The curtains are up in East High in episode 11 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, “Showtime.” The play the students have been working towards for a whole semester is finally here! Although this means we get to see a fun and exciting performance, it also means the stakes are high and the tension only gets worse, especially behind the scenes.
The episode begins backstage as we’re thrown into the bustling chaos pre-performance. The students are scrambling to get ready, giving each other letters of encouragement, and prepping the finishing touches on their outfits. Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) is handing out cute notes to everyone but stops at Ricky (Joshua Bassett). They both say they have amazing letters for each other, but we discover that in reality, neither of them wrote anything because they can’t seem to find the words. Already they are much more tolerable together when broken up, even though they will probably not stay that way for long, so hopefully whenever they get back together their dynamic is a bit better.
Everyone is also raving about North High’s performance, which they apparently saw the night prior. It would have been nice to see some of it, what with the spectacular fire show and explosion of talent that the kids describe, but we’re just supposed to assume it was something straight out of Broadway.
This in turn stresses everyone out. Big Red (Larry Saperstein) is throwing up in the bathroom since it’s his first performance and even Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) can barely get a word out. Ricky is also recovering from the end of the last episode when he fell after he was suspended mid-air, but honestly, the consequences are way better than we may have thought. Instead of broken legs and a new Beast, Ricky just has a broken wrist along with Ashlyn (Julia Lester), who apparently broke his fall. Though this isn’t really great, it could have been a lot worse, and so the leads are still in their roles. Thank god, because last season’s play where everyone switched roles around at the last second was an experience no one wants to relive.
A lot of other relationship drama is budding behind the scenes. Let’s start with Gina (Sofia Wylie) and E.J. (Matt Cornett) who are planning to go on their risotto date after the show ends. Things seem better than ever between the pair, but everything gets shaken up when Gina’s brother – who they mentioned once a few episodes ago – shows up to support her in the play. He’s played by none other than Disney royalty Jordan Fisher, and so it probably isn’t the last time we’ll see him on the show.
It’s surprising that they are already addressing the question of Gina’s brother, on opening night no less, but here we are. He’s a big shot music producer and seems to care about Gina, but also seems really dedicated to his career and so he can’t stay for the whole show. Gina says that’s okay and is just happy to see him, but what is really interesting is when Gina’s brother pulls E.J. aside later on. He tells E.J. he’s grateful Gina has a big-brother figure in her life since he’s never been a great brother. Yikes…just before they were about to go on a risotto date? It’s clear Gina doesn’t feel this way, but E.J. seems to think that she does after that conversation.
In terms of the other couples, Kourtney (Dara Renee) is ranting about how amazing Howie (Roman Banks) was as the Beast in North High’s production the night before. She’s clearly crushing on him hard again, and he’s in the audience to support Kourtney. However, during intermission, she runs into him and he’s acting super weird, giving her one-word answers and not being himself. He’s not the only North High student who shows up to the performance, though. Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan) is there, claiming she’s there to support Ricky. When she talks to him before the play, the two of them see Ricky’s dad and Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) together and Lily gives him some advice about what happened after her own parents’ split up. This whole exchange may seem nice, and apparently, that’s how Ricky interprets it, but it’s extremely hard to see Lily’s intentions as genuine. The whole time the audience must be thinking about how Lily is going to mess with East High’s play.
Regardless of all the drama backstage, the show seems to be going pretty well after it kicks off with Ricky transforming into the Beast. Nini – who isn’t playing any role this time since they wrote out the whole “Rose” thing – really supports the other students, giving them pep talks and playing a spoon in the background of the play. The musical numbers are great, the judge from the Menkies seem impressed, and the production quality is much higher than last semester’s.
But Miss Jenn is particularly stressed out, saying she’s worried about the fate of the play and seems to doubt the students. She plans a special surprise for the Menkies judge by spotlighting him before the “Be Our Guest” performance, which is strange to say the least, and she flips out on the students before the Beast transition scene. When none of them can find Ricky’s harness, she basically just yells at Ricky to jump from high above even though it’s dangerous and then disappears, regretting she said that. Nini then pulls everyone together and says they just need to do it a different way because they have no time to waste right now.
Obviously, North High is somehow behind the harness disappearing. And the suspicions are confirmed immediately when we see Lily with the harness in the audience. As expected. But the question is whether or not Howie was involved, too, considering he was acting weird when Kourtney talked to him before.
We’ll have to wait and find out the answer to that question, and many others, since the play is to be continued next week. Will the loss of the harness screw them over for the Menkies? It also seemed like Ricky and Lily may have something romantic between them, but will they really go in that direction? After the harness stealing, probably not. Another thing we have to wait to find out is who called Mr. Mazzarra (Mark St. Cyr) at the end of the episode. It was thrown in randomly, but that might be the biggest mystery of all.
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