Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Someday a musical will come along that accurately depicts the lives of high school students. After all, there is so much interesting material. High school students all over the world are dealing with all sorts of fascinating issues. Dating, drugs, alcohol, grades, and friends are only a few of the issues they deal with on a day-to-day basis. It is no wonder that the suicide rate for high school students is so high. Being a high school student is no piece of cake. Someday a musical will come along that truthfully shows that without over dramatizing or overacting.

Yearbook: The High School Musical is sadly not this musical. Bye Bye Birdie, Grease, and even “Glee,” come closer.

Give it credit in that it tries. It isn’t easy to tackle every single issue that high school students go through and smush it all into a two-hour show. But as a result, the characters feel like caricatures and not like real people. Every single cliché about the high school lifestyle seems to be in this show. A weak script and weak direction do not make for the most riveting evening.

The cast consists of 24 young adults, most of whom have recently graduated college, but several who are still in college. As a group, they sound vocally very strong. They blend together well and do a nice job with their harmonies. One can only wonder how truly excellent they might have been if they had been directed to sing with any motivation. They sounded like a good choir, which is nice for a choir concert. But this is theater, which implies there should be some acting and not just pretty voices.

Throughout the show, the bulk of the cast overacts in the way that young children are taught to act when teachers are trying to get them to open up and be loud. Even though it is not well-written, the material speaks for itself about all the stresses. Clearly the director had little faith in the subject matter and convinced these young actors that overacting is the only way to get a story across. The overacting that is adorable on children seems phony considering these actors are in their twenties and can’t play the “cute” card like when they were eight. Give these actors a break, though. They are doing the best they can with a script that begs to be overacted.

The only songs or scenes that have any impact are the ones where the actors manage to overcome the obstacle of a bad script and play the truth of the stress. The highlight of the cast is Chris Krenning who plays the character Tripp. His big song about expectations is honest about how high school students feel like they have to please their parents, teachers, and friends. Krenning has a strong voice and takes a strong opinion, without overacting. He is very sincere and understands the importance of listening and reacting to other characters on stage. He does also have the advantage that his song is one of two catchy songs in the script, but he does a very captivating job. Other highlights include: Rachel Rice as the flirtatious Dawn, Sydney Angel as the angst-filled punk Karen, Daniel Navas as the aspiring stud Charlie, and Marissa Rosano as Tripp’s boy-crazy sister Kristi.

Yearbook: The High School Musical is a classic example of the struggle that young actors face as they try to break out of the cute kid phase into the young adult phase. It is a difficult challenge. But the first step is to provide young actors with a strong script that forces them to embrace the exciting mature roles that await them.