HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 To Premiere At Wimbledon

From the producers of the smash hit tour of High School Musical, and based on the phenomenally successful Disney Channel Original Movie, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 opens at New Wimbledon Theatre in eight weeks' time before it tours across the UK and Ireland.

Visitors to South West London will be seeing the show before anyone else in the country as New Wimbledon Theatre has been chosen to launch this exciting UK premiere from Saturday August 22nd.

High School's out and the East High Wildcats need summer jobs! Troy, Gabriella, Taylor and Chad all land work at an exclusive country club but it's not going to be an easy ride as the scheming siblings Ryan and Sharpay are vacationing there too and plan on having some fun of their own. The action builds to the country club's all important Midsummer Night's Talent Show, but will the Wildcats be ready in time? Will Troy duet with Sharpay or Gabriella, will Ryan finally realise his sister's true motives and will squabbles, double-crossing and a baseball tournament stand in the way of their performances and, ultimately, their friendships?

The new theatrical adaptation of the hit Disney Channel Original Movie comes to the UK stage courtesy of the first stage production's creative team and features a score which includes all the songs from the chart-topping sequel's soundtrack, including What Time Is it?, You Are The Music In Me and Fabulous. The production is directed by Jeff Calhoun, whose credits include the award-winning Broadway revivals of Grease and Big River and the US and UK stage versions of High School Musical.

Filling the basketball shoes of Zac Efron will be newcomer Liam Doyle who is making his professional stage debut. Having secured the role of leading man Troy Bolton through a reality television casting process on GMTV, Liam was whittled down from thousands of wannabes to three finalists and won the majority of votes from viewers.

Joining Liam is Family Fortunes favourite Les Dennis who will be playing the owner of Lava Springs Country Club, Mr Fulton. Les is no stranger to New Wimbledon Theatre having performed there last year in Eurobeat and also filmed his legendary and hilarious episode of Ricky Gervais's Extras in the building too.