Teenage angst and powerhouse vocal talent — that's what Disney put on the road this winter with High School Musical: The Concert, a showcase of performers based on the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel original movie High School Musical. Directed by Kenny Ortega, who also directed the movie, the visual elements for the tour were created by set and video designer Michael Cotten and lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe.

But angst was not limited to the teens for this tour that was “confirmed very late,” according to Woodroffe, so the creative team had to hustle, with only a couple of months from its inception to get this show on the road. “Our brief was to make a spectacular, exciting, and dynamic musical show that would knock the socks off the younger audience, but we also wanted to achieve this with some finesse and style,” says the lighting designer, who also notes they were going for a “bright, poppy, exciting, cool, modern, slick” feel.

“High School Musical onstage was more like a rock concert than a Broadway show,” adds lighting programmer Patrick Dierson. “There was a lot of choreography, set piece moves, pyro, CO₂ jets, and big video projection screens.”

Setting the Stage (And The Video)

A curving ramp built by B and R Scenery, Barco video screens, and flanking red drapery by Sew What? Inc. dominated the sleek and straightforward set. Cotten, whose background includes being a member of the band, The Tubes, and experimenting with film and video as early as the 1970s, took his lead from Ortega (the two have a long history of collaboration), who knew right away this was not going to be a stage version of the movie. At the same time, however, they wanted to honor the film version. “I decided on the all-purpose ramp around which we could create many looks,” says Cotten.

For each performer, a theme was created — drums for Corbin, pop imagery for Ashley, diamonds for Vanessa, for example — and each segment became like its own scene, using both new content and footage from the film for some sequences where the live performance integrates with the one onscreen. Each performer also had his or her prop identifier, including an enormous flying “V” covered in faux diamonds for Vanessa, designed by Cotten and built by Accurate Staging, who also built the band platforms.

“Other than footage from the film, we wanted to do a feature segment for each of the performers — not rock videos and not canned content,” says Cotten. “I would do a storyboard, get Kenny to approve it, and then send it to Robb [Wagner of Stimulated]. I basically did storyboards to create a world for the character. We had to decide what color was right for Ashley, for example. They're not rock videos, but they are important for the identity.” Gary Lanvy, who Cotten credits with actually “making it all happen,” was the tour's supervising producer.

With little time, planning was crucial, and Cotten's team created both computer and 3D models of the set. “There was no time to do it, but we did it, before anyone saw anything,” Cotten says. He used Strata software for computer renderings and then created scale drawings in VectorWorks.

For the young performers, many of whom had little touring experience, Cotten was careful to check and recheck the set design, even after it was built, to ensure there would be no safety issues. “We even worked out what sort of choreography there would be so there would be no issues,” he says. “That modified the ramp structure quite a bit to accommodate the routines.” And to limit the amount of running around required and keep costume and other changes relatively simple, all traditional backstage areas were created right under the stage. Tait Towers built the stage floor and under-stage areas, including some mechanical elements.

According to Wagner, who created the tour's video content, a fully produced screen show was required in three weeks from the time he was contacted. “Cotten sent me a number of style frames, which gave us a great head start on nailing the design concepts for many of the performances,” says Wagner. “We also received a digital beta cam master of the tele-film from Disney, music videos, and movies featuring the cast, and a number of DVD dailies directly from the briefcase of director Kenny Ortega.”