There’s a case to be made that High School Musical is to Grease what Fifty Shades of Grey is to Twilight – a piece of fan fiction that’s taken on a life of its own.

Even though Peter Barsocchini, the film’s writer, maintains that it takes its inspiration from the thumb-biting streets of Romeo and Juliet‘s Verona, the character arcs of High School Musical‘s somewhat less star-crossed lovers, Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, map more strikingly onto the constellations of Danny and Sandy in their final year at Rydell High. You might even argue that, in many respects, the unrequited ostensible antagonist Sharpay Evans is Rizzo without the teen pregnancy scare – the true, bruised heart of the story.

In this new production of the stage show, winningly effervesced by the direction of Hope Mill Theatre‘s Joseph Houston and William Whelton, there are a myriad of potential readings discernible to those who attend closely to the fizz of its pop, a wealth of coded differences, but – importantly – none of them tarnish or distract from the sparkle of a fairy tale whose utopian heart rarely strays far from the right place or hits the wrong note.

Setting their stage as the basketball court of the titular East High, where games of ambition, love and betrayal will be played out over the course of two and a half hours (including the interval), Houston and Whelton set the tempo to pizzazz before the story proper commences. In particular, those members of the audience seated in the on-stage bleachers are themselves cast as the crowd by the pre-game warm-up; Wildcat mascot, cheerleaders and all. Thanks in no small part to a flawless company, Aaron Renfree’s wonderfully free-flowing choreography succeeds in confecting a joy that is contagious in all its appearance of unforced delight, the dancers capturing precisely the fleeting moments of grace possible once the clouds of adolescent self-consciousness part for the giddy sunshine of a requited crush.

Naturally, the course of Troy and Gabriella’s love, however true, does not run smoothly, and for that they (and the audience) must thank the aforementioned Sharpay Evans and her eight-minute younger twin, Ryan. While the siblings (spoilers) may not be cast as the leads in Kelsi Nielson’s East High story, it’s no dishonour to the rest of the cast that the pitch-perfect Caitlin Tipping and Ryan Evans steal this show. Tipping especially can pivot on a heel between pantomime villainess, bopping her way to the top and something more melancholy, asking her reflection, “I am the star. If they take that away from me, what am I?”

Perhaps the one mis-step in the show’s narrative dance is the extraneous exposition punctuated Pump Up The Volume-style by Curtis Patrick’s Jack Scott. Discordant and baffling, its would-be Greek chorus tells us nothing that the youngest members of the audience wouldn’t be able to work out for themselves.

Nonetheless, it would take a heart of glass (or a heart of stone) to remain unmoved by the staging of Troy and Gabriella’s chastely climactic Breaking Free, the lyric of the song working pop’s magick by putting words in their mouths, giving them the language to express the music in them (although that’s another story for a different time). It’s gloriously poised on the high wire of teenage excess; all crescent moons, shooting stars and emotional truth.

A family show, whether that family be biological or chosen, High School Musical gloriously illuminates the proposition that, when it comes to entertainment, the light can be fantastic. In times such as these, when disagreement most typically leads to polarisation, it’s oddly heart-warming to leave to a chorus that insists We’re All In This Together.

By Desmond Bullen, Chief Arts Correspondent

Main image: credit Matt Crockett

 

High School Musical is at Lowy in Salford until September 19, 2026. For more information, click here.