High School Musical

How did a low budget TV movie launch a franchise and a film career? Today's high school themed musicals are loaded with snark and angst. High School Musical has a mean girl and with a coded-gay brother but the overarching tone is earnest.

Quick. What's the hit song from High School Musical? I'm not sure either... but it has four compelling lead players who Disney was able to contractually secure for two sequels.

Oh and my favorite song? I like "Bet On It", Efron's campy nervous breakdown in part 2.

Glory Days

High school friends Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner wrote the show after their own graduation.  Blaemire called the show "a commemoration of our friendship and the friends we've had and lost between high school and college — and what happens when you're a kid, and then you realize that you're not anymore."

Glory Days premiered at the Signature Theatre in Virginia. It transferred to Broadway where it opened and closed on the same night: May 6, 2008. Blaemire and Gardiner spent some time apart, then re-united to write another show for a smaller venue.

The cast album reveals a spirited cast and a lovely ballad, Open Road, in which Jack comes out to his friends. Shows about angsty teenagers are big in 2018, with Heathers, Mean Girls, Dear Evan Hansen and Be More Chill inspiring passionate fan bases. I hope some of them will give Glory Days another look.

Were the World Mine

This film started off with a great idea. A modern gay remake of A Midsummer Night's Dream with a bullied gay teen, Timothy, serving as a combination of magical Puck and lovelorn Helena. The opening scenes won me to his side and the unleashing of the love potion felt cathartic.

Things fall apart soon after. The film can't agree on tone or internal logic. If the potion makes you fall for the first person you see, it makes sense the all boys school would fill with same sex couples. But why do all couples remain same sex when it spreads to the town? Why does the homophobic coach become a broad gay stereotype? Why do people have selective memories of what occurs during the course of the film? If Tim's point was to make the jocks understand bullying, why leave no straight people left to bully them? Why are the songs so forgettable?

Timothy's primary love interest is a mystery. We aren't supposed to know his true feelings till the end of the film. But we need to learn something about him to invest in the relationship. As is Tim's melancholy is never salved, leaving a streak of pain through the film. A lot of missed opportunities here. It frustrated me as the premise was fantastic.

Mean Girls

Cady Heron is a boring protagonist. She lacks an identity. Her parents, the artists, the "Mathletes" and the "Plastics" project their stronger personalities onto her. Cady's journey from nerd to mean girl to strong independent woman is interesting on paper. In practice she's never quite nerdy enough, mean enough or strong enough to pull it off.

Luckily she's surrounded by a vivid supporting cast who sing the best songs and deliver the best jokes. Angry Janice, snarky Damien, cruel Regina, insecure Gretchen and naive Karen each get their moment to shine.

As far as film to stage adaptations of school films go I'd rank Mean Girls below Legally Blonde and Heathers but above Bring It On and High School Musical. I look forward to seeing how it does at the Tony's on June 10.

Rise

Stop me if you've heard this before. Inspirational teacher puts a hot jock and some minorities in a show where they learn to live and love and... oh you have? Well how about we give half the kids abusive families... and make the teacher a monster? No, not a funny monster. Just extremely unpleasant. Unpleasant enough to inspire hostile reviews and scare audiences away.

Ted Sutherland brings charm to his coming out storyline, though it gets about 5 minutes of screen time per episode. Stephanie Block brings gravitas to the potentially campy role of his loving conservative mother.

The choice of Spring Awakening was an interesting one. It's still considered edgy. Will age give it the same respect that West Side Story, Grease and even Rent have gained from most school boards? Skip to episode 9 and 10 if you want to see the talent young cast performing the songs. Hopefully there will be better shows in their futures.

Love, Simon

Love, Simon is a 2018 film based on Becky Albertalli novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Simon is a closeted gay teen juggling family, friendships, a blackmailer and an online romance. Indie cinema has explored the angst of the closet for decades but Love, Simon aims for the tone of a big studio romcom. Less Beautiful Thing, more 10 Things I Hate About You.

Director Greg Berlanti understands the loneliness, rage and narcissism that can accompany the coming out process. His film doesn’t shy from Simon’s cruel side as he desperately protects his secret and searches for his anonymous paramour. The audience plays detective alongside Simon as he grasps at any odd phrase or lingering glace from his male class mates. We're allowed to share that desperate desire to find someone… anyone… who understands what we're going through.

There are quibbles. Simon is ridiculously privileged. The female characters are treated poorly. The “comic relief” roles are cringey. Still Berlanti and his team have clearly put their hearts into this project. Love, Simon would have made my high school experience a little brighter and I’m glad the current generation of students gets to see it.

