High School Musical – Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Luke Bayer and Caitlin Tipping in Disney’s High School Musical at Troubadour Wembley Park, London. Picture: Matt Crockett

High School Musical continues at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London until 3 January 2027.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I am rarely swayed by online conspiracy theories. As far as I can tell, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, the Earth is a globe and Avril Lavigne has not been replaced by a clone. However, there is one crackpot notion that may hold some truth…

After building an empire on movies which drew from the Golden Age of musical theatre, Disney executives faced the 1990s with trepidation. Not only was the theatrical form of musicals itself falling from favour, but musical tastes more widely were also shifting rapidly. If this was allowed to continue, the entertainment giant risked sliding into irrelevance. Enter the 2006 film High School Musical: the most successful psyop in entertainment history. Rather than hoping tastes would swing back, Disney instead produced a masterpiece of a sugary pop/musical theatre mash-up to brainwash us into loving musicals – and by extension Disney – once more.

If true, this was a masterstroke. Here we are today: obsessed not just with classic Disney movies but also with the wider gamut of incredible musical theatre. And – crucially – we are willing to part with our hard-earned disposable income to see High School Musical itself on stage.

This production began life in Manchester and has seen a lot of buzz before landing at Wembley’s Troubadour Theatre. Much has been written about its ‘immersive’ element, but depending on how expensive your tickets are, this may be overstated. There are some seats onstage (basketball bleachers, to fit in with the school gym set) and the cameras and screens are a departure from the traditional, but for those sitting towards the back of the cavernous Troubadour, the experience may not feel dissimilar to traditional theatre. This isn’t experimental immersion on the scale of Punchdrunk or Phantom Peak.

What we get instead is the atmosphere of a high school basketball gym amped up beyond even NBA levels by slick sound and lighting design (Matt Peploe and Rory Beaton) and an irresistibly fun pre-show cheerleading warm-up. This is a show that feverish audiences have been waiting for since 2006, and when egged on with all the entertainment tricks Disney has to offer there was a palpable buzz of excitement on press night, even before the leads made their much-applauded entrance.

Directors Joseph Houston and William Whelton have marshalled a ginormous team of talented creatives to do with panache what Disney does best. Particular shoutout to choreographer Aaron Renfree and dance captain Harriet Caplan-Dean for the astonishingly kinetic dance sequences.

The plot is as cannily low-stakes and sweetly entertaining as the original. Like Grease meets Mean Girls, popular super-jock Troy Bolton and the academically bright new girl Gabriella Montez have had a holiday meet-cute over the summer break. Now at school their disparate cliques keep them apart. Courageously, they risk social ostracisation by auditioning for the titular school theatrical production together. Despite initial scepticism from all sides – including long-standing rulers of the school theatre scene, the fabulous twins Sharpay and Ryan – their bravery and talent inspires their fellow students to embrace the quirks that make us all special.

Tobias Turley takes on the Troy role made famous by Zac Efron with admirable magnetism. His voice is a perfect pop tenor and he looks as confident on that huge stage as Troy Bolton himself would be on his East High basketball court. Relative newcomer Leonor Correia is a charming Gabriella. Her stunning voice blends well with Turley’s and she exudes an enthusiastic idealism that is at the heart of this adored franchise.

Of course, ask any true fan about the real stars of High School Musical and it’s not Troy and Gabriella you’ll be hearing about. No, the applause on their entrance confirms that it is chic super-diva Sharpay Evans and her twin brother accomplice Ryan who deliver the delicious spice in what might otherwise risk being a bland or overly sweet recipe. As Sharpay, Caitlin Tipping demonstrates a firm grasp on comedy as well as her incredible vocal skills, with Luke Bayer’s Ryan more than keeping up with Tipping’s diva masterclass. David Simpatico’s book even allowing some suggestion of a third dimension to this iconically shallow duo – this pair’s scenes are the highlights of the show.

Headline performer, McFly’s Harry Judd, delivers his count-them-on-two-hands lines of dialogue as Troy’s dad Coach Bolton charismatically enough, and the audience already revelling in nostalgia receives them with requisite enthusiasm. This paragon of stunt casting might not fully deserve its top billing in promotional materials, but the fact it is so transparent tips us into the realms of absurd camp. We’re all here to have fun, so why the heck not, Disney? Let’s have all the 00’s fun tonight.

A more inspired casting is original High School Musical movie star KayCee Stroh, who now plays the passionate and exuberant performing arts teacher Ms. Darbus. Stroh isn’t given much chance to show off her singing and dancing outside of the inevitable megamix finale, but she is hilarious and stage-commanding throughout.

Part of this stage adaptation’s appeal for the super fans will lie in discovering how much is new and how much is copied straight from their beloved classic. Let’s avoid spoilers, but no hardcore HSM-head will be disappointed. Of course, there are minor changes and additions for the new live setting and longer run time, but all those precision-engineered pop bops are not just present and accounted for, but sound spectacular through musical director Audra Cramer’s seven-piece band and the Troubadour’s earth-shaking, state-of-the-art sound system.

What is most endearing is seeing these characters and songs that mean so much to their original audience resonate just as deeply with a younger generation. Disney knows what they’re doing, and this is a finely-honed entertainment machine. Polished and sugary without doubt, but an irresistible hoot of an evening for any age.

If you’re feeling too intellectual for such frivolity, you can still visit other London auditoria for as much Shakespeare and Sondheim as you like. With time, you will be joined by many more new performing arts fans as a direct result of this movie and now this show. Theatre is an ecosystem, and High School Musical fulfils its role immaculately and with significant flair.

Ian Bowkett