News “High School Musical”
posted by on February 15 at 13:28 PM
The Seattle Childrens Theater announced today in the P-I that it’s going open their ‘07-‘08 season with Disney’s dreadful High School Musical. Linda Hartzell, SCT’s artistic director, says:
They love the characters, the story, the songs and the dances. And they love getting a peek at what’s in store for them when they are older. I heard it a zillion times: Please, please please do “High School Musical.”
What makes the musical so appealing? Hartzell again:
No sex, no violence, no Paris Hilton or Britney Spears type debacles. Just a little innocent romance.
But real high school students don’t think Disney’s milquetoast musical gives an accurate picture of what’s in store for younger kids. From the PI:
No metal detectors, no weapons, no armed hall monitors, no gay bashing, no ethnic slurs, no assaults, no pregnant students, no sadistic teachers, no sociopathic bullies - none of the stuff that makes Hollywood high schools (and sometimes real-life high schools) so exciting.
When I was in high school not a single day went by when I wasn’t called fag, when my head wasn’t pushed into a locker door, when I wasn’t chased down the street and spit on. There was also the nice school councelor who, when my mother asked her to make the attacks against me stop, said, “If he acts, walks and talks that way, there’s nothing the school can do to protect him.” (That counselor also led the school prayer group every morning.) Boy and they wonder why my grades fell and I practically dropped out of my senior year?
So maybe it’s the inaccurate portrayal of high school in High School Musical that bothers me. In my experience your guard needs to be up when you get to high school. Why would SCT want to make kids in its audience think high schools are wonderful places where they can have innocent romances?
The “High School Musical” soundtrack was the most commercially successful album of 2006, and the show itself won an Emmy. The DVD - 1.2 million copies sold in its first six days on the market - proved to be the fastest selling television movie of all time.
So maybe it’s the money?
I’m annoyed that SCT plans to put this corporate crap before Seattle’s kids—mine included, because his school sees most everything at SCT—simply because it’s popular.
I'm a 30 something gay male adult. While I wasn't slammed into lockers in high school (that was junior high), it wasn't exactly the nicest place for me either. I feel for you.
With that said, I like High School Musical. So what if High School isn't like that in real life - most kids are old enough to get that people don't burst out in song during the middle of basketball practice and somehow manage to still enjoy the show. I thought this was a hallmark of good entertainment? And for god's sake, it's DISNEY - you know what you're getting. I don't go to Frontierland to work from dawn to dusk or see my kids die of tuberculosis.
The show is a good one. The kids are cute, talented, there's a multi-racial relationship and the musical is all about how people should be who they are and not fit into preconceived stereotypes. The end song is "We're all in this together" and it's catchy and will follow you out of the theater - isn't this a message we want to get across? Yes, Disney knows how to market and merchandise and they're making a ton of money from it. It doesn't mean that it can't be good.
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