BACKGROUND
I can’t imagine too many people are unfamiliar with High School Musical.
High School Musical has spanned quite a legacy in the years since its release, with sequels, spin-offs, entertainment experiences, and merchandise only adding to that. It wasn’t even the first musical to come from Disney Channel – that was The Cheetah Girls in 2003 – but for some reason, this movie, very much inspired by Grease (1978), one of the most popular movie musicals of all time and loved by both musical and non-musical fans alike, became a sensation amongst tweens and teens, allegedly making musicals “cool” again. I’ve always liked musicals so I hadn’t realised they were out of fashion.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t like High School Musical. But let me explain.
I was as excited as anyone when High School Musical first came to Disney Channel. I was 13 at the time, so the perfect demographic, and I was obsessed with Disney Channel then, watching series like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08) pretty much every morning before school. I’d been watching new Disney Channel Original Movies as they premiered for about two or three years by this point too. I was a big Disney Channel fan.
When High School Musical first arrived to Disney Channel in September 2006 in the UK, about nine months after it had already hit screens in the US, leading to a gigantic buzz that luckily, I didn’t have to see any spoilers for thanks to the lack of social media, I really liked it. I had the soundtrack, which even my sister, who was not a huge Disney Channel fan, liked, and I remember listening to it on a loop on a drive to an airport. I also had the DVD, and watched all the bonus editions of the film that aired on Disney Channel, like the Sing-Along edition, the Dance-Along edition, and the Pop-Up edition, where facts from the movie popped up on screen alongside the film itself. High School Musical was a big deal.
But, as soon as High School Musical 2 came along in 2007, my love of the first High School Musical diminished year-on-year, to the point I hadn’t actually seen the original film in maybe ten years before rewatching it this week, even though I watch the second and third films still. I just find that High School Musical is a bit cringey, the music is not as good – I actually only like three songs in the film, and none are “Breaking Free” or “Start of Something New” – and the costumes, locations, and even the hairstyles just look much better in the second and third movies.
PLOT
High School Musical begins on New Year’s Eve at a ski resort. Two teenagers are on two separate holidays with their families: Gabriella Montez, here with her mother, and Troy Bolton, with his parents. On New Year’s Eve, Gabriella is told by her mother to stop reading and go and join the teens’ party. Troy and his father are told by Troy’s mother to stop playing basketball so Troy can join the teens’ party. Neither Troy nor Gabriella really wants to go.
At the party, the DJ randomly selects two teenagers to sing a karaoke song as the teens get ready to countdown to midnight. The two chosen are Troy and Gabriella. Despite trying to get out of it, neither are allowed to and both have to stand up on a mini-stage and sing a duet together in front of everyone. Troy sings his opening verse and is about to step off the stage, when Gabriella starts singing. Transfixed by her, Troy continues the duet and they actually have a good time. Troy and Gabriella continue to chat as midnight comes closer and they countdown to the New Year together. At midnight, the two awkwardly end the conversation, saying they need to say “Happy New Year” to their parents, so after swapping phone numbers, they both leave, not knowing if they’ll ever see each other again.
A few days later, Troy returns to his school, East High, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the new term. As fate would have it, so is Gabriella. Gabriella is used to moving around the country for her mum’s job, but now her mother has transferred to Albuquerque and will be staying until Gabriella graduates. Gabriella is understandably nervous about her first day, and heads to homeroom where her teacher is Ms. Darbus, the school’s drama teacher. Troy is also in this class, along with his teammate and best friend Chad; drama club members and twin siblings Sharpay and Ryan; and smart girl Taylor. Ms. Darbus discusses the latest school news, like the school musical and Taylor’s scholastic decathlon, when the class is interrupted by a ringtone. Ms. Darbus goes around the class, getting everyone with phones in their hands to hand them in and giving those students detention, which includes Troy and Gabriella, since Troy was the one who called Gabriella to check it was really her.
Outside the class, Troy speaks to Gabriella, very happy to see she has moved here. Gabriella says she tried to look for him on New Year’s Day but he’d already left the resort. The two find themselves by the sign-up sheet for the school musical, both jokingly saying the other should sign up, when Sharpay comes up to the sheet and signs herself up. She says the drama department always welcomes newcomers, but it’s obvious she feels threatened by Gabriella for having Troy’s attention, because Sharpay has a crush on Troy.
At basketball practice, Troy asks Chad about the musical, but Chad tells him to forget about it and focus on basketball, as they have a big championship game coming up. In another class, Sharpay tries to warn Gabriella off Troy, but Gabriella mostly ignores her. After correcting their teacher, Sharpay sees that Gabriella is really smart, as does Taylor. Sharpay and Ryan then do some research into Gabriella and discuss why her and Troy are interested in their musical. Sharpay sees that Gabriella is basically a prodigy, winning awards for all sorts of competitions, and prints the information off, to place in Taylor’s locker.
At detention, Ms. Darbus tasks all the students with painting sets for the musical. Taylor rushes over to Gabriella saying she’ll happily let Gabriella onto the scholastic decathlon team, believing she placed the article about Gabriella’s talents in her locker. Gabriella says she didn’t do that and doesn’t want to join any teams right now. Meanwhile, at basketball practice, Coach Bolton sees that his son Troy and Chad are not there, and goes to detention to get them to return to practice, ignoring Ms. Darbus completely. The two teachers complain to Principal Matsui, with Ms. Darbus hating the fact the school favours sporting ability over anything else, with this meeting only confirming this as the principal refuses to side with Ms. Darbus, wanting the basketball team to succeed. At home, Coach Bolton tells Troy not to go to detention anymore, but ignores his son’s talk about wanting to try something else other than basketball, like singing and performing.
