High School Musical, Hammersmith Apollo, London

It makes Grease look like Sarah Kane's Blasted. Not that that matters one iota to the hordes of tots and tweenies kitted out in dinky cheerleader outfits and screaming their total approval of this stage version of Disney's High School Musical.

From modest origins as a low-budget TV movie, the piece has mushroomed into an unstoppable phenomenon. The quadruple-platinum soundtrack was last year's bestselling album, in any genre; cynics may jest they'll be doing it on ice next. They already have. Now, with a sister show on a regional British tour, this theatrical replica hits the capital for the lucrative summer holiday trade.

Watching Jeff Calhoun's hyper-energetic production, you don't think to ask who wrote it. You wonder, instead, about the craftily sanitising software that has seemingly generated it. High School Musical is a triumph of market research. It is ostensibly dedicated to preaching that you should resist peer group pressure – an ironic message for a show bent on global domination and cultural homogeneity.

As in Grease, our hero and heroine meet on holiday. It's a case of instant attraction at a karaoke evening. But the course of young love does not run smooth back at East High School in Albuquerque. Mark Evans's sweet, strapping Troy is the star of the basketball team, while Claire-Marie Hall's petite, feisty Gabrielle is "a freaky math girl". Their fledgling romance and attempts to audition for the lead couple in the school play – an allegedly feminist musical called Juliet and Romeo – are jeopardised by the intolerance of their respective "cliques".

Both the likeable cast and Lisa Stevens's choreography have boundless, upbeat vitality, and you can't fault the tightly drilled exuberance of numbers such as "Get'cha Head in the Game". Letitia Dean as the histrionic drama teacher and Rebecca Faulkenberry as the statutory jealous blonde bitch provide a welcome note of catty camp.

But the show wants to have it both ways. It sermonises about singularity and yet stereotypes the schoolgirl composer as a klutzy geek, pathetically grateful for the interest of the good-looking lovebirds. It asserts that to be second is no disgrace and yet ensures that Troy leads his team to victory. We never get to witness the "feminist" Juliet and Romeo, which is a mercy, given what we do hear of its drippy, generic love songs. Why not take your kids to see Hairspray, a talent-packed tuner that truly tackles the difficulties of standing out from the crowd? By comparison, High School Musical is a con: a dare-to-different show with zero originality.

To 31 August (0844 847 2397)