Oak Harbor High School musical bops to the top

By LUISA LOI

Special to the News-Times

The Oak Harbor High School Choir Club will have millennial and Gen Z audiences “soaring, flying” by bringing back a classic from their childhood and tween years.

“High School Musical,” the stage adaptation of the homonymous movie that maintains a loyal and strong fanbase even 19 years after its debut on Disney Channel, will run from 7 to 9 p.m. on May 1-3 and 8-10. For those who are completely new to Disney’s magnum opus, this is your chance to get a little taste of what being a prepubescent fangirl in 2006 felt like.

The high school’s auditorium couldn’t be a better setting to tell East High School’s epic tale of love, basketball, math and theater, as both institutions share the same mascot, the Wildcat. For Whidbey’s own felines, this was an unmissable opportunity to add their own personal touch to the story, switching the colors from East High’s red and white to Oak Harbor High’s familiar purple and gold.

Director Courtney Cray said the cast of 39 has been preparing since January, a fun experience despite the challenges of adapting a screenplay for a stage, which required quick set and costume changes.

Some of the outfits remained faithful to the original source material, overall remaining historically accurate to the Y2K era, with Cray recalling some of the main cast members thrifting clothes to best resemble their movie counterparts.

The show has a few Easter eggs sprinkled around, so if you’re a fan of the movie it’s best to keep an eye out. The News-Times also recommends rehearsing the lyrics of the most iconic songs to lip sync your heart out or to join a few sing-alongs.

Hadley McCulloch and Adriana Froman, who respectively play Gabriella Montez and Sharpay Evans, both grew up watching the movie trilogy. As a child, McCulloch looked up to Gabriella, a shy girl originally portrayed by Vanessa Hudgens, who is particularly gifted in math and science in a school where academic excellence is seen as uncool.

When it comes to the fabulously mean Sharpay, portrayed in the movies by Ashley Tisdale, Froman said she had a lot of fun playing the role of the dramatic bimbo alongside her fictional twin brother, Ryan (played by Cyrus Amor). As the — barely — younger sibling, Ryan is forced to be Sharpay’s sidekick as she tries to prevent Gabriella from landing the main role in the school play, as well as to sabotage her relationship with her crush, Troy Bolton.

Unlike Hollywood star Zac Efron, Lucas Smith does sing his own lines when playing Troy, the basketball prodigy who longs for something more than to pursue his mother’s dream of becoming a pro basketball player.

McCulloch said the story disproves many preconceived notions children may have about high school, particularly the idea that they will have to strictly adhere to a clique in order to be accepted by their peers.

As they struggle to reconcile their multiple interests with their friends’ and families’ expectations, Troy and Gabriella’s newfound passion for drama inspires their similarly stuck peers to follow their hearts. For kids looking forward to high school, this can be particularly moving.

“We’re all multifaceted, and we all have different things that we enjoy doing,” McCulloch said.

As they look forward to graduating, the three seniors agreed that the show is a fitting way to end four years of high school memories on a positive and optimistic note.

“It’s such a … stereotypical ending,” Smith said. “I’m just so glad that this is the show that I get to end it off with.”

To buy a $15 ticket, visit tinyurl.com/OakHarborHSM or purchase at the door starting at 6:15 p.m. the day of the show.

Photos by Luisa Loi Standing on the stairs of the cafeteria, Martha Cox (Alyza Doctolero) confesses to the school that she enjoys hip-hop dancing. At right, Taylor McKessie and Gabriella Montez (Dana Rivo and Hadley McCulloch).