Las Vegas Weekly

January 7, 2009 · 10:58 AM

Disney’s High School Musical skates into The Orleans Arena

By Robin Leach

High School Musical on Ice.

Photo: Disney

It started life as a TV movie directed and choreographed by my friend Kenny Ortega, who gave us the Treasure Island pirates and sirens Strip show. The TV movie smash hit led to a hit big-screen sequel and then a stage show, and now it’s skating in -- on ice!

One can only ask if the Disney executives are taking pages out of the Cirque du Soleil playbook and are already planning a High School Musical water version a la O, a magical version a la Believe or a hyper acrobatic version a la Ka.

Yes, the High School Musical Ice Tour coolly blades up at The Orleans Arena tonight through Sunday battling the invasions of the CES techies and the AEE/AVN porn world’s princesses and princes!

There are 41 professional figure skaters involved in this reincarnation of the hit, and, yes, the basketball scenes are played out with ice skates as part of the uniform! There are seven principal skaters and 34 figure skaters in the ambitious production, and they include former Olympic, world, national and professional ice show skaters and stars. One is Sandy Rucker, who was the stunt double for all those exciting scenes in the Disney film Ice Princess.

Photo: Disney

High School Musical on Ice.

Choreographer Cindy Stuart is a specialist for the skating champions, and she’s a former Ice Follies and Ice Capades performer. She says rehearsals took 12 hours a day for a month to be able to put the show on the road -- whoops, ice! In fact, there are three touring shows of the chilled version in America and Canada!

High School Musical is such a monster hit with audiences, it was only seven months ago that the stage version hit Las Vegas with a sold-out run at the Planet Hollywood Theater for the Performing Arts. The Disney folks say that elements from the movies have been combined for the ice show version, and every song is included, albeit slightly trimmed to accommodate all of them. The cast even teases a new song from the upcoming sequel!

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