… Okay, it’s not a musical. Though there are two musical numbers. If they adapt it to the stage it will fit comfortably alongside Dear Evan Hansen and Be More Chill.

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Everybody's Talking About Jamie is the third contemporary musical focusing on gay kids at prom and the second one based on a documentary. The show transferred from Sheffield to the West End this Fall and opened to rave reviews. Turns out if you tell a teen they can't go to prom they become a loveable underdog.

Oh and that school board that de-funded Prom Queen: The Musical? They've restored funding. Turns out telling teens they can't put on a musical makes them loveable underdogs.

Gay Prom Musicals!

Prom Queen the Musical. Music by Colleen Dauncey. Lyrics by Akiva Romer-Segal. Book by Kent Staines. 2016 Montreal's Segal Centre. Basis: Documentary Prom Fight: The Marc Hall Story (2002).

In 2002 Marc Hall sued the Durham Catholic District School Board. The principal had banned him from taking his boyfriend to prom. The story made international headlines and was adapted into a 2002 documentary, a 2004 film and a 2016 musical. In 2018 the London District Catholic School Board and the Thames Valley District School Board pulled their funding from a high school production of Prom Queen: The Musical. The board has cited profanity and mature themes but that didn't prevent their previous productions of Grease, Les Miserables and West Side Story. This kind of thing has happened before. It always sells a lot of tickets and makes the school board look bad.

The Prom. Music by Matthew Sklar. Lyrics by Chad Beuelin. Book by Chad Beuelin and Bob Martin. 2016 Atlanta. 2018 Broadway.

The publicity is likely to help Prom Queen: The Musical score some major productions. However another musical, The Prom, is going to beat it to Broadway. The Prom reunites The Drowsy Chaperone's Bob Martin and Beth Leavel for a zany comedy. The focus shifts from the teens to the well meaning adults making the protest all about themselves. The premise sounds messy on paper but reviews for the Atlanta premiere were strong. The Prom's Broadway run begins on November 15, 2018.

Be More Chill

The musical Be More Chill had a short run but the cast album has inspired a rabid fan base. I was introduced to it by the shows breakout song "Michael in the Bathroom." The premise reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors. Each features a self-loathing protagonist goaded by a malevolent force into harming others for the sake of his crush. Audrey II wants to eat the world. The Squip wants to control it. The Squip in the novel could be cruel but it has been upgraded to full super villain in the musical. Seymour wants Audrey. Jeremy wants the underwritten Christine. She takes a back seat to Michael, the leading man's mistreated best friend. They get the duet and the arc. Hence the fan base (and the fan artists) focus on the bro-mance.

There's a lot of tonal whiplash on the album. I'm curious to see how a live production balances the black comedy with the uglier themes of depression and sexual assault. Particularly after watching season 3 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend balance these so well.

Zombie Prom

I don't have much to say about this one.Grease without the sex. Little Shop of Horrors without the horror. It occupies a bland middle ground. The antagonist, Miss Strict, gets a fun song but they didn't let RuPaul sing it in the abridged film version. I'm running out of Halloween themed shows.

Bring It On: The Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda: I'm sorry I haven't gotten the chance to see Bombshell but I hear the tourists love it.
Christian Borle: Thanks. I tried to see Bring It On but it closed so fast I didn't get the chance.
~ Smash, episode 2.15

Bring It On: The Musical does not retell the plot of the 2000 film. Instead they mix plot points from the direct-to-DVD sequels with subplots from Hairspray and All About Eve. With 12 principal characters the show could have been a mess. Instead we get a well a perfectly serviceable pop musical. The plot is more teen friendly than Lysistrata Jones. Lysistrata's cheerleaders wanted their peers to learn the importance of competition... and sex. Bring It On’s ruthless cheerleaders need to learn the importance of friendship.The Broadway run was short but the show toured well and was quickly licensed to high schools.

Lysistrata Jones

It's not a war. It's a basketball game. Stakes are low. Why exactly do the men want to play basketball if they're choosing to throw the games? Why do the gay players care about the cheerleader sex strike? Don't overthink it. Lysistrata Jones wants to be an old fashioned tired businessman musical with lotsa jokes and legs. There will always be an audience for that, though not always at Broadway prices.

Trevor the musical

In 2017 the short film In a Heartbeat made me cry. The adorable story of a middle school boy falling for his peer was a sweet piece of wish fulfillment with a hint of darkness for flavor. It's a fairy tale that would have been unthinkable to me in 1994. Back then I got the film Trevor.

