What’s the Story?

In GUYS 'N' DIVAS: BATTLE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALS, filmmaker Barry Blaustein (Beyond the Mat) captures the inherent drama of the high school theater scene by shadowing three different student productions in southern Indiana: Floyd Central High School's Zombie Prom, New Albany High School's Kaiulani: The Last Princess, and Jeffersonville High School's Starmites. The plot centers of which of the schools, if any, will win admission to the prestigious International Thespian Festival, an annual showcase of the nation's best high school theater fare.

Is It Any Good?

Blaustein kicks off his homage to high school theater by talking briefly about his own theatrical experiences as a teen (an animated opening sequence that includes an unfortunate "blackface" gag and a joke about Nazis). But then he basically disappears for the rest of the movie, dropping in only with occasional voice-overs. Still, maybe that's best. After all, it's the students' stories that really make this film worth watching.

But that's also where Blaustein misses the mark. The downside to focusing on three different schools is that he has to split the movie's time between them, a structural problem that ultimately leaves the viewer unsatisfied. Would it have been better (and more revealing) to limit the action to just one of these schools as the students launched a production from start to finish? Maybe. But since, as a director, Blaustein triple-casted his lead, we'll never know.

Have you seen it?

TV Show Details

TV Rating

TV-14

Network

Showtime

Genre

Reality TV

Where to watch

Showtime

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