ShareThisIt's easy to understand filmmaker Barry Blaustein's enthusiasm for high-school musicals, which he brings to the uneven documentary "Guys 'N Divas: Battle of the High School Musicals" (8:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 27, Showtime).
High school is an emotional minefield for any kid, and putting the focus on teens in the pressure-cooker world of a stage production reveals the best and worst of everyone on camera, students and teachers alike.
Blaustein follows three schools in southern Indiana producing three little-known musicals and introduces, sometimes haphazardly, students in each of the productions. Their lives are filled with drama, from the gay kid whose mom kicks him out to one student whose best friend dies in a freak accident. And then there are the run-of-the-mill petty jealousies, as much among the teacher/directors-cum-dictators as their students. (One director stages an original musical that initially clocks in at a bloated four hours; the kids in the show mock it openly.)
The film falls into a somewhat predictable pattern -- the scrappy "ghetto school" seems like a happier place than the wealthier schools putting on more elaborate productions -- but for anyone who has participated in theater, there may be comfort in the familiar routine of auditions, rehearsals and opening night.
(Contact Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV editor Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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