“High School Musical” Comes to Howell High School

“High School Musical” Comes to Howell High School
Posted on 11/07/2016
High School Musical Poster11/7/16 – The Howell High School Performing Arts Department will present “Disney’s High School Musical” Nov. 17-19 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 20 at 2 p.m. All shows will take place in the Rod Bushey Performing Arts Center. Advance tickets are $12 for adults, $9 for students and seniors and can be purchased in the high school’s main office or from Schafer’s House of Music. Tickets will cost $1 more at the door.

“High School Musical” is the stage adaptation of the hit movie of the same name. The musical is set at East High School on the first day back following winter break. The various cliques in the school find their friends, share their vacation stories and gear up for the new year. As the day begins, basketball team captain and school jock Troy Bolton (Connor Norris) learns that brainiac Gabriella Montez (Lauren Tippie) who he met on a ski trip has enrolled at East High. The pair sends shock waves through the school when they decide to try out for the high school musical being led by Ms. Darbus (Luann Haskins). As news spreads, the jocks, brainiacs and thespians all try to stop Troy and Gabriella from trying out.

“One of the main reasons we selected ‘High School Musical’ was that it is the 10th anniversary of the movie being released. ‘High School Musical’ is the modern teen musical, and we have done classics for several years now, so we thought it would be fun to bring something that these kids grew up on,” said Stephanie Heslip, the musical’s director. “This is their ‘Grease,” this is their ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ It is just fun watching the kids singing and dancing. These kids have been working very hard to put on an awesome show, and the audience is going to be blown away by the performance.”

Tippie’s favorite scene in the musical is the rooftop scene in which she and Norris perform “I Can’t Take My Eyes off You.” “I like the song that Connor and I sing. It is really weird. It is an extra scene that is not in the movie. It is a totally unexpected song.”

For Norris, the best part of the musical is the basketball scene where the team sings “Get’cha Head in the Game.” “Hands down ‘Get’cha Head in the Game’ is my favorite. It is so much fun to be up there with all the other guys; it is a really good time. I think we are doing the play justice and the movie justice. So if you know the movie, you are going to be like ‘hey I remember that, that was great.’”

Other cast members include Audrey Moyer as Sharpay Evans, Nic Bishop as Ryan Evans, Amy Neff as Kelsi Neilson, Haley Stefforia as Jackie Scott and Brendan Closz as Coach Bolton.