The Big Production #2 (Drama Club)

Features

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Cover Type: Paperback with 240 pages
• Published by: Puffin September 6, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0142408875
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0142408872
• Book Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 ounces

School Library Journal
Overall, a solid and well-cast production.

Product Description
When it is announced that the Big Spring Musical will be Grease, immediately the drama heats up. Auditions are swamped, emotions run high, and everyone is stressing to make sure that every last detail is exactly right. Meanwhile, it’s all just a bit too much for Brianna, who takes some desperate measures to keep her head above water. Can the Drama Club nail their performance and keep Brianna from falling apart? It could be the chance of a lifetime, and no one wants to be the one to blow it.

Reader Reviews
The Big Production, by Peter Lerangis, is the second book in the Drama Club series. Washington D. C.'s Ridgeport High School is an ordinary public school with an extraordinary history of theatrical productions. As the students prepare to perform Grease, their spring musical, junior Brianna goes from motivated good girl to an overachiever relying on uppers and downers to get her through her jam-packed days. There is the usual cast of drama students within the main plot: the diva, the tech geek, the reluctant performer, the jock who can act, the homosexual, and the student director. The multi-narrators' points of view stay very true to teen language including instant messaging between various characters. The drug use subplot has very little explicit use--most shows the effects of the drugs on Brianna (short temper, shaking hands, confusion and delerium). Another main character, nice boy Harrison, deals with his racist, homophobic, Greek father providing a father-son strained relationship as another sub-plot. Unlike similar novels (such as the Drama! series by Paul Ruditis), the theatrical aspect of the book isn't too technical, and in fact provides much of the drama and hilarity. Case in point is stage manager Charles' reaction to opening night: "By opening curtain, Charles wanted to kill Gabe for adding a motor to the car, which went off all by itself as the cast were taking their places. By the first musical number, he wanted to kill the cast. By the start of the second act, he wanted to kill himself. These were excellent signs. The wish for mass murder, he had come to realize, was healthy in the theater, as long as one refrained from the accomplishment thereof" (214). The Big Production would be enjoyed by many students grades 7 and up, not just those interested in drama. Comment | | (Report this)