The next day, Ms. Darbus reminds her class about auditions for the musical which will be running until midday. Troy lies to Chad about wanting to catch up on some homework during their free period, and heads to the auditions, although Chad senses something is amiss and follows him. Troy takes a weird route through the school and loses Chad, making his way to the theatre and watches auditions from the back of the room, hiding behind a janitor’s trolley. Gabriella soon joins him there, but both are too scared to go and audition. They watch as soloists perform for Ms. Darbus, before auditions open up for pairs, with Sharpay and Ryan being the only pair to audition for the leads. Ms. Darbus is impressed by the twins’ perfect performance, but stills calls out to the room to see if any other pair would like to audition. Nobody comes to the stage so Ms. Darbus ends the auditions. Suddenly, Gabriella walks down to the stage and asks to audition. Gabriella is told auditions are over and there is nobody to sing with her anyway. Troy then appears and says he’ll sing with her. Ms. Darbus is surprised and suspicious to see Troy at her auditions, but nevertheless, the auditions are over, so they’ll have to try again next time.
Troy and Gabriella see student composer and pianist Kelsi Nielsen trip, dropping all her music. They go to help her pick it up. Troy is impressed that Kelsi has written all the music for this musical herself, calling her the musical’s “playmaker”. Kelsi asks Troy and Gabriella if they’d like to see how the duet that Sharpay and Ryan is supposed to be performed, as they changed her traditional ballad into a jazzy number. Kelsi encourages Troy and Gabriella to sing along with her playing. As they end the song, Ms. Darbus appears and tells the two that they have a callback.
The next day, Sharpay and Ryan see that they have a callback with Troy and Gabriella; Sharpay is horrified. The basketball team and others soon see this too and news goes around the school quickly. At lunch, it would seem that the whole of East High has gone mad as students in certain cliques confess that they have interests in other activities outside of their groups, such as Zeke, a basketball player who likes to bake, and “nerdy” girl Martha who actually likes to dance. Sharpay blames Gabriella for all this, as none of this would’ve happened had she not arrived at East High. She goes to confront her in the cafeteria, but Gabriella slips on something and spills all her lunch over Sharpay. Ms. Darbus hears the commotion and comes over. Sharpay accuses Gabriella of tipping food on her on purpose, and says she fears for Ms. Darbus’ musical is being ruined by “outsiders”. Ms. Darbus takes her concerns straight to Coach Bolton, believing that he put his son up to this to ruin her musical, wanting revenge over the detention she gave to Troy and Chad. Coach Bolton claims to know nothing about it, but Ms. Darbus isn’t at all convinced.
Later, Gabriella finds a note in her locker. It’s from Troy, asking her to meet him on the school’s rooftop garden. Here, they talk about the expectations everyone has for them, like how Gabriella is only known for her intelligence, and Troy is just supposed to be the basketball captain, yet when they are together, they can fully be themselves. They decide to rehearse for the callbacks in secret, hiding away from Sharpay and Ryan who are determined to catch them out. However, Troy is late for basketball practice one day because of this and tells Coach Bolton he’ll practise alone to make up for it. Gabriella then comes into the gym, and the two mess around, teasing each other about their free-throwing abilities. Coach Bolton hears this and tells Gabriella that the gym is off-limits until every basketball player has left practice. Gabriella goes. Troy doesn’t like how rude his father was to her, with Coach Bolton saying if she is the one getting him detentions, then Troy should stay away.
Chad also sees Troy getting distracted with all this musical stuff, and reminds him to focus on basketball. Fearing this advice has fallen on deaf ears, Chad talks to Taylor and they devise a plan to keep Troy and Gabriella away from the musical and each other, so the basketball team can win their game, and Taylor can win her decathlon. Chad and the team corner Troy after practice and tell him about all the legends that have played at East High, including Troy’s father, and how he should be on that list. Taylor and the decathlon team remind Gabriella about how dumb jocks are and that she should embrace her intelligence and forget about him. Chad then starts recording Troy, as his baiting has gotten Troy to say that he only cares about the team, and not about Gabriella or the musical. This is then shown to Gabriella. Gabriella is heartbroken, but agrees to join the decathlon.
After this, Troy tries to speak to Gabriella by her locker, but is confused by her reaction to him, telling him she doesn’t want to do the callbacks and that she needs to focus on the scholastic decathlon now anyway. Troy is upset that Gabriella doesn’t want to speak to him anymore and can’t concentrate on anything now, even basketball. Troy and Gabriella don’t talk to each other at school anymore, but they also start to grow distant from their so-called friends too, making Chad and Taylor feel guilty. Good, so they should. Chad comes clean to Troy about what he did by showing the video of him to Gabriella. Taylor does the same, but Gabriella can’t just forget it, as Troy really did say those things about her. Deciding he’ll have to make a bigger apology to Gabriella, he goes round to her house after school. Gabriella tells her mother to lie to get him to leave, so she says Gabriella is busy with homework. Troy then calls Gabriella as he climbs a tree outside her bedroom window. He apologises and tells her to look out her window, as he sings the karaoke song from the night they first met to her. All is forgiven, simple as that.