Much of the humor stems from Trevor's obliviousness to his budding homosexuality. His peers figure things out before he does. When he's outed he *** spoiler *** attempts suicide. One pep talk later he is strutting home to Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out." It was an upbeat capper to a film that tackled some dark subject matter. The film won an Academy Award and inspired The Trevor Project. The organization provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth.

Today marks the closing performances of Trevor the musical at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL. The show features a talented cast and has received positive reviews. I felt it was a work in progress but am eager to see where it goes next. Act One is wisely structures around the school talent show. The moment was a throwaway joke in the film but on stage it provides the spine for Trevor's relationships with the boy he likes, the girl who likes him and his showbiz dreams. Act Two feels a bit shapeless at present. The students shun him and *** spoiler *** his crush writes him a letter calling him a fairy.

As a target of school bullying myself I know that your peers don't shun you. They attack you. They call you worse than "fairy" and they do it to your face. I'll bet the writers know this too. Right now they're pulling their punches for the sake of their audience. I say tell us the truth. We can take it.

Grease 2

"There's gotta be more to life than making out... I'm tired of being someone's chick." ~ Grease 2

The little Chicago musical about teen class war became a record breaking film in 1978. Three sequels and a TV series were proposed. A script was hastily written, the film tanked, and the franchise was scrapped. Grease 2 is no gem but Michelle Pfeiffer's solo, “Cool Rider,” is a camp classic. By the end of the film she learns, unlike Danny Zuko, to appreciate her partner’s nerdy side as well as the sexy persona.  

Spring Awakening

Last month I covered several musicals that centered on youthful rebellions. This week I'll add two more to that list starting with the teen angst rock musical Spring Awakening.

Frank Wedekind's groundbreaking 1906 play follows three teens who suffer the consequences of abstinence only education. Steven Sater's 2006 libretto is faithful to the plot but not the tone. Melchior and Wendla's relationship becomes kinder while Hänschen and Ernt's relationship becomes crueler. Wedekind provides Moritz with a deus ex machina at the end. Sater's Moritz must cope with his grief alone.

Deaf West Theatre's 2014-15 revival cast the show with a mix of deaf and hearing actors. They expanded the adult cast from two to four and emphasized the communication gap between the parents and children.

Composer Duncan Sheik's score is angry and exciting in the first act. Things turn ballad heavy, with one exception, in the gloomier act two. Sheik would return to Broadway that same season with the less successful American Psycho. As a fan of the score I'm hoping another company revives it some day to a more receptive audience.

Hairspray

The musical Hairspray has been compared to Bye Bye Birdie. Both shows feature:

• A teen idol on a 60's television show
• A mix of adult and teen romance
• A racist antagonist

But while Rose's struggle with racial prejudice is a small subplot in Birdie the struggle to integrate the Corny Collins show is front and center in Hairspray.

Protagonist Tracy Turnblad has three goals in act one. She wants fame, love and for her unhappy mother to like herself. She achieves all three before the first act finale. Then she pushes for integration and puts her success at risk. When Tracy loses her nerve in Act Two she's called out on it. The exchange is more powerful than anything in Bye Bye Birdie and should never have been cut from the 2007 film.

Maybelle: Hold it. Nobody ever said this was gonna be easy. If something's worth having it's worth fighting for. Tracy, why did you start all this in the first place? Was it just to dance on TV?
Tracy: No.
Maybelle: Was it so you could get the boy?
Tracy: No. I almost lost him because of it.
Maybelle: Then maybe it was just to get yourself famous.
Tracy: No. I just think it's stupid we can't all dance together.

Some have criticized the musical for taking itself more seriously than John Waters' 1988 film. John Waters himself has praised the musical, though he also admits:

I've certainly made more from Hairspray-the musical, not the new movie-than anything I've ever made in my whole life. I'm very thankful to Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, who were very fair with me and brought me into the deal from the very beginning. It has been a great experience.

Bye Bye Birdie

In 2014 I wrote a post on Bring Back Birdie, the dreadful sequel to Bye Bye Birdie. The sequel had the same writers, star and structure but lightning didn't strike twice.

As I attempted to summarize Bye Bye Birdie I was reminded of what a bizarre show it truly is. The libretto juggles 5 principal characters, 2 key supporting roles, 2 romances and the teens vs. parents conflict. The hip rock star, Conrad Birdie, gets the title but the old-fashioned heart of the story is carried by Rosie and her desire to settle down with Albert.

If Dick Van Dyke wasn't playing him Albert would be a very unpleasant character. That's one reason revivals keep flopping. It was made clear in the sequel when he dumps Rosie for a "newer model." It's better to ignore the sequel and let their story end with Bye Bye Birdie's charming finale.

