Broadway or London theaters would say about the appalling lack of civility at this venue. When your darlings are in a public place, remind them that reasonable behavior is expected, that shoving in front of people at the concessions and taking sugar cubes and packets from the coffee area are not acceptable. Finally, if you are extremely obese and spill over into the next seat, buy an additional ticket to seat yourself. It is bad manners to encroach into another person’s back and armrest, forcing him or her to sit forward for the entire production. ‘High School Musical’ is playing at the Kodak Theatre through December 23. Tickets are available at the Kodak Theatre box office at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard or by calling (213) 480-3232.
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