Rehearsals resume and Troy and Gabriella also focus on their respective teams. Sharpay and Ryan hear Gabriella and Troy singing one day though, and hatch a plan to change the date of the musical callback from Thursday to Friday, so that it will clash with the scholastic decathlon and the basketball game. Luckily, Ms. Darbus doesn’t argue and moves the callback date. Troy and Gabriella learn the news the next day, with their friends. They all agree to work together to make sure Troy and Gabriella can do the callback and their events.
On Friday, the Championship game, the decathlon, and the callbacks all begin. Ryan and Sharpay begin their callback with another over-the-top performance, whilst Gabriella easily wins the first event in the decathlon. Taylor then sends a code from her laptop to shut down the electricity in the school gym, suspending the game. Troy leaves the gym and heads for the theatre. At the decathlon, Taylor and Gabriella wait for their chemistry experiment to go wrong, creating a disgusting chemical reaction which delays the rest of the events. Gabriella heads to the theatre too, however, Ms. Darbus has already called their names, and is closing down callbacks, despite Kelsi asking her to wait for the two to arrive. When Troy and Gabriella do eventually arrive, they are told they cannot perform, but then most of the school come in to watch. Not wanting to disappoint the biggest audience her auditions have ever produced, Ms. Darbus allows the two to sing, with Kelsi on piano.
Gabriella has never performed in front of such a large audience though and clams up, missing her cue. Troy tells her to look at him and they start again. They perform brilliantly, impressing everyone in the crowd, even Coach Bolton who has come to see what all the fuss is about. At the end of their performance, Troy and Gabriella return to the basketball game and the decathlon respectively. The basketball team win their game, with Gabriella coming over to say the scholastic decathlon team won too. Sharpay then arrives, telling Troy and Gabriella they got the lead roles, and that Sharpay and Ryan are their understudies; she seems alright about it though. Chad then asks Taylor out, and she accepts. The whole school come together to celebrate their achievements, now accepting that everybody can do whatever they like, regardless of what “group” they belong to.
In a post-credits scene, we see Sharpay telling Zeke that the cookies he gave her are the best cookies she’s ever eaten. He thanks her and says he’ll make her a crème brûlée. So happy endings and dessert for everyone!
CHARACTERS & CAST
Troy Bolton is a very popular student at East High. He is the basketball captain after all and jocks tend to rule the school. But Troy is cool and will talk to anyone in the school. When he meets Gabriella, Troy is instantly smitten with her, but he doesn’t expect to ever see her again, so what a great surprise it must’ve been to see that Gabriella has joined East High. The problem is with Gabriella here, it makes Troy question everything about himself, and whether he is just “the basketball guy”. He learns that he actually does like to sing and wants to part of the school musical with Gabriella. This leads to other students wanting to break out of their groups too, to pursue their own interests, which turns out to be a great thing for East High as all the students start to hang out with each other.
Zac Efron was cast as Troy Bolton. Prior to his role in High School Musical, he had starred as Patrick McCardle in the movie The Derby Stallion (2005) and had been cast as Cameron Bale in The WB series Summerland (2004-05), which also starred Lori Loughlin and Jesse McCartney. Efron later starred as Link Larkin in the movie musical Hairspray (2007), alongside big names like John Travolta, Christopher Walken, and Queen Latifah.
Although Troy has the biggest journey through High School Musical, having to accept criticism and judgement of his singing from his team because it is so different from what Troy has ever done, Gabriella Montez is arguably the catalyst of this change. If Gabriella hadn’t come to East High, then Troy would’ve just continued playing basketball and nothing would’ve changed. Gabriella lets Troy be himself, and in turn, she can be herself too, not wanting to be known as the smart girl at yet another new school. She manages to avoid too much stereotyping here, as she bridges the gap to the jocks. Gabriella is also unfailingly kind, even to Sharpay who clearly feels threatened by her.
Gabriella was played by Vanessa Hudgens. She had previously been cast as Tin-Tin in the movie Thunderbirds (2004), based on the television series, and went on to be cast in the recurring role of Corrie in Season 2 of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
Sharpay is a member of the drama club, being the lead in pretty much every play or musical that they put on. She might not technically be popular but everyone in school knows her because of her diva attitude. Sharpay wants to always be the centre of attention, and doesn’t like anyone taking her spotlight, like new girl Gabriella, who also takes Troy’s attention, annoying Sharpay further. When Gabriella starts to threaten Sharpay’s chance of becoming lead in the school musical, Sharpay is not afraid to disrupt that, by getting the callback date changed to stop Gabriella and Troy attending, however, this backfires and Sharpay loses out on the lead to Gabriella. Strangely enough, she seems alright with it by the end of High School Musical. Maybe she’s just concocting an even bigger revenge plot!
Ashley Tisdale was cast as Sharpay Evans. Also for Disney, Tisdale starred as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and voiced Candace in their animated series Phineas and Ferb (2007-15), a role she returned to for the 2025 revival.
Ryan is Sharpay’s twin brother and also a member of the drama club, pairing up with his sister to take the lead roles. Ryan doesn’t seem to have a hateful bone in his body, and only goes along with whatever Sharpay wants out of some sort of family loyalty. He could potentially talk Sharpay out of her plots and plans, but he doesn’t, because Sharpay is kind of scary and not someone you want to get on the wrong side of! But even Ryan can’t disagree that his sister is fame-obsessed, not liking Ryan putting his own spin on routines, or wanting to get his moment in the spotlight.
