Family Matters - By Jude Dobson

A couple of weekends back I watched rehearsals for the upcoming show High School Musical, which will be performed at Aotea Centre next month. If you are aged 8-18 or a parent of someone in that age group you are bound to know all about High School Musical aka HSM. For the rest of you, here's the story of this digital age phenomenon. HSM was a Disney Channel movie that played last year on Sky. It was hyped well before it hit the screen and, when it did, it attracted an instant cult following. Cult conjures visions of it being unsavoury, which it absolutely is not. As the title says, it's a musical set in a high school. Troy, (the sports jock) captains the basketball team and Gabriella (the new girl) is a brainy swot. Together, they try out for lead roles in the school musical, bumping off the self-assured, sabotaging drama types who thought they had them in the bag. A lovely story about resisting peer pressure and pigeonholing, inspiring others, recognising genuine talent and, ultimately, uniting two diverse groups of kids who thought they had nothing in common. The soundtrack to the movie was the bestselling album of last year. The four times platinum album reached number one on iTunes' bestselling albums list. It provided five Top 40 hit singles for the Billboard Hot 100 (the first TV soundtrack to be number one in Billboard since Miami Vice). Just as seeing the words ''Miami Vice'' instantly makes you hum the opening bars, for the HSM generation this music has the same effect. A survey of NZ teens showed 100 per cent were aware of HSM, 63 per cent watched the free to air screening of it, and many more had watched it on the Disney Channel, or on DVD. Thirty five per cent already owned a DVD copy, the fastest-selling TV movie on DVD of all time, 91.5 per cent could name at least three songs from the movie, 28 per cent already owned a copy of the soundtrack, and a further 44.5 per cent had downloaded songs from it. Evidently, HSM, the stage musical, is a sitter for success. The 8000 tickets made available to schools have already sold out. General release tickets, too, will fly out the door. For four months of Sundays 215 young Aucklanders aged between 5 and 21 will rehearse a production they'll always remember. For three days in late June they'll strut, sing at the top of their voices and exude vitality and fun at Aotea Centre. The show is staged by the National Youth Theatre, a charity dedicated to bringing confidence and life skills to young people through the dramatic arts. When I watched all these youngsters rehearse they looked very professional. All shapes, sizes, ethnicities, abilities and ages in the one room worked together. Everyone who wanted to be in it was accepted. What an amazing experience and confidence booster, firstly to give their best in front of their peers at rehearsals, then also, later, to do so in front of a packed audience. As a parent of a 9-year-old girl in the show, HSM demonstrates good, wholesome children's fun in this age of that horrible term, ''the sexualisation of children''. So, break a leg, all 215 of you, and bouquets to the National Youth Theatre for making it happen for the youngsters of Auckland.