Alexandra Park has a connection with high school students. During the day, she is a school counselor. But after her regular shift is over, she runs a community center for youth where many of the students she counsels spend their afternoons.
Although she has been able to keep the center open through funding from her own account, things start to deteriorate quickly, and Park falls behind in rent payments for the facility. She confides in a friend that she hasn’t been the best bookkeeper and didn’t realize just how far behind she had fallen.
Meanwhile, a greedy businessman named Mr. Chandler plans to intimidate Park into conceding the property to him so that he can buy it and rent it out for big bucks, but she declines his menacing and is determined to figure out a way to save the center.
Her plan comes together as she reluctantly reaches out to Max, an old boyfriend who is also a screenplay writer for Broadway-style shows. Having discovered the broad range of talent that her students have, she asks Max to write a script that her students can perform so that they can raise money that might help pull the community center out of debt.
Max organizes auditions and gets to composing a show he calls “One Star Rising.” He and Park mend their broken friendship as they work together and coach the students through their roles for the upcoming performance.
On the day of the show, Park swings by the community center to grab a few things and is surprised by Chandler, who hits her on the head with a baseball bat and locks her in an on-site freezer. When Park doesn’t show up before the curtain call, Max begins to panic and sets out to find her.
He heads to her apartment and doesn’t find her there. He decides to look for Park at the community center and finds her unconscious in the freezer. EMTs arrive and help Park to recover before they head to the show.
When the show is over and the students, Max and Park are chatting backstage, Mark Benson, a local business owner, pops in to congratulate the performers on their outstanding work – and to offer lifetime access to his newest building, a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
The Dove Take:
Teen Musical is a high-spirited musical film that highlights the importance of access to a community center for teens while spotlighting their various talents as they problem-solve how to keep the center open. This film is family-friendly and receives Dove-approval for all ages.
