This week’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, “Showtime”, finally gives us what we have been waiting for as the Wildcats take Beauty and the Beast to the stage. You can find more of Popped’s Disney+ and Hulu coverage here. Spoilers ahead.
For more of the Wildcats’ adventures, see our Season 4 review.
Review
Like every theatre performance opening night around the world, whether it is one on Broadway, the West End or an iconic high school in Salt Lake City, Utah – there are nerves and tension is high as the production which has been months in the work has finally arrived. As always we get to see Nini handing out her opening night card, and when she gets to Ricky – both haven’t written anything for each other (yet).
Following on from the cliffhanger in the previous episode, after Ricky fell from the broken harness, we get the reveal that both Ricky and Ashlynn have broken their wrists and are required to perform wearing casts… at least Ricky didn’t die, as that would be horrendous for the show. We catch up with EJ and Gina, this season’s two best characters and we find out that instead of going to the after-party at Big Red’s pizza place, the two are off for Risotto on a “date”, whilst both are unsure if they can refer to it as a date… its a date.
Whilst watching, I thought to myself “Why is the theatre so much bigger than I remember”, but then I soon realised that the first season had a really odd plot line that the musical had to be performed in the school gym after the theatre collapsed? Regardless of plot lines, it felt great and more real to see a musical be performed in an actual theatre. Similar to last season’s production, it’s great to see one of my favourite characters (Mr Mazzara) involved with the show again. this time providing the narration for the musical.
Speaking of Benjamin Mazzara… Ricky’s dad, Mike shows up with flowers and turns Miss Jenn’s attention away from Benjamin, with both thinking Mike has brought the flowers for Jenn, however, they are instead for Ricky and not Jenn… quite a funny moment, as it is incredibly awkward between the two adults during the exchange. We soon discover that North High students Lily and Howie are in the audience, and before the show, Ricky speaks with Lily… unaware of what is to come later in the episode.
The show is really steering closer to the “Licky” ship… which would be a disaster for us all, because Lily is one of the most annoying characters this show has produced, and that is not an attack on Olivia Rose Keegan, who plays Lily. A lot of the fans of this show, especially struggle to separate character from actor, and it can lead to a lot of online abuse… However, the only accepted abuse comes from Natalie, the main runner of the show and notable character for her short, yet funny cameos – this time, a hilarious line where she tells Prince Adam (Ricky) to get to the stage and for Lily to scram. She has another brilliant line during the interval, where she tells the Wildcats “Please everyone remain in the same role you started in” – a hilarious nod to the fact that EJ went on for Ricky as Troy in Season 1.
This week, we’re introduced to Jamie (played by Jordan Fisher) – Gina’s older brother who comes to see the show in place of Gina’s Mum who couldn’t make the trip… it’s nice to see more of Gina’s family, but the appearance from Jordan Fisher makes for a frustrating one later in the episode when EJ meets with Jamie partway through the show, where Jamie thanks EJ for giving Gina a “big brother role model”… so who’s lying then? Gina or Jamie…?
The episode features two great musical numbers – “Something There” and “Be Our Guest”, and both are really good and it was nice to see some top-level produced musical performances for the show… Huge shout out to Ashlynn who was perfectly cast as Belle, who does an insane job too!
The episode ends in a fiasco when the cast can’t find the harness for the transformation, and it is quite a fun scene before the cliffhanger reveals… the kids all come together as a team to quickly come up with a new plan and its great to see… The harness, however… is revealed to be with Lily who has a large grin on her face… It is pretty much confirmed that Howie too was involved, after his awkward interactions with Kourtney earlier in the episode – perhaps some guilt? It was a great end to what was a really strong episode, especially one with such a short runtime…
‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’: Season 2 – “Showtime” Review – Final Thoughts
One of the strongest, if not best episodes of the season… I wonder if this season would have benefited if the show had fewer episodes? I really think the finale will live up to the hype which this episode set and I am excited to see how they wrap things up, whilst setting up a potential Season 3…?
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 2 is now streaming exclusively on Disney+. The trailer can be seen below:
