With the plethora of shows and movies such as High School Musical I,II & III and Camp Rock, TV’s offering such as Hannah Montana and the now all consuming Glee, I suppose it was inevitable that a show like this came about, High School Rock! Is a montage, perhaps an homage to the genre, but definitely a vehicle that is cashing in on the popularity of this type of entertainment.

On a Sunday afternoon in Dunfermline’s Alhambra Theatre the cast of nine enthusiastic performers took to the stage with an auditorium populated with predominately pre teen girls and proceeded to give their take on numbers drawn form a selection of those shows already mentioned.

The five guys four girl format tried hard to get their own enthusiasm to inspire the audience, unfortunately not very successfully, as they sang, danced and, was there even some lip-synching too?, through the first half. Now I must hold my hand up as I have not really seen much, if any, of the source material this was drawn from, but I recognised very little and found the interpretation somewhat stylised. I felt the sound was not good and some vocals uninspiring.

The second half, was much of the same, but getting the kids on stage to involve them? I only thought this happened in Panto!! On no it didn’t, trust me, six competed in a mini-basket tournament!! Well it was different I suppose.

The finale was really the only section that got the audience on their feet and that was their ‘Glee’ segment. At least with this I recognised some of the music. The kids loved this part, and I must admit I enjoyed this section more than anything else too.

I have to say that when some companies take numbers from show I am unaware of it can inspire me to investigate these productions further. I must admit I am not inspired to do so this time.

I know I am not the demographic the show is aimed at, but I didn’t feel they really reached the one they were aiming at either. There are quite a number of amateur companies in the West Fife area alone that regularly turn out more value for money and professional performances than was delivered today.

This was just one of t he variety of shows on offer at The Alhambra Theatre Dunfermline are offering over the next few months. To check out their line-up go to www.alhambradunfermline.com