"High School Musical on Stage" by the Young Performers.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

Disney’s "High School Musical on Stage" centres on the blossoming relationship between Troy, a good-looking high school jock, and Gabriella, the new girl at school. They meet on a family vacation and become attracted to each other while singing in a karaoke competition. Rediscovering each other at East High school, their relationship and their decision to audition together for the school show are thwarted by the school’s current leading lady, Sharpay, and Troy and Gabriella’s well-meaning friends. Finally, Gabriella and Troy find a way to be themselves and are rewarded with the lead roles in the school show. This is of course Disney, so there are happy endings all round.

Troy Bolton is played by Louis Dexter and Gabriella is played by Ella Charlesworth.  Although for me it took a bit of time for the chemistry between Troy and Gabriella to show, they eventually got there and by the end you could see that they had settled into their roles - possibly first night nerves, even for a pair of seasoned young pros like Louis and Ella. Loved their duet of "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as I think this is where they started to relax a bit.

Another pairing I loved, this time from the off as the chemistry was there straight away was that of Sharpay Evans and her brother Ryan Evans, played by Emilia Buxton and Finn Boswell. It was the eye contact between the pair that made this brother/sister relationship so good. I loved the attitude that Emilia gave Sharpay, and I loved the honesty that Finn brought out of Ryan.

Kelsi, the pianist, is played by Jasmine Hutchings, and it was not until a slight delay in stage management where Kelsi's keyboard was brought on slightly after the music from the keyboards started that I realised that Jasmine was not actually playing the instrument. Before this, she made me believe that she was actually playing. Nevertheless, a good solid performance from Jasmine.

Jack Scott is the High School's P.A. man, announcing everything that was going on inside East High, and I loved this character. Freddie Cutts, who played Jack, was brilliant with the American fast talking radio jockey style delivery. I could see him playing Vince Fontaine in "Grease" with his patter.

Ms Darbus, the drama coach was also wonderfully played by Scarlet Hutchings. A wonderful sense of authority in her voice and actions.

Coach Bolton, the basketball coach and Troy's overbearing and dominating father was another stand out performance for me. Played with a lovely mature attitude by Drew Boswell. The whole attitude given to the character belied the tender age of Bolton's actor.

Taylor McKessie is Gabriella's best friend, and also one of the smartest girls in school, is played by Neve Saxton and Martha Cox, Gabriella's other bestie, is played by Polly Snape.

The Brainiacs were Kratnoff (Alex Povey), Archie (Lucie Artiss), Pete (Carly Gaunt), Lacey (Sophie Dexter) and Kristie (Iris Applegate). These are the smartest people in the school with their ability to do maths and science questions in under 30 seconds.

Troy's besties were Zeke Baylor, played by Joe Stewart and Chad Danforth, played by Lewis McDowall. the other Jocks in Troy's posse were Jason (Will Mellor), Drew (Dillan Brookes), Ace (AJ Chamberlain) and Kyle (Erin Gell).

The Thespians are James (James Pedrick), Susan (Millie Weston), Cathy (Keira Roberts), Alan (Sophie Longcroft), Cyndra (Isobel Pickering) and Clare (Myah Reppe-Jackson).

The Skaterdudes were Ripper (Evan del Gaudio) and Mongo (Keeley Rickerby).

The Cheerleaders were played by Neve Johnson, Avaani Babra, Lucy Coulson-Jones, Emily Wilkins and Jess Henshaw.

And last but not least in this large cast were The Adults; Karaoke MC (Dillan Brookes), Ms Tenny (Millie Weston) and The Moderator (Keeley Rickerby).

A more energetic cast you could not have wished for.

You'll have more than a couple of earworm tunes from this musical when you leave the theatre. Songs like "We're All In This Together", "Breaking Free", "Start Of something New", "Getcha Head In The Game" and "Stick To The Status Quo". Every track performed live by the six-piece band under the Musical Direction of George Parkinson.

Directed by Vicky Byrne obviously has a place in her heart for this musical because you can feel the love and energy that she has obviously channelled through to the cast. especially showing in the energy that comes from the stage.

Loved the choreography due to the energy shown by all the cast. I am sure that choreographer Erin Hill is extremely proud of each and every one. What I must just single out is the beautiful armography from Emilia Buxton (Sharpay). Right through to the tips of her fingers, the extension in her hands was worthy of any ballet dancer.

The Lighting by Dave Martin was almost perfect except for one scene in Act two when the lights were all dimmed and left the stage almost in darkness while the actors were doing what they do best. Maybe a slip of the hand there? Apart from that it was bright and colourful. I'm not sure if Dave himself designs the lighting, but whoever does design it, did a brilliant job in adding to the exciting staging.

The set design was probably one of the best designs for this particular musical that I have seen, and I've seen this performed a few times. Then again, knowing that it was designed by Roydon Charlesworth, means that the design standard does not come as a surprise!

So now we come to what has been for a while my bugbear at The Duchess, the sound. The sound operator, in my opinion has a really difficult job as you need to have been born part octopus. Not only do you need to have several faders all working at the same time but you have to know every character, their cues and have split second timing. I've seen cues missed in professional productions, and just looking at a sound desk is confusing enough. 

Designed by Dave Dallard and, as you can see form the amount of cast members above, there are a lot of cues and characters you need to have in your brain at one time. Operating the sound desk on opening night was a new young man, and when I say "young", he is, if my memory serves me correctly, only 14 years old. You don't get many 14-year-old part octopii (plural of octopus), and this was a baptism of fire for Jack Clark. saying that, even though there were cues missed, I think he did a really good job. 

Getting everything right, and balanced, sound wise is never easy. I've ran mobile discos which have incorporated karaoke in my past and making sure just two mics are balanced to the music and on when they are supposed to be, and sound good all at the same time fried my brain, so I know how hard it is to do what both Dave and Jack and sound ops all over do. Jack has a wonderful mentor in Dave where the sound desk is concerned so any missed cues etc from tonight should be forgotten, as tomorrow is an opportunity to absolutely nail this art form. I know that sound desk operatives in several theatres in the area have all had me grumble about missed cues and levels not being correct, but it's something I feel passionate about, working in radio. By the way I sometimes get sound cues wrong live on air as well - but don't tell anyone as I just blame it on the machinery!

That said, the energy, passion and enthusiasm really carry this show through. It's like a triple dose of e-numbers washed down with fizzy drinks and will have you bouncing off the walls with fun.

"High School Musical on Stage" is at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 18 June.