Lucas Grabeel was cast as Ryan Evans. Lucas Grabeel was cast as Ethan in Halloweentown High (2004), reprising his role in Return to Halloweentown (2006), the fourth movie in the franchise. Return to Halloweentown was released in October 2006, a few months after High School Musical, potentially increasing interest in that film. Grabeel was also cast as Scooter in the Disney movie College Road Trip (2008), alongside Raven-Symoné and Brenda Song, and appeared as Danny Nicoletta in the Oscar-nominated movie Milk (2008), which starred Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.
Chad Danforth is Troy’s best friend and a member of the basketball team. He can’t understand why Troy would show any interest in singing and not want to be fully focused on basketball. Chad only wants his teammates to eat, sleep, and breathe basketball, partly because he thinks that is how great teams and players succeed. Chad even uses a funny analogy to try and convince Troy to ignore singing, by using legendary actor Michael Crawford, known for originating the role of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera. He tells Troy that Michael Crawford’s picture is in his mum’s fridge as a diet tactic, so if Troy continues singing that is where he will end up, not on a cereal box like sporting heroes do. Chad soon learns that this was a mistake as he sees that Troy is unhappy not speaking to Gabriella and not performing, so he puts it right and gets the whole team behind Troy and Gabriella, supporting them all the way to their callbacks.
Chad was played by Corbin Bleu. Early in his career, Bleu was cast alongside Kristen Stewart in the movie Catch That Kid (2004), where he played Austin. He had also been in the main cast of the Discovery Kids series Flight 29 Down (2005-07), where he played Nathan McHugh. He later starred as Izzy Daniels in his own DCOM Jump In! (2007).
Taylor McKessie is captain of the scholastic decathlon team, and is determined to win. She doesn’t initially speak to Gabriella, until she learns how smart Gabriella is, thanks to Sharpay’s online research. From here, Taylor makes it her mission to get Gabriella to join the decathlon team, and she becomes Gabriella’s friend, showing her around East High and telling her the people to avoid, mainly Troy, the basketball team, and Sharpay. Taylor comes to a similar conclusion as Chad, feeling guilty for stopping Troy and Gabriella from singing together, learning that Gabriella will be a much happier member of the decathlon team if she is allowed to talk to who she wants and do what she wants. Taylor is just a little bit of a control freak, but she knows she can’t control her friends.
Monique Coleman was cast as Taylor. Before High School Musical, Coleman had been cast in the recurring role of Mary Margaret, appearing in Season 1 and 2 of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody alongside High School Musical castmate Ashley Tisdale. She also appeared as Molly in Season 4 of the drama series Boston Public (2000-04).
Then, we have Kelsi Nielsen. She is a quiet, shy person, but a very talented composer and pianist, having written the school musical herself. Kelsi allows herself to be walked over by Sharpay, who tells her not to interfere with Sharpay’s arrangements of Kelsi’s music, even if it goes against the spirit of the song. Kelsi is surprised to find Troy and Gabriella had even noticed her enough to help her pick up her music on audition day, and she realises that not everyone in the theatre is self-obsessed. Kelsi becomes Troy and Gabriella’s mentor as they prepare for callbacks, and is ready to help them whenever needed. She starts to come out of a shell by the end of High School Musical.
Olesya Rulin was cast as Kelsi, having previously played the part of Natalie in Halloweentown High, alongside Lucas Grabeel. She had also previously had minor roles in the 2001 DCOMs Hounded and The Poof Point prior to her role in High School Musical.
For the teachers, the main ones we see are Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton. They don’t see eye-to-eye about anything, with Ms. Darbus not caring about basketball or sports in general, and Coach Bolton seeing her drama club as a bit of a joke. They wouldn’t normally have any reason to interact but when Ms. Darbus takes two of his team out of practice for detention, and then his son starts showing an interest in singing, they suddenly find themselves very much fighting against each other. Ms. Darbus just wants her musical to be taken seriously, and not overshadowed by the school’s sporting achievements. I can say I have been there! It’s really annoying when schools only care about sport… Coach Bolton on the other hand needs his team to focus and can’t have them thinking about musicals, so when Troy starts to do so, it is like the end of the world for Coach Bolton. However, Ms. Darbus learns that jocks can sing, and Coach Bolton sees how talented a singer his son is. The two teachers will have to have their respective departments get along now that musical rehearsals are most definitely going to have to come before basketball from time to time!
Alyson Reed was cast as Ms. Darbus. Reed definitely had reason for being cast as a drama teacher, as she performed on Broadway in various musicals including Cabaret, being nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her role as Sally Bowles, and Pippin, where she played Catherine. Reed is also known for starring as Cassie in the 1985 film adaptation of A Chorus Line, directed by Richard Attenborough. Outside of theatre, she was cast in the recurring role of Lyndsay Hamilton in Season 2 of the Hulu series Chance (2016-17) and has guest starred in various series including Modern Family (2009-20).
Bart Johnson was cast as Coach Bolton. Previously, Johnson was cast as Nelson Tucker in the series Hyperion Bay (1998-99) for The CW, which also starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar of Saved by the Bell fame. Since High School Musical, Johnson was cast as Daniel Huntslar in the Hallmark Christmas movie The Christmas Spirit (2013) and had a recurring role as Beau Berkhalter in the Lifetime series The Client List (2012-13), which starred Jennifer Love Hewitt. More recently, Johnson has guest starred as Patrick Ramsey in the Paramount+ series Landman (2024-present).
MUSIC
Nine original songs feature within the movie of High School Musical.
