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The cast of Wildcats: The Musical
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For everyone who grew up watching the Disney Channel in the Noughties, the High School Musical movies were a rite of passage. We watched starry-eyed, as Troy and Gabrielle burst into song on New Year’s eve, truly experiencing the start of something new as they went on to their high school years at East High, and cheered on for the wildcats and their triumph on the basketball court.
“We are bringing everything that people have loved about the High School Musical series to the stage,” says Deandra Clementine Nicholas. The 23-year-old director is helming a stage adaptation of the first High School Musical film, Wildcats: The Musical with a young cast and crew bringing alive oodles of teen spirit on stage this weekend in Chennai.
“We just have one new character and a new song added. Adaptations of the film have been staged in the past in schools in the US, and I have made a few changes to tailor it for our stage,” she says, of this musical theatre version.
Much like the first film, Wildcats: The Musical follows Gabriella, a new student at East High as she strikes up an unlikely friendship over music with the school’s star basketball player, Troy. There is a ton of drama, sport, and of course, music and dance along the way, courtesy East High’s many colourful cliques and characters — theatre queen bee Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan, smart scholastic club head Taylor Mckessie, and Chad, the quintessential jock bestie.
While they expected a handful to show up for the initial audition call, nearly 80 people registered for Poochu’s Productions’ auditions. With Deandra being the oldest member of this production, youngsters fresh out of school and in college comprise a majority of the cast.
Over the last three months, Deandra says the cast has been trained in singing by their vocal conductor Antara Sarah Chacko, and in dance by their choreographer Vishnulakshmi. “Along with Uthara Menon who is our executive producer, we have been working together as a core team on this big production. This is my first time working on a production of this magnitude, and it has been a learning experience, especially in patience,” says the young director.
The team is confident that fans of musical theatre and High School Musical will love the music, dance, drama and story. As for the newbies, Deandra is sure of one thing. “You will fall in love with High School Musical,” she says.
Wildcats, The Musical will be staged on June 8 at The Music Academy, TTK Road. Tickets are available on allevents.in and are priced from ₹250 onwards.
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