And we’re off to a great start as Miss Jenn, the drama
teacher says she was “triggered as a millennial” friendly reminder. Being
triggered does not means mildly bemused or offended, it means it causes PTSD
flashbacks. Do kindly refrain from using ‘triggered’ in that context because
you are cheapening its meaning.
Back to the show, we’re introduced to Ricky (Joshua Basset)
and his best friend Big Red (Larry Saperstein), his now ex-girlfriend Nini
(Olivia Rodrigo), her best friend Kourtney (Dara Renee), the new drama Teacher
Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders), who has announced the winter musical will be in
Production of High School Musical, in the same East High High School where High
School Musical was originally set.
We’re also introduced to Carlos (Frankie Rodriguez) the choreographer. We’re given a bit of
character introduction through the use off The Office-style video diaries.
We’re also introduced to Mr Mazzara, a STEM teacher who hates the idea of
children having fun in their off-hours.
Next up on the introduction train in Nini’s current
boyfriend, EJ Caswell (Matt Cornett). Nini’s nervous about the audition and
goes to her grandma for advice, things are looking less great in Ricky’s home.
His mother is in Chicago and the obvious incoming divorce is obvious to
everyone but Ricky.
Seeing a photo of EJ and Nini as leads, Ricky decides to do
something stupid and audition himself. Big Red tries and fails to stop him
“How do you know so much about High School Musical?”
Like, how could you not when you go to the school where it was filmed, that’s
heritage. At the auditions, we’re introduced to Gina (Sofia Wylie) a recent transfer who is very full of herself, not helping Nini’s insecurities. Ricky is
delayed to his audition because his computer freezes. Dude, turn it off at the
plug. Later, we’re introduced to, and yes, I know I’m saying it a lot, Ashlyn
Caswell (Julia Lester), EJ’s cousin and auditioning for Ms Darbus, she’s also an aspiring
pianist and Miss Jenn tasks her with writing a song. And lastly, for the
moment, we’re introduced to Seb Matthew-Smith (Joe Serafani), who’s auditioning for Sharpay.
Much in the style of Troy, Ricky arrives at the last minute,
long after the auditions for the role of Troy have passed.
We also get the scene where the relationship between Ricky
and Nini was put on pause, Ricky pondering the important questions of life like
“do my feet stink?” and Nini formally declaring her love for him, he doesn’t
respond to that well, deciding to put their relationship on pause whilst she
goes to camp.
Ricky uses the same song Nini used in that flashback to
declare her love to him for the audition, which is slightly disturbing but
let’s skim ahead
OK, skipping to the results. EJ got the part of Chad and is
understudy for the part of Troy, that part went to Ricky. Nini got the part of
Garbriela, with Gina as her understudy. This doesn’t exactly make Nini any
happier with Ricky.
Big Red gets roped into reading stage directions, a job that a
director or a choreographer could probably have done, during a read through. And
they probably would have been better off that way. Though that was not the only
problem. Nini and Ricky are not in a good place, Nini refusing to make eye
contact with him. Miss Jenn decides to address this by having the two go
through the final scene of the film, which she has added a kiss to.
And worse it’s got EJ paranoid; he now wants Ashlyn to steal
Nini’s phone. “She makes me better” though clearly not enough to consider the
morals of stealing someone’s phone, EJ. Nini decides to make her position clear
to Ricky, and Ricky takes it somewhat to heart, storming out and telling Carlos
that he’s quit. He says to Carlos that him being there will get Nini to quit,
something Gina takes interest in.
Gina somehow makes it to the skate-park Ricky was going to
before he does. How does that even work? Some of what she says is good advice,
the rest of it is such blatant manipulation I’m surprised Ricky would fall for
it. Ricky gives them street cred? More than EJ does with his sports background?
But he decides instead to stay up and practice, prove that he’s trying to take
it seriously and that he isn’t a quitter.
He gets Carlos’ attention and shows him the fruits of his
labour. Nini happens to see some of it, and is troubled enough to head to the stage,
running into Ashlyn, as she’s preparing the original Ms. Darbus song. So, with Ashlyn
not playing ball on the stealing Nini’s phone idea, Gina ends up making it easy
for him and through her he steals it anyway.
