High School Musical Among 2007 Barrington Line-Up

This year's pop-culture phenomenon, Disney's High School Musical, has been added to the 2007 season lineup as Barrington Stage Company's (BSC) Youth Theatre production. The storyline featuring a jock and a brainy girl auditioning for a school musical is based on an Emmy-winning TV movie (including a best-selling CD) is popular with teen audiences, who are the primary focus of programming with BSC's Youth Theatre.

"We're thrilled to have received the performance rights for this exciting new musical," said Julianne Boyd, BSC Artistic Director.  "What I love about 'High School Musical' is that it's a story with heart that has a number of wonderful roles for teenagers."

Last summer BSC ran an extended sold-out run of FAME at the First Congregational Church on East Street in Pittsfield for four weeks. The plans for BSC's production of High School Musical include four weeks in July and August at the First Congregational Church, plus an additional week in South County.

Disney's High School Musical "tells the story of a group of high school students who are struggling with issues of popularity, first love, balancing education with extracurricular activities and the value of friends and family," according to press notes.

The original TV movie proved to be immensely popular. The first broadcast on January 20, 2006 brought in more than 7.7 million viewers in 5 million households. Within 24 hours the show's web site received more than 500,000 hits with visitors downloading lyrics to the song "Breaking Free." The film's popularity boosted the careers of several of its stars: Leading man, Zac Efron, won the role of Link Larkin in the movie version of Hairspray; vixen, Ashley Tisdale, is featured on Disney's kids' series "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody;" and supporting player, Monique Coleman, is a contestant in the current version of "Dancing with the Stars."

Auditions for BSC's Youth Theatre production of Disney's High School Musical will be held in March 2007, with performances next July and August.  For more information contact the BSC Education Director at (413) 499-5446 ext. 114.

Visit www.barringtonstageco.org for more on Barrington Stage.