Another original song appears on the soundtrack, but not in the film, with a music video being released showing the cast members recording the song with some clips from the film interspersed within it. This music video for the song “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” was released as a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film. I do like this song, despite it not having a place in the film. Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, and Lucas Grabeel all appeared in the video, recording this song.
But does that mean they all actually sang the song? During initial interviews and promotional activities for High School Musical, we were all led to believe that Zac Efron had in fact been singing on the movie’s soundtrack. That did not turn out to be the case, and Disney had to come clean and say that singer Drew Seeley had in fact sung the majority of Troy Bolton’s songs. There are a couple of exceptions, such as the opening lines of “Start of Something New” and “Breaking Free”. Different reasons have been given for why Efron did not sing in the film, despite obviously needing to prove he could sing as part of the audition process. It has been said that his singing voice potentially was not strong enough. A more official reason given was that the songs written simply did not suit Efron’s vocal range, so a different singer was required for this particular movie.
It is unclear what the actual reason was, but the point is Drew Seeley sang as Troy Bolton in High School Musical. Funnily enough, Seeley had auditioned for the part of Troy, but did not get the part, possibly due to being a few years older than the rest of the cast and Vanessa Hudgens. Seeley later contributed to other Disney albums such as the Disneymania and Shake It Up albums, and was even cast as Prince Eric in the Broadway stage production of The Little Mermaid in 2009. Seeley may also be known for his role as Joey Parker in the musical film Another Cinderella Story (2008), which saw Disney Channel star Selena Gomez be cast in the lead role of Mary Santiago.
Now back to the actual songs themselves. “Start of Something New” is the first song to appear in the film, as it is the song that Troy and Gabriella sing together at the New Year’s Eve party. It is a typical pop song that references Troy and Gabriella’s own feelings at this point in this film, that they’ve both randomly met and clicked straight away. I think this song has been seriously overused over the years, so I don’t particularly like it anymore. It was performed by Vanessa Hudgens and Drew Seeley, and was written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, who continued to work together on other songs for Disney Channel stars, such as Hannah Montana and The Cheetah Girls.
Following that is “Get’cha Head in the Game” performed by Seeley as Troy, during basketball practice, where Troy is trying to force himself to concentrate on basketball and not on Gabriella and singing. It’s a hip-hop song, for the teens. Again, I’ve heard this too much over the years, and I just don’t like it. I really don’t like when Troy randomly starts singing a little ballad right in the middle of it either. It was written by Ray Cham, Greg Cham, who had both worked on The Cheetah Girls (2003), and Seeley. This song was also recorded by the R&B group B5 for the CD soundtrack.
The next song is “What I’ve Been Looking For”, which is quite a jazzy musical theatre number. It is initially performed by various auditionees, with varying levels of ability, before Sharpay and Ryan show them all up with their perfectly polished performance. It’s not a terrible song, but it is a bit sugary sweet as far as love songs go. “What I’ve Been Looking For” is performed by Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel as Sharpay and Ryan, and the song was written by Andy Dodd and Adam Watts, who have also collaborated together on music for Hannah Montana (2006-11), the Camp Rock films, and Lemonade Mouth (2011). This song is closely followed by its reprise, a slower version of the song that Kelsi, the composer, had initially envisaged. She encourages Troy and Gabriella to sing her version together, and it gets them a callback. Seeley and Hudgens sing this version.
Next up is “Stick to the Status Quo” which is a fun ensemble number, where students all across the school start saying they have other interests that their friends don’t know about. Hardly the end of the world, but to these teenagers, it really is. I especially like when Sharpay has her solo, because she sounds so distraught about something so silly. It’s also just really catchy. “Stick to the Status Quo” was written by David Lawrence and Faye Greenberg, and was performed by Tisdale and Grabeel as Sharpay and Ryan, as well as Chris Warren as Zeke, the basketball player and baker; Kaycee Stroh as Martha, the intelligent dancer, and Dutch Whitlock as the cello-playing skater dude.
“When There Was Me and You” is a slow ballad that Gabriella sings as she wanders the corridors at school, wondering how she didn’t realise that Troy wasn’t ever interested in her. This song takes place after Gabriella watches a video of Troy saying she doesn’t mean anything to him as part of Taylor and Chad’s plan to get the two of them to focus on basketball and the scholastic decathlon. It’s a moving song, and Hudgens performs it brilliantly. It was written by Jamie Houston.
During the callback scenes, we get two very contrasting songs, one performed by Sharpay and Ryan, and the other by Troy and Gabriella. Sharpay and Ryan’s song is my favourite in this film, and it is a salsa-type song called “Bop to the Top”. It’s just a showcase for their dancing, really, but it’s good fun. The only annoying thing about it is that during the movie, you can’t hear or see it in full as it gets broken up with scenes of Gabriella and Troy at their events, to show that they are going on at the same time as callbacks. It’s quite disrespectful to Sharpay and Ryan if you ask me; Sharpay would not be impressed with that! It was written by Randy Petersen and Kevin Quinn, and performed by Tisdale and Grabeel.
The other song is “Breaking Free”. This is an iconic song from the movie, because it shows Troy and Gabriella singing in front of all their friends for the first time. They are also “breaking free” from the constraints that told them they couldn’t be together or sing together. I personally don’t like this song and don’t think I ever really have. “Breaking Free” was written by Jamie Houston, and performed by Hudgens and Seeley.
