High School Musical returns to the stage: sweet, slick, squeaky clean

Twenty years after Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez first sang their way through Disney Channel history, a new stage production of High School Musical is touring, directed by Hope Mill theatre founders Joseph Houston and William Whelton. The show, first seen at Salford's Lowry, opened to a verdict from critics that could be summed up in three words: bright and buzzy.

The source material has not changed. Troy and Gabriella share a holiday romance, then land at the same school the following term, where the social pecking order keeps them apart. Like Danny and Sandy in Grease, they defy convention through a shared love of singing and end up together. The reviewer places the show squarely in that lineage: a squeaky clean, painstakingly earnest but no less beloved descendant of the 1978 musical film classic.

What does the show keep from the original?

David Simpatico's book indulges the stock traits of characters siloed into camps of jock, brainiac or drama kid. The review calls them "spectacularly two-dimensional" but finds the production overcomes them with sheer spectacle.

Andrew Exeter's basketball-themed thrust set positions the audience courtside. Rory Beaton's bright lights, Matt Peploe's thunderous sound design and George Reeve's videography — beamed onto screens surrounding the gym — animate a stage where the Wildcats shoot hoops and pom-pom-waving cheerleaders drum up hype. Aaron Renfree's nimble choreography rotates montages of the science competition, the basketball game and the musical callbacks, as Troy and Gabriella race the clock to reach auditions.

Who leads the cast?

The headline names belong to the teachers. KayCee Stroh, who played hip-hop-loving Martha Cox in the films, now appears as over-the-top drama teacher Ms Darbus. McFly drummer Harry Judd plays austere Coach Bolton with, in the reviewer's words, "brow-furrowed concentration".

Tobias Turley and relative newcomer Leonor Correia play Troy and Gabriella. They bring a sweetness, the review finds, but "their chemistry is yet to fully bloom". The production rearranges Gabriella's ballad When There Was Me and You as a duet — an arrangement the critic says "cops out of the high notes, but throbs with teenage longing". Breaking Free, by contrast, "really does see them soar, albeit on a stiff-looking swing".

What is the standout number?

Bop to the Top earns the fullest praise. Luke Bayer and Caitlin Tipping play siblings Ryan and Sharpay Evans, and the review judges them "every bit as entertainingly grating as their screen counterparts". The revival is the production at its most dizzying and dazzling.

The critic's closing judgment is measured. "If it skirts the ring more than it nets the ball, I suspect adoring fans won't leave disappointed." Two decades on, the franchise's audience has aged with it; this staging bets that nostalgia, polished lighting and a courtside seat will carry the evening where character depth cannot — and, for the faithful, it likely will.