When you have a school full of the spawn of the a-list-celebrities and you have to put on a spring musicale what do you? The Wizard of Oz in multi cast form none the less. As the title suggests this story is dripping with drama and not just on the stage as Dorothys start dropping out of the musical.
This book is stylised in a form any true musical lover will thoroughly enjoy it, however, if you are not I recommend you do not put this on your must read list. There are many references to musicals including every title being named a show of some kind.
Paul Ruditis has chosen Bryan Stark to narrate this high school tale and he is probably the only one we meet through the story who is not totally obsessed with fame and money. Bryan introduces himself as a watcher of his life; an onlooker. In this way he is the perfect narrator. Bryan uses the story as sort of a diary of his life, one fact that is dealt with is that he is gay but is in the closet his secret will appeal to many readers: "None of my friends have announced to me that they're straight. Until they do that, I don't see much point in making some grand declaration of my own."
Although Bryan is written with some sort of flare it seems that the other characters fall flat in comparison. Ruditis uses many stereotypes and it is difficult to relate to any of them due to the 2 dimensional image we are given. One of these characters is the main heroine Sam who doesn't actually have enough money to attend the school but her mother teaches there so she gets in. Sure she has talent and wants to go far but it is the same old story we have read too many times.
As I said a true musical theatre lover could be able to look past the character flaws because the drama filled story echos what could be an over the top theatre show but I do not recommend it to any one who has no knowledge of the performing arts as the story line is flat and easily predictable and most of the characters are bland and boring.
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