'High School Musical' Hits The Road
Hungary Compact Disco perform during rehearsal for the final show of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest at the Baku Crystal Hall in Baku, Friday, May 25, 2012. The finals of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest will be held at the stadium on May 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev) / Sergey Ponomarev
The parents milling around backstage are about the only thing in Disney's new $8.5 million "High School Musical" stage spectacular tour that look anything like — well, high school.
Engineered by veterans of Rolling Stones tours and tricked out with intricate choreography, confetti drops and a giant backdrop screen for heartthrob close-ups, the concert was designed to wow the "tween" fans who made the TV movie a nationwide hit faster than Paris Hilton can say "hot."
The snappy 90-minute stage performance zips along untethered from the plot of the movie, a love story between a basketball jock and an academic decathlon nerd who upset their school's social order by auditioning for lead roles in a musical.
Instead, the concert features the six stars as celebrities, rather than in their character roles, and showcases hits from the movie soundtrack. Lucas Grabeel, one of the movie's main characters, emcees the proceedings, giving frequent shout-outs to the audience and stringing together set pieces with good-natured onstage banter.
Three cast members with newly released or forthcoming solo albums — Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu — do solo sets.
The only cast member missing the concert tour is Zac Efron, who played the male lead in the movie. He is working on the movie version of the musical "Hairspray." Drew Seeley, who sang on the "High School Musical" soundtrack and co-wrote one of its songs, is touring in Efron's place.
Nine trucks, 10 buses and about 90 crew members will accompany the six performers on the 40-city arena tour, which begins in San Diego on Nov. 29 and wraps up with a finale in Las Vegas on Jan. 28. The group will play a hastily added Dec. 31 gig in Uniondale, N.Y.
"I'm freaking out!" exclaimed Coleman as she bopped around backstage in San Diego before the show's last dry run. At 26, Coleman — who parlayed her popularity into a stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" — is the oldest of the group.
Minutes later, she was twirling across the stage in a pair of sparkling high heels she called "blinged out."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Engineered by veterans of Rolling Stones tours and tricked out with intricate choreography, confetti drops and a giant backdrop screen for heartthrob close-ups, the concert was designed to wow the "tween" fans who made the TV movie a nationwide hit faster than Paris Hilton can say "hot."
The snappy 90-minute stage performance zips along untethered from the plot of the movie, a love story between a basketball jock and an academic decathlon nerd who upset their school's social order by auditioning for lead roles in a musical.
Instead, the concert features the six stars as celebrities, rather than in their character roles, and showcases hits from the movie soundtrack. Lucas Grabeel, one of the movie's main characters, emcees the proceedings, giving frequent shout-outs to the audience and stringing together set pieces with good-natured onstage banter.
Three cast members with newly released or forthcoming solo albums — Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu — do solo sets.
The only cast member missing the concert tour is Zac Efron, who played the male lead in the movie. He is working on the movie version of the musical "Hairspray." Drew Seeley, who sang on the "High School Musical" soundtrack and co-wrote one of its songs, is touring in Efron's place.
Nine trucks, 10 buses and about 90 crew members will accompany the six performers on the 40-city arena tour, which begins in San Diego on Nov. 29 and wraps up with a finale in Las Vegas on Jan. 28. The group will play a hastily added Dec. 31 gig in Uniondale, N.Y.
It's a professional schedule for a cast that is mostly new to the rigors of the road, though the stars are all professional actors, some with serious tween bona fides: Tisdale, who played comically evil drama queen Sharpay, is well known to fans of the popular Disney Channel sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."
Photos: See Monique On "Dancing With The Stars"
Photos: Teen Choice Awards
"I'm freaking out!" exclaimed Coleman as she bopped around backstage in San Diego before the show's last dry run. At 26, Coleman — who parlayed her popularity into a stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" — is the oldest of the group.
Minutes later, she was twirling across the stage in a pair of sparkling high heels she called "blinged out."
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