As the big day approaches and with excitement building to a frenzy for younger members of the community, we decided to go straight to the top and talk to the people behind the huge upcoming event. No, not Santa Claus and his elves, we got talking to Disney’s James Harvey and the cast of High School Musical, which comes to the Royal Castlebar Theatre and Event Centre in the New Year and runs for 15 performances between January 20 and 31.
To ask the questions, we tracked down the two biggest High School Musical fans around; Sorcha Higgins Conway, who is seven and three-quarter years old and her older friend Lucy Flynn, who is almost eight years old. Here is what our intrepid young reporters wanted to know:
What are the real names of the people who are Troy and Gabriella? Ashley Day and Claire-Marie Hall. What age are they? Both are 22 (although they look 17! ).
How many places are you travelling to? Forty eight cities! How many people travel? Fifty six in total!
How do you get from town to town? The sets, costumes and wigs, and all the company's technical kit, get trucked to and fro, while the personnel either travel by trains or planes - depending upon the distance from each venue. In the film High School Musical, the director’s name is Kenny, what is the name of the director of the show and who is his favourite actor? Tony-award winning American director, Jeff Calhoun, who has directed many productions on Broadway. Are there any new songs that we won’t have heard before in the show? In addition to the hits that appear in the movie, there are two new songs written specifically for the stage show: “Cellular Fusion” and “Counting on You”.
