Gary escribe una versión inglesa de High School Musical

HEATWORLD:

Ooh, we think we’ve found our favourite televisual event of 2008, and they haven’t even started making it yet – Gary Barlow is writing the songs for a sort of UK version of High School Musical. Britannia High will air on ITV later this year as an eight-part drama series – although, before that, we’ll get to watch the real-life casting process too. And Gary’s not the only big name lending his talents to the show – Strictly Come Dancing’s Arlene Phillips will be choreographing the whole thing. Oh, and the motto for the show is, “Life is not a rehearsal.” Hell yeah. We feel some jazz hands coming on…

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THE GUARDIAN:

ITV is drawing on the talents of Take That singer-songwriter Gary Barlow and Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips for a show that combines a stage school drama, behind-the-scenes real-life documentary and a revue finale. Britannia High will feature Barlow heading a team of songwriters who will pen set-piece numbers for the fictional arts school's young pupils to perform. Phillips will be the head of choreography, while David Ian, the West End producer who featured as a judge on Grease is the Word, will help her to select the performers. Britannia High will start with two 60-minute documentaries that show Phillips, Ian and other producers picking the actors, as well as venturing into Barlow's recording studio. This will be followed by eight hour-long instalments of Britannia High, a scripted drama about young actors vying with each other for centre stage and featuring music and dance routines created by Barlow and Phillips. Britannia High will end with a 90-minute live episode, taking the form of an end-of-term revue featuring performances from the cast, mingled with further drama segments. The show was the brainchild of Phillips and Ian, who are executive producers, and is a co-production between ITV Productions and Globe Productions, the television production arm of Universal Music. ITV1's genre-busting format has similarities with its new soap Echo Beach and its behind-the-scenes counterpart Moving Wallpaper, which make their debut on the network tonight. Britannia High's co-executive producers are Kieran Roberts, the ITV controller of drama in Manchester; Mark Wells, the controller of entertainment for ITV Productions; and talent agent Anita Land, the sister of the ITV executive chairman Michael Grade, who is representing Globe Productions.