The final song to appear in High School Musical is the group number “We’re All in This Together”, performed by all the students as they prove that they can all be friends, irrespective of what “group” they did or didn’t belong to; it shows just how much East High has changed, for the better. The song was written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil. Apparently, this track was originally meant to be a song called “Everyone’s a Winner”, but it was considered too cheesy and had to be re-written[1]. I’d like to know what that song sounded like if “We’re All in This Together” isn’t considered cheesy! Not that I care; I like “We’re All in This Together” and the few steps of choreography from it that I can remember.
There was also meant to be a duet for Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton in High School Musical, similar to “Anything You Can Do” from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. Potentially, it would also have been like “Teacher’s Argument” from Fame: The Musical, which is about two teachers feuding over what is best for their students, like whether a focus on dance or academics is better. This is a bit like Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton, as they debate whether sport or theatre is more important. The song was cut for timing, although director Kenny Ortega did want to keep it[2].
The High School Musical soundtrack was the biggest and fastest success in the pop charts in years. In the US, it became the No. 1 selling soundtrack album of 2006, selling millions of copies across the globe, and was the first TV movie soundtrack to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart[3]. It also topped the US Soundtrack Albums chart, as well as others across the world in countries like the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and Mexico. Many singles from the film broke in to Billboard’s Hot 100 chart as well over its time in the charts, with “Breaking Free” going from No. 86 to No. 4 in just one week[4].
At the Billboard Music Awards, the High School Musical soundtrack was nominated for Album of the Year, and won the award for Soundtrack Album of the Year. “Get’cha Head in the Game” and “Breaking Free” were also both nominated at the Primetime Creative Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category.
The score for High School Musical was composed by David Lawrence. He went on to compose the music for various other Disney Channel Original Movies, including StarStruck (2010), Teen Beach Movie (2013) and its 2015 sequel, and the original Descendants trilogy.
PRODUCTION
High School Musical was set to be just another Disney Channel movie in a long line of Disney Channel movies, albeit a musical one, so its production was not overly interesting.
The filming locations for High School Musical were nothing special or extravagant, choosing to film at a school in Salt Lake City. This school was East High School; Disney decided to use the same name for their fictional school in the movie. East High School was founded in 1913, and is located in the East Bench neighbourhood of Salt Lake City, in Utah. This school was used as the setting for High School Musical’s East High in all three of the original trilogy of films. Specifically, Disney used the exterior of the building, the gymnasium, and the cafeteria of the school for filming[5]. The auditorium area seems to have been filmed at a different Utah school, Murray High School, which was also the location used for other Disney Channel movies, including Minutemen (2008) and Read It and Weep (2006). High School Musical was filmed in Utah during the summer of 2005.
The story of High School Musical isn’t all that unique either. It was written by screenwriter Peter Barsocchini, who based the idea and some of the characters on his daughter and her friends, wanting to write about school life[6]. For many, High School Musical will remind them of the musical Grease, first performed on stage in 1972 but rising to mainstream fame thanks to its 1978 film adaptation, starring Olivia Newton John and John Travolta as Sandy and Danny. Grease itself is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, although with a much happier ending! High School Musical takes this idea of two teenagers falling in love despite being two very different people, with very different friendship groups and interests, putting across the message that you should accept yourself as you are and not feel the need to conform to any set clique or group that many teenagers end up placing themselves in. Barsocchini himself said he had been inspired by Grease when writing High School Musical. His first draft was quickly greenlit for production and that is how High School Musical got its start. Barsocchini had previously co-written the screenplay for the action film Drop Zone (1994), a complete contrast to writing a Disney Channel musical, going on to write the other two movies in the High School Musical trilogy, as well as helping to create the story of the animated Netflix musical movie Vivo (2021) and co-writing the screenplay of the musical adaptation of the Nativity story for Journey to Bethlehem (2023).
Kenny Ortega was tasked with directing this new musical for Disney Channel. Ortega was already known to Disney as he had directed and choreographed the Halloween film Hocus Pocus (1993) and the musical adaptation Newsies (1992) for the company. Ortega had also been the choreographer on many musical movies including Xanadu (1982) and Dirty Dancing (1987) prior to that. Ortega was the perfect fit. The High School Musical trilogy was not the end of Ortega’s Disney journey either, as he choregraphed and directed The Cheetah Girls 2 (2006) and the original Descendants trilogy for the channel. Ortega was also choreographing and directing Michael Jackson’s This Is It tour in 2009, which was cancelled after Jackson’s death. Footage from the rehearsals was later released as the documentary film Michael Jackson’s This Is It (2009). More recently, Ortega has directed, choreographed, and produced the Netflix musical series Julie and the Phantoms (2020).
Since High School Musical was going to require more than just acting talent, focusing on singing and dancing as well, the audition process had to be more intense, to ensure they found the right teens to fit these roles, both from a talent and stamina perspective. Disney were looking for “triple threats” as they say. There were apparently over 600 kids who auditioned to be in High School Musical. Vanessa Hudgens said in a behind-the-scenes clip that her callback had taken all day and was very difficult. They had started with twelve people and whittled them down to four. Hudgens said she was consistently paired up with Zac Efron each time to do their scenes and performances, deciding that must’ve been a good sign in terms of the casting directors thinking they had good chemistry!
