High School Musical goes to court in Lowry premiere
- Robert Beale
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Lowry Lyric Theatre will be transformed into a basketball court for the UK premiere of its own production of High School Musical – opening in Salford on August 22 and running through to September 19, before transferring to the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London in October until next January.
The show, produced by Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre and Chris Harper Productions, with the Lowry, was announced at a lavish event in the Salford theatre, with personal appearances by Jason Donovan, who will play Coach Bolton in Salford until September 18 before handing the role to McFly’s Harry Judd for London, alongside Tobias Turley (who will play Troy) and Leonor Correia (Gabriella), who performed songs from the score.
Other starring roles will be played by Caitlin Tipping (Sharpay), Luke Bayer (Ryan) and KayCee Stroh (Ms Darbus), all pictured below.
It’s the first “non-replica” production of High School Musical (i.e. not the original Disney stage version) in the UK, and Joseph Houston and William Whelton of Hope Mill Theatre are co-directors as well as co-producers in what is described as “the start of a brand-new relationship with Hope Mill” for the Lowry team.
Houston and Whelton described the staging as “immersive”, with the orchestra pit and first three rows of stalls replaced by a thrust stage to form the basketball court, a central runway for performers to go into the audience, and exclusive court-side seats in the stage area.
“We want audiences to walk in and be totally blown away,” William Whelton said. “This is made for the space here in the Lyric, and there’ll be screens everywhere.”
Set design is by Andrew Exeter, with sound design by Matt Peploe, video design by George Reeve, lighting design by Rory Beaton, costume design by Sophia Pardon. Musical supervision is by Katy Richardson and musical direction by Audra Cramer.
The film of High School Musical is 20 years old this year, and Whelton revealed that the journey to get to this Salford premiere began two years ago. “We’ve always dreamed of doing a Disney show – and they’re not easy to come by,” said Houston.
For the costumes: “It feels like early 2000s trends have come round again,” he added, illustrating some of the designs. “We had most fun with Ryan and Sharpay, exploring what fashion meant to them. Because it’s non-replica, we got to design our own look for the show, including our own Wildcats logo.”
KayCee Stroh appeared on video, revealing that she is bringing her whole family to Salford for the run of the show, and Jason Donovan appeared in person, pointing out that he was in Strictly Come Dancing in the same series as Harry Judd in 2009: “He won. But I came third – not bad for a guy with two left feet.”