EJ is listening as Ricky makes a call, leaving behind a
message that infuriates him enough to delete it. The phone does get back to
Nini, the next day, after Gina had ensured that she’d be late to a rehearsal
where she proposes a dance routine that she knows Nini can’t do. Nini doesn’t
take this lying down and decides to steal Gina’s shoes, and then things get a
bit out of hand. EJ feels guilty and decides to make an apology song,
unfortunately it sounds about as sincere as the one by Justin Bieber.
After an altercation with Ricky, he backtracks on
apologising but after he shouts at Ricky about the message, Ricky tries to
apologise to Nini, alerting her that EJ had her phone. Unrelated note, Mr
Mazzara has it out for Miss Jenn for really petty reasons but discovers that
she may have bigged up the size of her part in the High School Musical movie. I
genuinely despise the notion that someone can just do that but I digress,
comedy.
The fallout of that is not pretty, Nini dumps EJ the next
day and because Ricky is stuck with issues at home, the two are forced to perform
together, and their animosity is bleeding into their performance. Ricky showing
up late without a scene from his script and an incident involving a missing
hamster only exacerbate matters and Miss Jenn calls an end to the session
there.
Gina sees a poster for an upcoming dance and comes up with a
plan. First off, convincing EJ to follow along which isn’t easy as EJ is a
senior (UK Y13) and she’s a sophomore. (UK Y11) Ricky does not want to go home
after hearing that his mother and father were legally separating, he tries to stay
at Big Red’s but it isn’t going well as Big Red is not really an emotional
support guy, as much as he tries. Also, he takes oxygen to sleep at night,
snores and listens to wild animal noises to sleep.
With nowhere else to go, he decides to head to Nini who
despite having had a pretty bad day herself is able to provide some comfort to
Ricky after his pretty bad day. It’s still a little weird between them. Having
exhausted all his options, EJ goes to Gina for help, and Gina’s idea I guess is
for him to take her to the dance, I guess is the intent is to make Nini jealous
or something. I don’t think Gina knows what the plan is either.
Ricky decides its too awkward to stay with Nini and decides
to head home. Nini’s had it up to here with everything and decides she wants to
skip homecoming entirely, and Miss Jenn hears and wants in… Teachers should not
be hanging out with students outside of official function… This is going to
upset my enjoyment of the episode going forward.
So lets talk instead about the other plotlines going on in
the episode instead, Carlos and Seb agree to go to homecoming together. And
Ricky is taking Big Red, mostly as an excuse to get away from his father who
has taken to becoming a major slob in the wake of the breakup.
OK, we have to go back to the main plot. Miss Jenn has taken
Kourtney and Nini to a karaoke bar, here to hear some of Utah’s worst
vocalists, people are less talented but more confident than Nini. Ricky’s
father co-incidentally heads to the same bowling alley/bar that Miss Jenn goes
to and the two begin to flirt.
Carlos is in a bit of a state as Seb hasn’t shown up yet.
Ricky tries to tell Gina she can do better than EJ, which she takes pretty
well. The next thing we see of her is her and EJ arguing and her throwing a
drink at him, saying it’s part of the plan. Not sure whether it was or not but…
Turns out, as expected that her plan was reliant on Nini and Kourtney actually
being there, and it was barely a concept even as it was.
Speaking of Nini, her confidence is shattered. And to
inspire her it’s time for hands-down the best song of the series “Born to be
Brave.” Carlos is ready to dance alone but Ashlyn steps in to dance with him. And
it’s just as the song ends that Seb comes in, having had an emergency at the
farm where he lives. Also, this is clearly not Valentines Day [this episode is in the first semester] so why is “It’s
great to be in love on Valentines Day” playing? Ricky takes Gina home after
apologising and the two kiss.
But the next day there are bigger things to talk about as
it’s come into the open that Miss Jenn may have exaggerated details on her
resumé
and now there’s going to be a schoolboard meeting regarding what to do, Carlos
is asked to keep this secret but he’s terrible at it, and that’s bad news for
Ricky as right now the show is what’s keeping him going. Gina tries to comfort
him, and actually she does a decent job of it, her homelife is hardly much
either, but she’s more used to things changing.
