BWW Reviews: BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL Brings A Dose of Americana To The Sydney Stage.

Sunday 28th June 2015, Parade Theatre, NIDA, Kensington

The Stage addition to the BRING IT ON franchise, BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL delights fans of the movies with peppy songs and another story about social divides and the world of competitive cheerleading. Blending familiar storylines with Tom Kitt, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Amanda Green's music and lyrics and musical theatre styling presents a new spin on the popular work.

For BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL, central character, Campbell (Alexandra Lewtas) achieves her dream of becoming captain Truman High School's Cheerleading squad only to discover that following summer break, including Cheer Camp, she is being forced to change schools due to being 'redistricted' to complete her Senior year at Jackson High School. . Jackson fills the standard formula of being the underprivileged school filled with minority groups, a stark contrast to the Truman students that have money and privilege. Campbell seeks to join Jackson's cheerleading 'crew' to battle against Truman's 'squad' following a questionable change in leadership of her old team.

Stadium lights and a scoreboard beam out across the audience from above the stage, sparsely adorned when necessary to transport the audience into spaces other than gymnasiums. Campbell and the key Truman students are introduced with What I Was Born To Do, with Campbell dressed simply in jacket and high waist short shorts in school colors as the rest of the cheerleaders are in uniform and the remainder of the students in civvies.

When Campbell is not in uniform, Berni Wallace's (costume design) choice of general clothes for Campbell is kept fairly basic, not really conveying that sterotype of the 'wealthy white girl' that the dialogue and lyrics indicate. Whilst it is understandable that the Jackson 'crew' each have their own style injected into the cheerleading uniforms and would not necessarily have standardized footwear, the outfits for both the teams lacks the polish that one would expect of groups seeking represent their schools at elite levels.

The accents are maintained throughout and the cast creates the caricature of the high school students and the musical theatre genre with a liberal dose of cheesy overplay of emotion, particularly the eager to please Bridget (Sophy Carol) who is also redistricted from Truman.

Whilst the content of the story is rather politically incorrect, Director Rob Herbert's choice to reduce the number of students of color representing Jackson was an interesting choice given the continued references to Campbell being "white". Despite the storyline, Herbert has chosen for the divide to be more set on the lines of wealth and conformity with Jackson students being a group of individuals and misfits with the geeky loner DJ Randall (Henry Moss) and the transgender dancer/cheerleader La Cienega (Timothy Langan).

Regardless of whether the intent was to move away from racial differentiation, it is however distracting in the Jackson crew scenes to have so many dancers that look more at home in the Truman squad. It is also interesting to note the odd selection of the Truman squad members whereby heights and body types are not as stereotypical of the images of American cheerleaders in pop culture and the movies on which the show is based. Visual impact of group numbers is diminished by varying heights of dancers not arranged to form flowing lines and 'fliers' not being the standard, resulting in awkward tosses.

Whilst the music and lyrics often sound reminiscent of other musicals including elements of Sondheim's work, Miranda's IN THE HEIGHTS, a touch of BOOK OF MORMON's devil sequence and the tempo changes for the Jackson crew, music from both sides is presented with a similar tone for the most part, blurring the lines rather than providing a definitive contrast. The choreography (Tracy Rasmussen) has drawn on many musical theatre standard sequences, useful when appealing to audiences that want a stereotypical musical experience. The Cheer Choreography (Melissa McKenzie) incorporates lifts and tosses but does not really emphasize whether the teams are going above and beyond to stand out technically or creatively. The encouragement of the audience to applaud the lifts and pyramids also seemed to break character and seemed more appropriate if this were a circus work or exhibition piece, not part of a storyline.

BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL will appeal to teen audiences and those in their 20's and 30's that remember the movie and want to reconnect to the memories. It is a simple storyline advocating acceptance and suspension of judgement and prejudice along with loyalty and friendship.

BRING IT ON: THE MUSICAL

Parade Theatre, NIDA, Kensington

27 June - 9 July 2015

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