BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — November looks to be a banner month for fans of musicals with “The Little Mermaid Live!” (8-10 p.m. Tuesday, ABC) and the debut of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” developed by former Pittsburgher Tim Federle, on streaming service Disney+ Nov. 12 after a one-time only preview at 8 p.m. Nov. 8 on ABC, Disney Channel and Freeform.
In addition, visiting Point Park University assistant professor of musical theater Adam Wachter is a music director on Disney+’s “Encore!”
‘High School Musical’
Actor/author/screenwriter Tim Federle, a 1998 graduate of Upper St. Clair High School, had starred on Broadway (“The Little Mermaid”), written novels (“Better Nate Than Ever”), screenplays (the 2017 animated feature “Ferdinand”) and the book of a musical (“Tuck Everlasting”), but he hadn’t worked in streaming TV until he pitched Disney executives on how to revive the “High School Musical” franchise.
“I had grown up such a fan of Christopher Guest-style comedy — ‘Waiting for Guffman’ — that right out of the gate my pitch was a documentary-style comedy about a group of kids putting on ‘High School Musical,’ and to my surprise, they bought it,” Mr. Federle said in a recent phone interview a week before Disney+ announced the show was already picked up for a second season.
The 10-episode first season of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” which includes classic “HSM 1” tunes and new songs, exists in the real world where the original “HSM” was filmed at East High School in Salt Lake City (the original “HSM” was set in Albuquerque, N.M.) so the conceit of the series is East High has never staged the musical based on the Disney Channel movie that was filmed on its campus.
New theater teacher Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) sets out to change that, setting auditions for the roles made famous by Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
As is customary for a writer who hasn’t worked in TV, Mr. Federle was initially paired with “Pretty Little Liars” veteran Oliver Goldstick. but ultimately Mr. Goldstick departed for other projects leaving Mr. Federle as the sole showrunner.
“Having a theater background you learn so many skills,” Mr. Federle said. “It was great life training being a theater kid in Pittsburgh. … [Showrunning] is about having the resilience to hang onto your vision but also being flexible.”
Mr. Federle credits his first theater instructor, Judy Gelman at Mt. Lebanon’s Center for Theater Arts, with encouraging him to pursue a career in theater.
“She was the person who changed my life, who said, ‘You can do this,’” Mr. Federle said.
He’s brought some of his past into the present of “HSM,” casting former Pittsburgh CLO Mini Stars player Joe Serafini, now a senior studying musical theater at the University of Michigan, as Seb, who plays Sharpay in the musical within the show.
“I had gone back to CLO to get an alumni award several years back. and the Mini Stars performed. and I just thought he was so talented,” Mr. Federle said. “He reminded me of a younger me, a Pittsburgh theater kid from a non-theater family who had this dream.”
Mr. Federle is an executive producer on the upcoming animated musical feature film “Foster,” about a foster kid who goes into a book world to change the ending of a story he’s obsessed with. And he’s readying season two of “HSM:TM:TS,” which is unlikely to feature an adaptation of “High School Musical 2.”
“We start with ‘High School Musical’ and grow up and start doing different shows that are probably outside the ‘High School Musical’ world,” he said, “while still set at East High and winking at the original.”
‘Encore!’
Airing as a one-off special on ABC almost two years ago, “Encore!” debuts as a series on Disney+ Nov. 12. The docuseries features adults who were in high school musicals years ago reuniting to stage the same show again.
Adam Wachter, who now lives in Fineview, served as music director on the 2017 “Into the Woods” pilot of the series and returns to duty for six of the 12 new episodes.
A Michigan native who moved to Pittsburgh in 2018 for a three-year Point Park University position, Mr. Wachter traveled to high schools all over the country to film each episode, mostly during the summer. Shows staged in the first season, executive produced by host Kristen Bell (“The Good Place”), include “Annie” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
“They have 4½ days of rehearsals and then perform on the fifth night, which is insane, obviously, to put on a show that quickly, especially with a cast of people who don’t do this for a living, but we make it happen,” said Wachter, who music directed “Game On” last year at Pittsburgh CLO’s Greer Cabaret. “By the magic of theater, it all comes together.”
‘Little Mermaid Live!’
ABC’s “The Little Mermaid Live!” will feature a hybrid format that cuts back and forth between the 30-year-old animated film and actors playing the animated characters during the songs, including Auli’i Cravalho (“Moana”) as Ariel, Queen Latifah as Ursula and Shaggy as Sebastian.
Director Hamish Hamilton said “Little Mermaid Live!” will feature close to a dozen songs, including a couple from the Broadway musical adaptation that were not in the film.
And despite what happened with Fox’s “Rent Live!” — a lead actor broke his foot in a dress rehearsal and most of what aired was the dress rehearsal prior to his injury, not a live performance — there are no plans for understudies on “Little Mermaid Live!”
“We've always got a plan in place to deliver the final show in the best way possible,” Hamilton said after an ABC news conference at the Television Critics Association summer 2019 press tour. “We don't have an understudy for each role but if something's to happen, someone gets ill, then we have to go out and find someone else.”
WQED documentary
WQED-TV debuts “Homecoming: Sgt. Hamilton’s Long Journey” (8 p.m. Nov. 7), a 30-minute documentary about a 19-year-old Monongahela Army Air Corpsman whose plane was shot down in World War II but whose remains didn’t make it home until April 2019. The film will have an advance screening at 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at Monongahela’s Ringgold Middle School. Free tickets to the screening are available.
Kept/canceled/spun off
Streaming service Shudder renewed "Creepshow," executive produced by McCandless native Greg Nicotero, for a second season.
Amazon’s Prime Video renewed anthology “Modern Love” for a second season; Netflix did the same for sci-fi drama “Another Life.”
Freeform canceled “Cloak & Dagger” after two seasons; AMC did the same to “Lodge 49.”
The CW is developing a possible prequel series to “The 100” and another “Arrow”-verse spinoff, “Superman & Lois,” that would star Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch reprising their roles as the title characters.
VH1 ordered “RuPaul’s Celebrity Drag Race,” a four-episode series for 2020 featuring three celebs per episode undergoing a drag transformation.
Streaming service HBO Max, launching in May 2020 for $14.99 per month (and at no additional cost to AT&T customers who already subscribe to HBO through cable or OTT service HBO Now), announced plans for an all-new “Looney Tunes Cartoons” from Warner Bros. Animation, a live-action “Green Lantern” series and a “Game of Thrones” prequel, “Fire & Blood,” about House Targaryen 300 years before the events in “GOT,” among other original shows. (HBO opted not to move forward with a separate “Game of Thrones” prequel series starring Naomi Watts.)
Channel surfing
Magnolia, an upcoming cable network from “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, will launch in October 2020 on what is now Discovery’s DIY Network. … Sony will shutter live-action streaming service PlayStation Vue in January. … Kristen Stewart hosts NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this weekend with musical guest Coldplay; Harry Styles hosts and serves as musical guest Nov. 16. … Low-power, over-the-air-only Pittsburgh station WPTG will add The Heartland Network, a country music and lifestyle diginet, on Channel 69.6 on Nov. 1.
Tuned In online
Today's TV Q&A column responds to questions about “Mindhunter,” “Mom” and KDKA-TV on-air talent. This week's Tuned In Journal includes posts on “Baroness von Sketch Show.” Read online-only TV content at http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in.
TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook for breaking TV news.
First Published: October 31, 2019, 12:00 p.m.