EJ decides to confess… everything to Nini. It doesn’t really
do anything but alleviate his conscience. Speaking of that, Miss Jenn has to
sit down with Carlos, confessing something or another. OK, do you have a
teaching qualification or not, if you do, great, her acting history doesn’t
really matter, if you don’t, you never should have been hired in the first
place. She hands Carlos her directors file to give to her replacement.
Somehow this ends up with a big meeting in Big Red’s
basement and the students decide to do something about this. And it’s here
where Miss Jenn meets Ricky’s father again. It’s the day of the meeting and it
turns out Miss Jenn does have a teaching qualification, just from some obscure
online university. How did they not validate it, if it’s a valid qualification,
it’s a valid qualification, no matter where it’s from. Though it being online
implies no actual teaching was involved which is sketchy to say the least.
Truth, Justice and Songs in Our Key is the song that follows, honestly, it’s another
great song. Even the parents are relatively supportive of her, especially
Ricky’s father, and the song and dance routine gets all of them to cheer. This was all done in
one night by the way. Ricky gets a first glance at Miss Jenn and his dad being
all flirty. So, Miss Jenn’s job is saved.
It’s Thanksgiving suddenly and everyone’s about to have
their few days off. Ricky needs to call his mother, but is hesitant to. EJ is
doing Instagram confessionals to further clear his conscience. Ashlyn has the
house to herself that evening and is throwing a party for all the theatre kids
who have names you remember.
But Miss Jenn and Mister Mazzarah have escaped their
thanksgiving feasting to work, and find that with their combined expertise they
can help each other. This is actually a
great thing for Gina who’s never felt more like she belongs. Ricky has problems
to, when he makes the call a guy named Todd picks up the phone, his mother’s
new Boyfriend. But the good things for Gina don’t last as her mother tells her
she’s leaving in 10 days to Washington. She breaks off any hope of a
relationship with Ricky and Ricky in turn is cold to Nini.
Nini begins writing a song ‘for herself,’ Ricky tries but
can’t bring himself to text Nini an apology and EJ is starting to lose
followers over his confession videos. Ricky does call his mother but it’s left
a bit open whether or not she actually answers the phone. Nini also looks into
getting into an acting school. Miss Jenn and Mr Mazzarah fall sleep as some
dodgy plugs cause a fire.
The fire destroyed most of the stage, costumes, props and
sets were destroyed and they’re red tagging the whole stage area for at least a
month. Basically, they can’t do the show there. Carlos says he can use family
connections to allow them to use the El-Ray theatre, something Miss Jenn shows
some discomfort with for reasons to be explained later.
At some point or another EJ steals Miss Jenn’s notes, which
claim he wasn’t emotionally connecting to the material. He sets out to prove
Miss Jenn wrong, but at a tech rehearsal where he and Carlos are only standing
in for the leads, it’s not as awkward is you might think, it’s much worse.
Ricky and Nini are in a closet or something rehearsing the same scene.
Ricky makes his apology, eventually, the two reminisce and
are about to kiss as Big Red walks in on them. Carlos tells EJ that his
performances don’t always feel authentic, Miss Jenn reveals that she had a line
in the original movie, but it was cut and it freaked her out. Oh yeah, Nini
mentions the performing arts school and surprisingly its Ricky who’s supportive
and Kourtney less so.
Kourtney gets a chance to sing and she’s amazing, as
expected but Miss Jenn is having a real crisis and only a dream sequence where
she’s dancing with Lucas Gabreel. And they got Lucas Gabreel. This is Miss
Jenn’s big musical number and it’s a good one. Miss Jenn decides their best bet
is to head back to East High. Kourtney, having had a change of heart rings the
academy on Nini’s behalf.
Opening night is imminent and both Ricky and Nini have gifts
for each other, a tag for a Ricky and a song for Nini. Kourtney has been asked
to replace Gina on stage. They’ve secured use of the gym for the theatre, Ricky
and Nini meet but it’s two awkward and they hold off on giving each other their
gifts. The cast receives bunch of flowers from a mystery assailant.
