Troy Bolton is handsome, the most popular boy at high school and the star of the basketball team. As if that weren't terrible enough, the poor guy is also secretly a talented singer dating the hot new girl.
Combine this Shakespeareanly tragic situation with a scheduling conflict, and you've got High School Musical, playing now at Neptune Theatre.
Granted, cynical old journalists are not the target market for the all-singing, all-dancing, show-stopping show. That market - little well-dressed girls - were there in force on the weekend, watching the play with operation-room intensity.
As the yes-we-can optimism swirled ever higher into the vanishing sky of hope, even I began to believe that if I tried hard enough, I, too, could be a singing sensation. Those around me seemed not to share that opinion.
Aaron Kyte, last seen around here as Sparky in Plaid Tidings, is good as Troy, and Canadian Idol contestant Elena Juatco sings up a storm as his Juliet, Gabriella Montez. Lisa Lennox owned the crowd with her funny, physical turn as the couples' arch-enemy, Sharpay Evans.
For HSM fans, Neptune's fiercely energetic play will be the thrill of a lifetime. Some of the actors even mingled in the lobby after the show to sign autographs for star-struck kiddies.
For those accompanying them, the songs are good and the dancing entertaining, and the study in pathological optimism will be more than enough to keep you occupied.
There really are no bad guys in this play. Everyone is, well, special in their own way.
Halifax Haunts
Boo! Did I scare you? No? Well then, grab a copy of superb story-teller Steve Vernon's Halifax Haunts. "Home will always haunt you, no matter where you hang your hat," this self-guided ghost tour warns.
I met with Steve recently on a bright Sunday morning and he showed me some of the city's darker secrets. The book has great maps, photos and directions to lead you on your grave adventure. If you had a particularly pernicious blast of insomnia, you could do the book in one shot, but the less haunted among us will keep it on the bookshelf and break it out periodically when we want a demon-troubled walk.
I was riveted hearing about Duc D'Anville's missing heart, the grisly graves hidden under the Little Dutch Church and the orphan flautist who haunts the Alehouse. The stories are fun to read and packed with the history of Halifax. While the book will doubtlessly do well with visitors to our city, those of us who live here should take advantage of it, too.
If you've got kids, Halifax Haunts is a great way to discover the secret city, past and present.
www.jontattrie.ca
IF YOU GO
*High School Musical is at Neptune Theatre until the end of May. Go to Neptunehsm.com or call 429-7070 for more information.
*Halifax Haunts is a Nimbus book and available at Nimbus.ns.ca, or in book stores across HRM.