Once the parts were cast, they were then sent to recording sessions to record their songs for the film, before flying to Salt Lake City for the usual table read, where the music was played as they went through the script to show where and how the songs fit into the overall story. This was followed by two weeks of dance rehearsals, which is quite a standard process for any Disney Channel star to go through when filming a Disney Channel musical. Joining Ortega in choreographing the musical were Bonnie Story and Charles Klapow. Story had worked with Ortega on the choreography on the Opening Ceremony of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics; Ortega and his team even won two Primetime Emmy Awards for this ceremony, one for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, and the other for Choreography. The boys also had basketball practice every day to ensure they looked like a real basketball team who knew what they were doing! Rob LaFallet, a real basketball coach and named the basketball technical director here, was on hand to ensure the basketball scenes were as accurate as possible and helped with the choreography for “Get’cha Head in the Game” since the lyrics contained references to real set plays in the sport.
Despite the intensive process, the cast very much enjoyed filming this movie and loved working with Ortega, who was a friend to all and very approachable, helping to guide these teenagers through the process and hearing their thoughts and opinions on their characters and scenes[7]. Much of the cast were relative unknowns, so no doubt wanted to make a good impression and show how serious they were about getting their scenes right.
RECEPTION
High School Musical was released on 20th January 2006 in the US, being their Winter DCOM premiere for that year, in the same way that Now You See It… (2005) had been the year before, and Pixel Perfect (2004) the year before that. There was nothing special about this date, and it can be argued that the summer DCOM premieres would’ve had more viewers.
But High School Musical was the phenomenon that no-one expected. It wasn’t envisaged that it would blow up and became what it became. Over the coming months, High School Musical slowly made its way to other countries outside of America, not even reaching the UK or India until September that year. There wasn’t even a social media buzz in 2006 to increase its popularity, and yet, High School Musical had reached 100 million unique viewers globally by the end of the year. It was crazy.
On its premiere night though, High School Musical brought in 7.7 million viewers, becoming the second-most-viewed DCOM during its premiere, with Cadet Kelly (2002) just taking top spot with 7.8 million, according to reported figures. Twitches, released in October 2005, so just a couple of months before, had reached 7 million. This shows that High School Musical was quite anticipated by the Disney Channel viewership, but was not a sensation from the outset; its viewing figures were good but nothing amazing.
For further context in terms of viewing figures, High School Musical could be seen as having boosted viewership of all Disney Channel movies that year since the lowest viewed movie of 2006 was the non-musical Read It and Weep, but even that was viewed by 5.6 million viewers. The Cheetah Girls 2 actually beat out High School Musical by becoming the most-viewed DCOM premiere of 2006, but only just with 7.8 million. Return to Halloweentown rounded out the year during the Halloween season with 7.5 million. But in 2005, apart from Twitches, none of the six other Disney Channel movies reached over 5 million viewers, so it would seem because of High School Musical, Disney Channel had managed to retain and gain the interest of its target demographic. High School Musical currently sits in ninth position in a list of the Top 10 most-viewed Disney Channel premieres, where it will likely remain now that DCOMs are mostly measured on their Disney+ success.
But even High School Musical, for all its fame and glory, could not escape negative criticism; after all, it was a Disney Channel movie and never meant for Academy Award success, so it is quite easy to criticise if you’re determined to be mean-spirited! For those that were against High School Musical, they said the story was too sweet and didn’t appreciate the message of self-acceptance being pushed down the throats to the extent it was. Others also said how the story lacked originality, which I don’t deny but I don’t think that’s a reason to dislike something and I don’t think Disney did a bad job with adapting this non-original story. Generally, it was decided that High School Musical was only for teens and tweens. As High School Musical was made with that audience in mind, then sure, that is a valid point, but it doesn’t mean adults couldn’t enjoy it too. High School Musical simply doesn’t suit some tastes and that’s perfectly fine, however, you can’t say it’s a bad film.
On the positive side, many liked the casting of the main roles, with these actors being fresh-faced, enthusiastic, and perfect for Disney Channel. The music was catchy too, as can be seen by the incredible performance it had in musical charts across the globe. High School Musical was considered to be fun, lively, and colourful. Obviously, retrospectively, High School Musical is considered by many to be one of the most iconic Disney Channel Original Movies of all time, and one of their best movies, if not the best.
Most Disney Channel movies are lucky if they get nominated for any awards, and even more so if they actually win something. High School Musical went against that usual trend completely by winning numerous awards. Kenny Ortega won the Directors’ Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs, and was nominated at the Primetime Emmys in the category of Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special, losing out to Elizabeth I (2005). Also in the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Kenny Ortega, Bonnie Story, and Charles Klapow won the award for Outstanding Choreography. High School Musical also won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program, shared with HBO’s documentary filmI Have Tourette’s but Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me (2005). The DCOM was even nominated at the Satellite Awards for Best Motion Picture Made for Television; the award actually went to Lifetime’s television movie A Little Thing Called Murder (2006). Screenwriter Peter Barsocchini also won the Humanitas Prize in the Children’s Live Action Category for his screenplay. Tom McKinley received a nomination at the Costume Designers Guild Awards as well, for Outstanding Costuming Made for Television Movie or Miniseries, but also lost out to Mike O’Neill’s costuming for Elizabeth I.
High School Musical won other awards in less technically demanding award ceremonies. For example, the film won Fave Movie at the Nickelodeon Australian Kids’ Choice Awards, and Zac Efron was voted Best TV Actor at the Nickelodeon UK Kids’ Choice Awards. At the Teen Choice Awards in the US, Efron also won here in the category of Television – Choice Breakout Star; Vanessa Hudgens was nominated in the female version of this category. The two won the award for Television – Choice Chemistry and the movie itself won for Television – Choice Comedy or Musical Show. The young stars were also nominated at the Young Artist Awards, with Efron, Hudgens, and Corbin Bleu receiving nominations in the categories of Leading Young Actor, Leading Young Actress, and Supporting Young Actor in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special respectively. The film was nominated for Best Family Television Movie or Special here too.
