"Next Year's Musical" is the first segment of the fifty-fifth episode of the Disney Channel animated series Kiff.
Synopsis[]
Helen struggles to write this year's school musical.
Plot[]
In her classroom, Helen awakens to her students waiting for her to begin teaching. Through the intercom, Principal Secretary then asks Helen to report to his office, where he tells her that he will be allotting her a generous budget to produce the upcoming school musical, on the sole condition that he is not portrayed as a villain like in the previous year's musical. Helen initially refuses to compromise her artistic vision, but the money changes her mind. Outside, the students begin cheering about the musical. Principal Secretary says that he must have accidentally leaned on his intercom button and broadcast his conversation with Helen throughout Table Town Middle School.
Back in her classroom, Helen begins writing a script for the musical on her typewriter. Kiff and Barry visit to offer their assistance, and they see that Helen's script so far only consists of the phrase "PS Not Stingy" written five times. In frustration, Helen throws her typewriter out the window. Kiff and Barry tell her not to worry, as the students have plenty of ideas for the musical. Trevor, Reggie, Candle, and even Mr. RiPeppa enter one by one to pitch Helen their respective ideas in the form of a song, but Helen rejects their help and sends everyone out of the room.
Helen sits at her keyboard and tries to compose a song for the musical. While Helen performs her song, Principal Secretary bursts into the room to give her some brief words of encouragement. After he leaves, Helen walks to her mirror and talks to herself, bemoaning her lack of creative inspiration. To her shock, her reflection talks back to her, dismissing her talent and telling her to give up on the musical. In the darkened room, Helen is suddenly surrounded by numerous masked figures who all mock her as a failure, while her typewriter sprouts legs and runs circles around her. Helen then finds herself seated at a table with her now-normal typewriter. Still unable to write her script, she breaks down in tears.
Having apparently dreamed up the entire preceding sequence, Helen wakes up in her classroom surrounded by Kiff, Barry, Trevor, Candle, Reggie, and Principal Secretary, who tell her that the musical is that night and they urgently need to rehearse. Feeling defeated, Helen sings them a song in which she sadly admits that she failed to come up with anything for the musical. Afterwards, she hears loud applause, to her confusion. The lights around Helen turn on to reveal that she is actually inside a replica of her classroom on the stage of the school gym, where a packed audience has been watching her.
For the grand finale, Helen's students continue her song and explain that they, knowing Helen's ability to make a dramatic scene out of anything, decided to make a musical about her artistic process, and that while she was asleep, they took her out of her bed and placed her inside a set of her classroom – and she has thus spent the entire time "acting" on stage without even knowing it. "Principal Secretary" reveals himself to be Trevor in costume, with the real Principal Secretary watching in the audience, while "Trevor", "Candle", "Reggie", and "Mr. RiPeppa" are actually a costumed Candle, Patty, Snekole, and Miss Deer Teacher. Reggie is shown to have been working the lighting and special effects behind the scenes, three of the masked figures unmask themselves as Gareth, Darryn, and Renée, and the walking typewriter is revealed as Timmy Table. As the audience wildly applauds, Helen is only able to respond with an incredulous "What?!" before the curtains close on her.
Cast[]
- Kimiko Glenn as Kiff Chatterley
- H. Michael Croner as Barry Buns
- Nic Small as Principal Secretary
- Lucy Heavens as Helen
- Tom Kenny as Trevor Angstrom
- Eric Bauza as Reggie Racona and Mr. RiPeppa
- Vella Lovell as Candle Fox
Songs[]
- "Musical Medley"
- "I Don't Feel Nice"
- "Something to Confess"
Trivia[]
- Opening Sponsor: Shady's Briefcase Full of Cash.
- Hints about the twist ending appear throughout the episode:
- The episode begins with a shot of curtains closing, then opening to reveal the first classroom scene.
- Kiff begins the episode by saying: "Attention, everyone! Quiet, please. Bathrooms are down the hall to the left. Fire exit is to the right. Put those phones on quiet mode and let's listen to Helen." The scene is positioned to give the impression that Kiff is addressing her classmates, rather than the unseen audience of the musical.
- Helen's classroom connects directly to Principal Secretary's office, which is not the case in the actual Table Town Middle School. The wall separating the two sets can be seen during the quick, blurry transition from the classroom scene to the office scene. When Helen enters the office, the classroom is visible on the other side of the door before it shuts.
- When Kiff and Barry throw Trevor in the air, it can be seen that the classroom lacks a ceiling.
- After Kiff says "I'm starting to worry about Helen", Barry forgets to deliver his follow-up line and has to be nudged by Kiff into saying it.
- The various changes in lighting, including the fade-ins and fade-outs between scenes and the bright lights that shine on Helen during her solo scenes, are later revealed to have been Reggie controlling the stage lights.
- The musical Trevor pitches to Helen, The Book of Trevor, is a parody of the 2011 musical The Book of Mormon.
- Helen tells Candle that high school "never will be an interesting subject for a musical", alluding to the High School Musical franchise. As Helen says this, the poster for her own high school-themed musical is seen behind her.
Continuity[]
- The events of "The Sound of Helen" are revisited. Following the success of My Fair Helen the previous year, Helen is tasked with writing another musical for the current school year. Principal Secretary is shown objecting to his unflattering portrayal in My Fair Helen. Like My Fair Helen, the school musical ends up being a musical about the creation of a musical.
Broadcasting[]
- Prior to the episode's airing, "Something to Confess" was released on the season 2 soundtrack album on July 25, 2025.
Gallery[]
External links[]
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