Let's put on a show

Never one to let the latest tweener fad pass me by, I finally watched High School Musical, the Disney Channel movie that caused a stir when it was first broadcast last winter. In case you haven't heard, Disney has a genuine phenomenon on its hands with High School Musical, which shattered cable ratings records and charted multiple hit singles, and is soon to spawn a sequel, a stage production and perhaps a series. All this hoopla over a film in which well-scrubbed young people sing and dance like there's no tomorrow? How retro!

The premise of the film: a high school basketball star (Zac Efron) secretly wants to star in the winter musical, and a shy, brainy new girl (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) secretly wants to star in the winter musical. Intrigue follows intrigue, and by the end the athletes, the science geeks and the drama freaks are all singing and dancing together like there's no tomorrow. Disappointingly, members of the skater clique are conspicuously missing from the finale ("We're All in This Together"), even though they earlier have a big scene; perhaps they stepped out to blow a phatty.

I loved High School Musical, but by way of a disclaimer you should know that I love musicals, period. My only complaint is that whereas the better musicals have tunes you hum all the next day, the songs in High School Musical are eminently forgettable. That would seem a fatal flaw, and if we lived in times when contemporary Rodgerses and Hammersteins were still cranking out high-quality movie librettos, then High School Musical would not merit much attention.

But fans of musical comedy have to take what they can get, these days, and High School Musical has a lot going for it, including an attractive cast and a subversive plot (basketball stars secretly want to perform show tunes!). I am also keen on the young songwriter character who, before her ultimate triumph, is dismissed as a "sawed-off Sondheim." And maybe, just maybe, a real live sawed-off Sondheim somewhere is watching High School Musical and getting more encouraged with every number.