More on Heathers

*** The following post contains spoilers ***

Some stray thoughts after seeing Heathers the musical.

My favorite songs: Fight for Me, Dead Girl Walking, Seventeen.

To folks who say Heathers is odd source material for a musical I say murder and suicide are common musical tropes. They've fueled classical opera for decades. Heathers only contains one more teen death than West Side Story. 

Many remember Heathers as a black comedy but the biggest laughs and quotable lines vanish about a quarter into the story. Then it tilts closer to horror.

Murphy and O'Keefe's scores to Bat Boy, Legally Blonde, and Heathers lack satisfying finales. I find they front-load their best songs in the first act. Duncan Sheik's two murder-suicide musicals, Spring Awakening and American Psycho also suffer from ballad heavy second acts as things turn "serious." But to be fair even the great Sweeney Todd lacks an 11 o'clock number.

The adults in Heathers the movie and West Side Story are clueless. The teachers in Spring Awakening are sadistic but the parents are given a brief moment to mourn the deaths. The adults in Heathers the musical are grotesque caricatures who are completely indifferent to teenage suicides. Their lame "comedy numbers" are low points that keep the show from greatness.

The movie Heathers included a date rape. The musical Heathers settles at attempted rape set to a "comedy song." Some critics found the song "Blue" funny. I was squicked out. Your mileage may vary.

Tone is a challenge. The story has at least four endings which alter the piece considerably. The producers vetoed the first two screenplays. I'd heard of the ending where everyone dies and dances in heaven. In a 2014 interview screenwriter Daniel Waters also mentions another:

"The ending I should’ve fought harder for is where Martha Dumptruck pulls out a knife, stabs Veronica, and says, “F— you, Heather.” And Veronica’s on the ground laughing, with a knife in her stomach, saying, “My name’s not Heather. My name’s not Heather.”"

Grim stuff. The film settled for the death of the "villain." The musical goes one step further with the attempted redemption of the protagonist. Some have criticized the musical for missing the point by softening the protagonist. Seeing it myself I was uncertain they were sincere. The "happy ending" seemed rushed and cynical which somehow made it even more disturbing. I'd say by that point in the story Veronica's about as redeemable as Mrs. Lovett.

EDIT : Thinking more on it, the fact that Veronica seduces some audience members into her worldview, and presenting herself as the heroine, may be the most subversive thing about Heathers the musical. The screenplay's cut endings took J.D's point of view but Veronica's may be just as toxic.

I also don't buy Veronica's insistence that all kids are "beautiful" and kind before they reach high school. I remember plenty of kids being just as toxic in middle school and parts of elementary school.

Heathers

More murder this week as we look at Heathers the musical. This vicious teen "comedy" set the template for softer films like Mean Girls, but also shares DNA with the horror of Carrie. Westerberg High School is a battlefield filled with violent bullies and clueless teachers, honing students for the cruel world of the late 1980's.

Veronica, the anti-hero protagonist, dances on a knife edge. The film never quite tells us how aware she is of J.D's schemes and the musical pushes her further into ignorance. By the end of the story she's seen and done too much to be truly innocent but the right actress can still maintain audience sympathy.

 Much ink has been spilt about the escalation in high school violence in the past decade. High schools may perform West Side Story but it will be some time before they feel comfortable producing Heathers. Neither the 1988 film, nor the 2014Off-Broadway production had commercial success but both have established loyal cult followings who remember the world it portrays.

Wicked

Wicked's a guilty pleasure for me. There are fun songs but the book's a mess. Nothing Elphaba does in Act Two lives up to her big boast at the end of Act One. The New York Times called the novel“deadly dull” and the musical "bloated." 12 years later it’s still a hit. When the inevitable movie hits will the screenplay fill the plot holes and show us some of Elphaba’s off-stage activism?

"[Glinda's] lie, on top of the Wizard's lies, made me furious as a kid. And of course I grew up in the shadow of Vietnam, when boys I knew were being sent to kill the Wicked Witch of the Vietcong, by Nixon, who wouldn't come out of the White House and who wouldn't answer questions.'' ~ Gregory Maguire

IDINA MENZEL: Wheelchair Sister, I've been told that you've become a bitch and enslaved the Munchkins.
BITTER WHEELCHAIR SISTER: Yes, I did it because I'm angry that I'm in a wheelchair!
~ Broadway Abridged. 

Edit: Check out this gorgeous collection of Wicked fan art at Playbill.com!