“This is life or death,” screams Skylar. “This is cheer camp!”

The cast of the musical Bring It On – inspired by the hit 2000 film about high school cheerleading starring Kirsten Dunst – rarely lets the intensity drop in this extravaganza of dance and gravity-defying lifts and flips.

Kirby Burgess and the cast of Bring It On. Photo © Nico Keenan

The musical isn’t simply an adaptation of the beloved film, creating instead a new story inspired by the world of competitive cheerleading and bitter team rivalries that Bring It On (and the subsequent five films that expanded the Bring It On cinematic universe) explored. It tells the story of Campbell (Kirby Burgess), the newly elected captain of the Truman High cheerleading squad, whose reign is toppled before it begins thanks to the vagaries of school redistricting. She is forced to leave her friends and team mates behind and find her feet at the less affluent Jackson High, where a different social hierarchy means her privilege and cheerleading skills count for little – especially when it comes to the leader of the school’s hip hop crew, Danielle (Jasmine Smith).

With a book by...