High School Musical

After several Covid hiccups the Hills Musical Theatre Company was finally able to open their season of High School Musical last night.  The cast includes several teenagers who are taking their first, tentative steps into musical theatre and for them the safe ground of a Disney story is a good place to start.

Isabelle Brown sings the role of Gabriella Montez beautifully and gives the character as much depth as the script will allow.  Her counterpart William Pulley finds it fairly easy to be the playmaker for the Wildcats when he is easily a head taller than some of his teammates.  Again, Troy Bolton's dialogue doesn't give Pulley much to work with but the connection between the two leads feels comfortable.

Hannah Aouchan is strong and confident in her role as Taylor and Nathan Eastman is appropriately sassy as Chad.  Jemima Dredge is lovely as the shy but talented Kelsi and Reuben Hann as Zeke has all the pent up energy of a firework about to explode.

The adult characters are brought to life by Emma Rose (Ms Darbus), Michael Robinson (Coach Bolton) and Kaitlin Hillier (Ms Tenny).  Rose is suitably warm and bohemian as Darbus, and Robinson is the typical veins-popping-out-of-neck sports coach.  Unfortunately for Hillier, her microphone was either not turned up or completely faulty on opening night so her dialogue was lost to the audience.  On the plus side, Hillier choreographed this production and the dance numbers were polished and tidy. Special mention for the four cheerleaders (Emma Golding, Alyssa Nagy, Briana Nagy and Jade Lee), who smiled, kicked and pom-pommed their way through the entire production like professionals.

Finally, Alexander Irby is highly entertaining as Ryan Evans but the standout of the production is Tamsyn Willey as the older and bossier twin, Sharpay. Willey brings energy and excitement with her every time she steps on stage and is a very accomplished performer for her age.  She is all business and pizzazz (perfect for Sharpay), and some of the less experienced cast would do well by paying attention to her stage presence.  

Opening night nerves and a few technical glitches will presumably be overcome as the season continues.  High School Musical plays until the 4^th of June at Model Farms High School, Baulkham Hills.

Fiona Kelly

Images: Perfect Images Photography