The Puget Sound is all about “High School Musical” these days with two productions at Tacoma Little Theatre and one at Tacoma Musical Playhouse this summer and Encore! set to do it next summer.



Disney Channel is awash with the movie and its sequel while tabloids twitter about racy photos the teenybooper lead shot in hopes of gaining the eye of the male lead of the movie. This very non-Disney love letter has done little to stop the giant that is the movie and its marketing power.



There are touring companies working their way across the nation as well as countless regional theaters staging the show on their season lineups. Since I reviewed the TLT show — starring my daughter in the supporting role as “cheerleader on the left” — it seemed only right to keep the trend alive by heading up to Seattle to see the production now early into its run at Seattle Children’s Theatre.



This show about high school jock Troy Bolton and brainiac Gabriella Montez finding love by following their hearts rather than their social cliques is the modern version of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”



Enter from stage left the school’s reigning musical diva, Sharpay has other plans. She wants to keep them in their proper social order dictated by the rest of high school.

It‘s a show that is fun and heartwarming not only for children and parents but for those without children too because the music is catchy as well as clever.



This stage version is almost identical to the movie production with the addition of two songs that add to the storyline quite a bit.



The new song “Cellular Fusion” chronicles how quickly rumors pass through the school following news that Bolton and Montez have made callbacks for the school’s musical production. “Counting on You” is an add-on that builds the pressure on the loving duo to stay with their teams and forego their theater dreams.



What made this show possibly better than the movie was the depth of the character development on stage that was two-dimensional in the movie. The biggest case in point was the role of Ryan Evans, the brother of the antagonist in the show.



The movie version of him is all flash and no substance from beginning to end while the stage version has him morph from flamboyant thespian to a caring do-gooder by the time the curtain calls. This transformation occurred only by the middle of the movie “High School Musical 2” and didn’t go into much depth into the change.



Another role that was boosted for the stage show was the otherwise bit part of Jack Scott as the school’s announcement reader. The role was created to act as a narrator of sorts to weave the scenes into a single performance that wasn’t needed in the movie. While the role has few lines, it has enough flash and punch to stand out as a must-have for staging the production.



“High School Musical” plays at Seattle Children’s Theatre through Nov. 24. Showtimes are 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7 p.m. Oct. 11, 18 and 25; 201 Thomas St., Seattle; $27-$40, 206.443.0807; www.sct.org.