Can a bunch of high school students take the horribly successful Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and produce it as a high school musical? If any group could pull it off, it would be the students at Amity High School. After their great production of Rent last year, I have a lot of respect for the thespians there.

Can they take such a great show, and add nuances to it that make the show its own successful interpretation instead of simply creating a pale copy of the original? I had greater doubts about their ability to do this, but I was wrong.

Produced by Katie Errera and directed by Laureen Fox, this show was a smashing success. Things got off to a poor start because of technical difficulties with the sound system. The students struggled with the problems and eventually got the system working sufficiently enough for the show which started around fifteen minutes late.

Ted McNulty, starring in the role of Dr. Horrible did a phenomenal job. Together with Rachel Hildrich as Penny and Dan Quarequio as Captain Hammer, they added a dimension to the show that seemed to amplify the meaning of the original show. Dr. Horrible is a shy, ill adjusted young man who wishes to display his horribleness in order to win the heart of the sweet idealistic young Penny. Captain Hammer is the dashing young do-gooder who does his good through beating up people and seeks Penny as little more than an object, another sexual conquest. Seeing all of this cast in the light of high school romances with the geeks, dweebs, jocks and good kids worked incredibly well.

In addition, the casting and acting of Tess Stirling as Moist was brilliant. In the original production, Moist is a flat minor character, a villain whose super power is merely to make things moist, and a close friend of Dr. Horrible. In this production, Moist was presented as a person that had a crush on Dr. Horrible from the beginning and Tess played this incredibly well.

There were two down points about the production. First, it was not as well publicized as it should have been. I imagine many people from the Amity Region would have loved to have seen this show. The second problem was related to the first. It was a one night show. The production deserved at least a full weekend run. In the end, it did get a deserved standing ovation, and I hope that Ms. Errera and Ms. Fox also get proper recognition for a very successful independent study project.

(Originally published in the Woodbridge Citizen.)