3PM Saturday, June 30, 2007 at the Meralco Theatre
Starring Sam Concepcion, Cheska Ortega
Alex Godinez, PJ Valerio, Seve Ching, Kakki Teodoro..

3PM Sunday, July 15, 2007
with Athena Tibi as Sharpay…

What is the Musical all about?
High School Musical On Stage is the stage adaptation of Disney’s successful High School Musical. Troy Bolton (Concepcion), captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella Montez (Ortega), a shy transfer student who excels in math and science. Together, they try out for the lead parts in their high school musical, and as a result, divide the school. Despite other students’ attempts to thwart their dreams, Troy and Gabriella resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to “stick with the status quo.” Wiki

The Show
I don’t care if High School Musical is too kiddie or corny or overrated, I actually genuinely liked it! My 10 year old nephew Toma even said that he thinks the stage production was better than the movie. According to him, Ryan stood up and told the truth to everyone about Sharpay’s evil doing and it fleshed out his character more. How cute. Which reminds me, the entire production was cute. Such a cute bunch of kids in the cast. The costumes were cute, even the shoes (sponsored by Sketchers nonetheless) were cute. The audience were cute too, the average age of the audience was 8 with a few tag along parents and overly glammed up tweeners and teenagers thrown in. And uh, me and Jenna, “baby-sitting” our niece and nephews :D.

And ohmygod I can’t believe I’m saying this but Sam Concepcion is actually gwapo/cute?! for a 14 year old. He’s thin as a rail and his voice is a bit high but whatever, he’s such a cutie whenever he performs. Now I get it why tweeners go crazy for him!! Ever since the High School Musical hype, I knew that he’d be perfect for the role of Troy Bolton. The rest of the cast were pretty good too, they had so much energy. Alex Godinez and PJ Valerio were perfect as Sharpay and Ryan. Kakki Teodoro looks so much like the girl who played her role in the movie and Seve Ching looked like Screech from Saved By The Bell. And Sheila Francisco rocked as Darbus.

I also liked the new musical arrangements. The songs in the movie which I found extremely annoying and corny (“When There Was Me and You” and “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”) were much more engaging compared to the movie version. It also helped that Sam Concepcion and Cheska Ortega had chemistry. Toooo cute. Everytime they looked into each others eyes or held hands whatever, girls giggled with delight. Haha. And “Breaking Free” was fun!

The only problem with the show was the static-y sounds we kept hearing during the first few minutes (“Start of Something New”). It was very annoying and it didn’t help that we were seated in the fifth row and pretty close to the stage/stereos. And the blinding blue lights that kept flashing during set changes was annoying too.

But throwing aside the minor flaws, we had a great time. The program was cute too. See picture above. I thought they were selling some kid magazine like K-Zone but it was actually the program. Heh. I think I made use of the word cute ten times. I’ll try a new word, adorable!

JULY 15, 2007 PERFORMANCE
My mom wanted to see it as well (haha forealz) so me and my sister tagged along And we were seated at the SAME SEATS!! Haha.

Anyway, I thought Athena Tibi was a better Sharpay than Alex Godinez. She had so much energy and I thought she was a better singer than Godinez. And there weren’t any techinical difficulties with the sounds!! Start of Something New was too cute. Cheska Ortega had more energy this time. Sharon Cuneta and her family was in the audience, by the way. And haha Kuya Germs.

I hope they release a recording!!!!! They released a cd sampler thingie when Footloose was shown two years ago. I already have a copy of the demo thingie for High School Musical on Stage but it would be cool if they released a version with Sam in it. Cuteness.

Pictures scanned from the program.

More on High School Musical On Stage - Manila
Ticketworld - Online or call 8919999
ClickTheCity Article
SamConcepcion.net

Directed by Audie Gemora. Stages and Trumpets Playshop presents Disney’s High School Musical On Stage! currently playing at the Meralco Theater until July 22.

This entry was posted at KISLAPMATA on on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.