Clogettes…

Report: High School Musical Jr
May 2024

Author: Angus Sheppard-Hughes

Firstly, I would like to extend my thanks to everybody front of house for when I arrived. What a warm welcome. Sometimes I don’t get the pleasure of talking to anybody beforehand and to speak with the MD/Chair, CLOGS Creative Director and the Director of the show was an absolute pleasure. I will treasure my ‘Wildcats’ hat for a very long time.

The Direction (by Charlotte Jeanes) was well thought out and structured, giving each of the kids a chance to shine. It is amazing what you can do with a short rehearsal period and a few pieces of sets to make a Community Arts Centre turn into an American High School. The Musical Direction (by Donna-Kate Hargreaves) was slick and gave a great chance for the kids to show off their musical talent, of which there was an abundance and your joyfulness was infectious, and the Choreography (by Lucy Mayo) although simple, was very effective and made use of what a large space you had to play with. So well done to all!

When the curtains opened, we had a fabulous glitter curtain to dress the large wall at the back of the stage, some raised rostra’s and some dressed flats which gave the effect of the school with lockers on one side and the settings for the gym and brainiacs room. Each of these well painted with details that allowed us to understand fully where we were and gave us a clear difference between “Jock” and “Geek”.

So, Troy Bolton is a huge part! A lot of lines, a lot of songs and on of the main characters of the piece. Troy made a brilliant impact from the opening with clear vocals and characterisation from the beginning. A very good young talent, you lead ‘Keep Your Head in the Game’ very well, and when you sang acapella (with no backing track), you had a wonderful voice and were note perfect. You deserve all the applause you got, and I am certain you will go far.

Gabriella Montez blew me away. Such stage presence and confidence and a powerhouse at a young age made me sure you were my standout performer of the show. Some of the notes I wrote whilst I was trying to keep my eyes on the stage were “WOW, what a voice, WOW!” Honestly I couldn’t write much as I had put my pen down when watching you. My one special mention is that you American accent was perfect, it is such a hard skill to get right even for adults (including me), and yet you managed to sing and act without missing a single word without the accent. Super, SUPER job! Well done.

Ahhh, Sharpay and Ryah -  the “villains” of show. Played sisters like you had known each other for your whole life. The friendship you had with each other was lovely, and both of you had great voices that were shown off enough to make it clear that you dominated that high school drama club. Sharpay was as obnoxious (hateful) as she was in the film, and Ryah was a great opposite, being naïve and innocent enough to make Sharpay seem more horrible. Both of you had great confidence and some well spoken funny lines. My favourites were “I didn’t lie, I improvised” and the big moment at the end of act 1. You know which one!

Chad and Zeke were Troys teammates and best friends. You both started off quite timid and shy at the beginning of the show. But as the time went by you gained more and more confidence and was clear you relied on each other to push you through it. You both have great voices, so please don’t be scared to show them off, because you don’t need to hide. If this musical shows one thing, its that boys can do musicals and be into sports at the same time, so never be afraid to be yourself because it was clear you both worked so hard for this. Well done!

Like Romeo and Juliet themselves (ironic isn’t it) Coach Bolton and Ms. Darbus were the polar opposites of each other. One does sports, and one does plays, and neither were out of place. The dramatic speech by Ms. Darbus, eclectic, eccentric and over-the-top was right in character, and the down-to-earth fatherly type guy for Coach Bolton were brilliantly different to each other. Good job!

Taylor, Martha & Kelsi  were wonderful supporting characters. Great voices, strong solo singing lines and important to the storyline, all three gave good performances that were different from each other, playing the parts of Gabriella’s friends, and Kelsi being the pianist between the leads are hard to do but you all took to the challenge well. Each of your dialogues (speech) were clear, though at some points the lines were spoken a little fast so possibly for next time take a deep breath before you go on-stage and be confident in the fact that you do know your lines! A favourite moment of mine was the quickly spoken “Wanna get a coke? Guess no.” which sounded sarcastic, but wasn’t meant to, which made me chuckle. Altogether some great performances.

A shout-out to Jack Scott who was a sort of narrator for the show. You started looking nervous and rushing you lines, but WOW did you change throughout. You stayed calm for the rest of the show, and spoke about what was happening. You had quite a few lines in this and you did very well to remember them all. I didn’t miss a word, which helped me understand what was going on, and as there were a few younger kids out there, I expect the needed you to be telling us what was happening or we may not have kept up so well.

Finally I wanted to mention what I said when I saw you all after the show. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lead, a supporting character or in the ensemble. This show couldn’t have happened without all of you. Without the singing and dancing in the background, the show could have been a 90 minutes double act between Troy and Gabriella. In fact one of my favourite moments was during the auditions when some of you had the chance to shine, even if it was in a joking way, you took it seriously. So no matter how you think it went, you all did well, you all stood out, and you were all in it together!

GO WILDCATS!

These comments solely reflect the view of the representative and can only relate to the performance seen.