The stage is ready and the audience are coming in, including
Ricky’s mother and father, who hug as Ricky watches. The play goes off without
a hitch, but then we come to dancing and Kourtney is not really a dancer,
especially not one at Gina’s level. But Gina suddenly shows up, intending to
just wish them well but she gets roped into her old role. Miss Jenn promises
something for Kourtney after the Christmas break.
We get the awkward reunion between Ricky and Gina and it’s
time for Getya head in the game. Nini scans the audience and notices the dean
from the acting school, Kourtney finally revealing what she’d done on Nini’s.
Whilst she’s nervous she’s also really excited. Getya head in the game is
better than the original version, and you can quote me on that, it’s largely
because the person who’s singing it is actually singing it. And in a rather
authentic twist, right as Troy’s head is supposed to be leaving the game,
something happens to get Troy’s head out of the game, Todd arrives.
They break for intermission. And that’s where Ricky finds
out about the dean evaluating Nini for the performing arts school. Already
feeling shaken up, he decides its better for Nini if he sub out and EJ take his
place.
With EJ now playing Troy, Carlos has stepped up to play
Chad. Miss Jenn is apparently blissfully unaware of all the drama, despite
being in the audience, she must have seen Todd arrive late. Nini also unaware
of everything so gets a bit of a shock seeing EJ subbing in for Troy. Then Nini
begins asking about it, on stage in the middle of the scene, don’t do that, it
breaks the immersion.
Ricky’s mother comes to find Ricky and I’d like to just
point out how rude it is to just enter into a production whilst its underway
like Todd did. If she wanted to bring him, he should have been there at the
start. Nini only gets the message afterwards. Gina is the next to talk to Ricky
and convinces him that if he isn’t going to lead, he can at least watch, of
course, this should have happened in intermission, not whilst they’re actually
performing, I feel lessons weren’t learned there.
And we’re at Breaking Free. And as soon as Ricky enters,
Nini freezes but it’s at this point that EJ concedes his role so she can help
Ricky and the two together sing Breaking Free. Turns out it was EJ who bought
Gina’s plane ticket so she can be here. And with that there’s only one song
left, We’re all in This Together. I should mention during all this, Big Red has
been doing the tech stuff and got the hang of it pretty quickly. Nini sees the
dean leave before the end and is a bit quashed by it
Miss Jenn teases that she has something picked for the
Spring Musical, but season 2 will contradict that.
The flowers turned out to have a card, they were for Ashlyn,
from Big Red. Nini and Ricky talk and Ricky finally says ‘I love you’ back to
Nini like 6 or 7 times in succession and the two kiss. There’s an after-party,
of course but Gina’s not able to come, she’s flying back home in a couple of
hours. But Ashyln has an idea, to have Gina stay with her family in the guest
room through the school year.
Though Miss Jenn and Mr Mazzarah are in hot water over the
fire, Nini may find some relief. The dean didn’t leave because she was
unimpressed, she had a phone-call to make that couldn’t wait the 5 minutes before
the show ended. Nini is offered a spot, but starting next month. The credits roll
and we see that Big Red has some moves of his own, he’s a tap-dancer, also he
and Ashlyn kiss.
The season isn’t that heavy on the comedy, mostly using some
asides and witty dialogue. Try as they might, the scenarios themselves aren’t
portrayed in a way that lends themselves to comedy. I did not have a single
laugh out loud moment in the entire production. But its value as a comedy is
not the only criteria, as a musical it is packed with strong musical numbers.
Some from the original High School Musical film and some original to the show.
They also have a fun and diverse core cast of characters. No-one’s
a complete abject stereotype but everyone has their quirks to make them funny
or to enhance the drama. Nini and Ricky share top billing but the main arc of this
story is Ricky’s, he’s the new guy to the theatre group, doing it for all the
wrong reasons who has a lesson to learn.
I could call this a guilty pleasure, in fact, maybe
Praise4Media is where this retrospective belongs. But I won’t be as kind to
season 2, which we will get to eventually.
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