REVIEW: Bring It On: The Musical - NAPA Broadway Extension

Bring It On: The Musical

Presented by: NAPA Broadway Extension Class

Music: Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lyrics: Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda

Book: Jeff Whitty

Date attended: 6 September 2026

Director: Hollie Andrew

Choreographers: Mandy Morrison, Cooper Swain, and Michael Hughes

Vocal Directors: Steffi Gowland and Laila Chequer De Souza

Sound Design: John Taylor | Sound Operation: Kate Taylor

Lighting Design: Hollie Andrew | Lighting Technician: Hunter Wall | Lighting Operator: Mandy Morrison

Costumes: Kim Reynolds | Props & Set Dressing: Mandy Morrison

Production Photography: David Reynolds

“We’re like Hells Angels, but cheerleaders!”

You need to have energetic performers, athletic dancers, and a cast willing to grin through absolute cardio hell to pull off Bring It On: The Musical. NAPA has all three.

This show is high ponies, pom-poms, aerials, teenage ambition, hip-hop, and smiling while you suffer. It's tailor-made for a senior youth musical theatre company. These characters live at full volume, every social crisis feels like the apocalypse, and the cast has to belt out tunes while doing choreo that would put me in hospital.

My cheerleading knowledge beforehand was limited to Glee, the Bring It On films, and one football game I went to in Boston 15 years ago, so I walked in like a total rookie. I’d also never seen this musical before. It's like being back in high school, but without the braces and bad haircuts. I was loving every minute of it!

And if you’re expecting the Kirsten Dunst film, don’t. This is its own story. Campbell (Summer Andrews) is newly crowned captain of Truman High’s cheer squad and sees her senior year stretching ahead in one perfect glittery line. However, she's suddenly transferred to Jackson High, where there is NO cheer team at all. Campbell also kind of needs this humbling.

Summer Andrews sings with a clean, modern solo sound and beautiful confidence to make Campbell’s early certainty completely believable. At Truman, she belongs. At Jackson, she is gloriously out of water, still operating in full cheer-captain mode while everybody around her is side-eyeing her. Her world is matching uniforms, pep, and hierarchy. Jackson’s is individuality.

That contrast bursts onto the stage in “Do Your Own Thing.” The Truman cheerleaders are so peppy I suspect they could smile through minor surgery. Jackson arrives in greens, purples, blacks, cargos, jerseys, bandanas, and grunge. The dance crew serves from the second they hit that stage, throwing themselves into the choreography with swagger. Mandy Morrison, Cooper Swain, and Michael Hughes give the two schools distinct movement languages, with Truman’s cheer precision crashing beautifully against Jackson’s looser hip-hop energy.

The person Campbell has to win over is Danielle (Nikki Swan-Pieterse). Her phenomenal voice has that bright, current pop quality that just keeps climbing, and during some of those upper notes, I genuinely started wondering where her ceiling was. There’s an Ariana flavor in her mix, but Swan-Pieterse still sounds uniquely herself. More importantly, she has the acting to match the vocals. Danielle doesn’t soften just because Campbell needs her to. Swan-Pieterse gives her pride, suspicion, and some serious fire when Campbell betrays the group’s trust. She digs right into that anger, and suddenly the conflict has weight beyond high-school drama. Side note, Swan-Pieterse casually flips then drops into the splits at one point. That got an actual WTF out of me.

Danielle’s crew is a whole event. Danielle, Nautica (Madison Hirst), and La Cienega (Tasman Grew-Jones) kept giving me Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Tina Turner vibes. They all know how to hold focus without begging for it, and Grew-Jones in heels during “It’s All Happening” was particularly admirable! That number barrels along with rapping by Keanu Paunde-Schaffer, sharp hip-hop movements, and personality everywhere you look. Luan Fitzgerald commits wholeheartedly to whatever nonsense Twig is up to. He has a knack for throwing himself into every role I've seen him play, always embracing every opportunity for creativity and expression.

Georgia Wellburn as Bridget was a definite crowd-favourite chaos agent. Underneath all her goofy mascot awkwardness, she has a heart of gold and an astonishing singing voice. “It Ain’t No Thing” absolutely slaps as Wellburn starts riffing like she plans to blow the roof off before she heads out.

Lucas Brown as Randall offers some welcome breathing room from the competitive madness. His voice possesses an easy boy-band quality that pairs beautifully with Campbell’s in their duet, “Enjoy the Trip.” Brown and Andrews share a sweet chemistry, but Randall is somewhat underserved by a story whose most compelling relationships are between its girls. His rapid romantic subplot can feel comparatively incidental. Brown brings an appealingly different energy to the Jackson crowd, and I would love to see the show provide more space for that individuality, enhancing both Randall's role and the romance's purpose. But alas, I'm not the dramaturg.

The Truman girls understand the comedy in their particular brand of weaponised cheerfulness. Saje Roberts as Skylar has cheerleader energy down to an art, with the airy cockiness of someone who probably practices smiling in mirrors. Elly Jansen as Eva is even more dangerous because she starts out so sweetly... Campbell’s wide-eyed admirer somehow becomes captain, steals her boyfriend for good measure, and evolves into a passive-aggressive queen bee with alarming speed. By “Killer Instinct” (the only song I knew beforehand), that sweetness has sharpened into full villain mode. Jansen has a strong pop belt to match, plus seriously impressive stamina.

NAPA’s casting depth is wild. This is a huge company and every person up there can sing their heart out. Across the entire show, I didn’t hear one dodgy vocal moment. Steffi Gowland and Laila Chequer De Souza’s vocal direction is a major part of that success. Harmonies have punch, the huge ensemble never turns into an indistinguishable wall of sound, and the singers remain impressively secure even after demanding physical sequences. I also love how the company divides the workload between cheerleaders, dance crew, and vocalists. If every performer had to belt, flip, cheer, rap, act, AND dance full-out in every number, somebody would eventually pass out. Instead, each group can attack its own job properly. And huge shoutout to anyone doing the aerials!

“If you do what you love with your time, then you win!”

That idea keeps poking through all the glitter. Campbell talks about wasted potential and ambition as though standing still is a personal failure. Jackson forces her to reconsider her priorities. “Bring It On” closes Act One as the ultimate rivalry anthem, and the sheer size of this company gets to go completely feral. Truman and Jackson collide, the vocals pile up, and the stage feels enormous. The final competition “Cross the Line” has actual joy in it. The cast pours into the aisles to pump us up (although by that point we hardly needed encouragement.) Featured vocalists Addison Hartwig, India Caveglia, Lucy Bowyer, Star Montgomery, Kiran Sen, Callum Paget, Micah Hendrickson, and Zephaniah Orines help give “Legendary” and “Cross the Line” their full-company wall of sound, while the cheer and dance ensembles keep the stage alive with movement.

Hollie Andrew directs the whole thing with a clear understanding of what makes this material both fun and fundamental. NAPA’s Bring It On knows exactly who should be doing this show: high-school musical theatre kids. They understand this level of drama in their bones. And after watching those routines, I hope somebody handed out sports drinks and told them they were allowed to lie down for a week.