Class is back in session! A new recording and music video of Ranked, A Musical, featuring a book by Kyle Holmes and music and lyrics by David Taylor Gomes, have been released.
Funny Girl's Amber Ardolino, The Book of Mormon's JJ Niemann, and So You Think You Can Dance All Star and fan favorite Alex Wong, who was also in Newsies on Broadway, star in the new version, which can be watched above. The new recording is also available for streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.
Ranked, A Musical explores the pressures teenagers face. In a dystopian world where academic excellence is public and defining, students destroy themselves and each other to become number one. But then a lie is discovered, and every student's future is uncertain once again.
READ: In Writing Ranked, Kyle Holmes and David Taylor Gomes Put Teenagers First
“Eye on the Prize” is produced by Holmes and features music production by Gomes and Andrew Heringer. The music video is by Tyler Milliron at Milliron Studios, with casting by Stephanie Klapper.
The musical, which anticipated the Varsity Blue college admissions scandal, was originally written with students of (and debuted at) California's Granite Bay High School, where Holmes worked as a drama teacher and Gomes served as musical director for the theatre program. It has since been produced and developed by the University of California, Davis, and licensed by over 75 schools internationally.
HBO recently released a documentary titled My So-Called High School Rank, now streaming on HBO Max, which centers on Ranked's creation and the beginning of the musical trying to make its way to Broadway before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
