'High School Musical' better than expected

La Comedia production has 'energy to spare'

Ryan Ruge and Christina Laschuk star as Troy and Gabriella, the sweethearts of Disney's "High School Musical, " playing at La Comedia through July 5.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer 2:58 PM Wednesday, June 10, 2009

REVIEW

Being a 38-year-old single male with no children, I thought I might be the wrong age, gender and family demographic to get into “High School Musical: On Stage.”

La Comedia Dinner Theatre’s production, playing through July 5, proved me wrong.

I never saw the two TV movies, but in my duties as movie reviewer Sir Critic, I did catch “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” It was better than I expected, but I did not anticipate history would repeat itself with the stage show. Considering the franchise was already pretty cheesy, adding dinner theater to the mix sounded like more cheese than I could handle.

Still, there’s something about watching people sing or dance in person that you can’t get from a movie or TV screen — a jolt of energy, a sense of presence. It’s that little extra something that makes La Comedia’s “High School Musical” a fun show. It has energy to spare.

The stage show follows the story of the original 2006 TV movie pretty closely: cute, popular Troy (Ryan Ruge) meets cute and peppy Gabriella (Christina Laschuk), a new girl in town. When she arrives on the scene, Troy, best known as a basketball player, discovers he can sing and dance. That doesn’t sit well with Ryan and Sharpay (Wesley Wells and Melinda Vaggione), twins who are used to having the lead roles in the school musicals all to themselves.

The show has many songs fans will remember like “Get’Cha Head in the Game” and “We’re All in This Together” but there’s also a few new numbers like “Auditions,” all of which come off well thanks to the lively cast. I was especially impressed with Laschuk, who has a much prettier voice than the thin and reedy-sounding Vanessa Hudgens.

With such appealing performers, I wish La Comedia had a musical backing to match. I understand the theater usually can’t accommodate a live band, but the backing sounds like it comes from one of those cheap keyboards you can play in your lap. It makes the songs all sound like demos.

That aside, “High School Musical on Stage” is one of the few ways in which going to school in June can actually be fun.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.