Review: High School Musical 2
Young talents shine in a teen musical
The dazzling singing and dancing skills of the young performers disarm them in the second production of High School Musical , produced by the Helsinki City Theatre. Twenty-seven performers on stage and a nine-piece orchestra know so much that it takes your breath away. I don’t remember hearing such consistently high-quality singing and playing in any musical performance in Finland. However, the average age of the performers is probably only around twenty.
High School Musical 2 is a quintessentially American teen musical that is carried forward by show numbers with a thin plot. The summer holidays begin and the youth gang manages to get a summer job together at a country club owned by a father of two schoolchildren. Sharpey Evans (Anna Laulumaa), who bears a strong resemblance to Paris Hilton, begins to stir up the mess out of jealousy of her schoolmate Gabriella Montez (Yasmine Yamajako).
After crises that have tested friendships, the team finds each other again and the young people learn that it is worth spending the summer together and with the interests of the whole group in mind.
The stage of the Savoy Theatre is cramped even for such a large group of performers, but set designer Kati Lukka has solved the use of the space in an inventive way with a couple of screens assembled from tapes, on which the set is projected.
Jarkko Valtee has designed a rich and imaginative costume that is trendy in a fun way. Petri Ruikka’s videos and Timo Alhanen’s lights are skillfully made.
The work has all the ingredients of a good youth musical, and its music is downright captivating. There are so many roles that one performer does not accumulate too much responsibility for acting. This is good, because the most serious shortcomings of the performers are evident in the acting skills.
The speech scenes seem vaguely directed, and the young people also respond too quickly and shouting, especially at first. When there is no dancing and there is no clear choreography, the performers swing around the stage like orphans. The most skilled performers as actors are also the “rich brats”, played by Anna Laulumaa and Samuel Harjanne.
Fortunately, weaknesses do not spoil the joyfulness of the performance. Even though I don’t think I’m part of the target group, I really enjoy the magic of music and dance.
My young companions (13, 14 and 15 years old) had a good time, applauded excitedly along to the music and afterwards admired especially the singing skills of the performers.