High Schools Being Musical

ABC had been advertising it's special 20/20 special Drama High as a backstage look at the making of High School Musical.

Actually, it was A high school musical. Not THE High School Musical. What a scam. There wasn't a Zac Efron in sight.

Yet it was actually quite an engrossing documentary. More engrossing than American Teen actually, but maybe because it had a musical theatre slant of course (and thus, with the first hour of auditions, a A Chorus Line feel, or actually, more like Every Little Step, the documentary about the auditioning process for the last ACL).

It was refreshing to see young teens try out and get excited about theatre. Just as it was refreshing to watch the British documentary The Choir (on TVO in Ontario) where a young baby-faced choir master Gareth Malone tries to start a choir at an all-boys school in the UK.

I loved Gareth's idea of getting the teachers to start a staff choir to set an example for the boys. I was sort of taken aback when some of the men Gareth directly went after refused, but I'm glad most of them joined (especially the male P.E. teachers) in the end to set an example.

The solo boys were adorable (although the individual singing was decent) but as a whole, it sounded quite nice.

Meanwhile, the American counterpart in Drama High seemed to have a lot more kids gunning to be stars and I think most of the right people got the part, although I think Nick Cirillo was pretty great and would have made a great Lion.

ABC's whole promo that promised some big racial divisions with a mostly white school performing The Wiz turned out pretty minimal. It was just really crazy jealous Claire (who is white) complaining about the gospel music being played. Whatever, the right Dorothy was chosen (Martina) and everyone moved on.

I thought the controversy was because they brought in black kids from an inner city school for the show, or something like that. Ah ABC and their promos. Such drama queens.