This isn’t even an exhaustive list of all the award wins and nominations that High School Musical received. This shows how its young cast and its talented crew had clearly created something more than just another television movie.
LEGACY
With High School Musical breaking all kinds of records, and defying all kinds of odds by becoming a huge hit across the world, Disney couldn’t just ignore its popularity and not capitalise on its fame now, could they?
In the week of the Super Bowl in early February 2006, Zac Efron was reportedly the second-most-searched team on Google, whereas the two teams in the Super Bowl didn’t even reach the top 10 most-searched terms on the site. High School Musical was continuously re-aired on the channel in a bid to keep up with the demand for the film whilst Disney thought of new opportunities for the story and the cast. Other versions of High School Musical were created for the channel, such as a sing-along version; a dance-along version, where the movie was interspersed with dance lessons from the cast so that viewers could dance along to the song coming up next, and a What’s What edition, with facts about the movie’s production popping up on the screen as the movie was played. The Pop-Up editions could get a little bit irritating to be honest, with the number of facts that appeared.
The cast of High School Musical, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, and Lucas Grabeel, didn’t make their first public appearance together until they appeared at the opening of the attraction Expedition Everest at Walt Disney World Resort’s Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park in April 2006[8]. The cast appeared at Walt Disney World again later that year for the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade in December 2006. Here they performed “We’re All in This Together” on Main Street, U.S.A., with a selection of teenagers from various high schools over the country who had auditioned to be a part of the performance. The cast members who appeared here were Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, and Ashley Tisdale.
This wasn’t even all for High School Musical’s presence at the Disney Parks as a live entertainment show inspired by the film actually came to some of them. This was quite unusual as Disney Channel movies or series rarely get a mention at the Disney Parks. This was the High School Musical Pep Rally which ran initially in October 2006 at Tomorrowland in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park, before moving over to what was Disney-MGM Studios, now Disney’s Hollywood Studios, from January 2007 and saw singers and dancers perform music from the film. Songs used in the pep rally included “Bop to the Top”, “Get’cha Head in the Game”, “Stick to the Status Quo”, and of course “We’re All in This Together”. This pep rally also existed at Disney California Adventure, from late 2006. Both versions had closed by Summer 2007, ready for a new pep rally to begin. It looks like a version of the pep rally also was playing at Disneyland Paris in 2007. Later, Disney chose to redevelop this entire pep rally idea and created Disney Channel Rocks, which began in October 2010 and ended in April 2013. It featured music from various Disney Channel franchises like The Cheetah Girls and Camp Rock series. The only song from any High School Musical film to be used was “We’re All in This Together”.
Another major revenue stream to come from High School Musical was High School Musical: The Concert, which saw most of the cast travel across America to sing for fans. It was first announced around October 2006, with the opening night of the tour taking place on 29th November 2006 in San Diego. The concert tour travelled to 40 cities in the US, from November 2006 to January 2007. They then did a Central and South American tour in May 2007, visiting seven different cities. The cast performed the songs from High School Musical at this concert, as well as some of them singing their own music, like Vanessa Hudgens performing “Say Okay” and Corbin Bleu performing “Jump In” in order to promote their own solo albums. I said most of the cast attended this tour, but one very important member of the cast was not there, and that was Zac Efron, who was replaced by Drew Seeley, because Efron was busy filming Hairspray (2007) at the time. Since Seeley sang for Efron on the soundtrack of High School Musical, it was a sensible choice for his replacement although I’m sure some teenage girls were very disappointed at not seeing Zac Efron there! The High School Musical: The Concert soundtrack and a DVD of the recording of one of the performances were released around June 2007. The High School Musical concert tour followed in the footsteps of The Cheetah Girls’ The Party’s Just Begun Tour which ran from September 2006 to March 2007 across around 80 cities to promote their second movie, and was also released on DVD and CD after the tour ended.
This tour was shortly followed by High School Musical on Stage!, a musical stage show based on the film. The stage musical basically follows the same storyline as High School Musical, although some new songs were added in, such as “Cellular Fusion” and “Counting on You”, plus “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”, from the movie’s soundtrack, was included as well. A new teacher, Ms. Tenny, was added too. The US tour of the stage musical kicked off in May 2007, ending in August 2008. It went on tour in the UK in 2008. High School Musical has also been performed by various high schools and local theatres over the world in the years since it came to the stage.
The biggest thing to come from High School Musical was its sequel, High School Musical 2, premiering on Disney Channel in Summer 2007. Disney Channel was clever to ensure they inundated the channel’s advertising with behind-the-scenes clips and music videos from the movie to ensure maximum interest from viewers. It is unclear if Disney Channel had already planned a sequel, or whether it was due to its global fame and worldwide attention that it was brought into development.
International Disney Channels later chose to get in on a slice of the High School Musical pie by making their own adaptations or spin-off films. For example, in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, each of these respective Disney Channels released a movie called High School Musical: El Desafío, or O Desafio in Brazil, which translates to “The Challenge”. It consisted of an entirely new cast, cast from a reality competition series, new songs, and a new storyline about a battle of the bands, based on the book Battle of the Bands from the High School Musical series of novels. The Mexican and Argentinian films were released in 2008, and the Brazilian one was released in 2010. A Chinese spin-off also came to be, titled High School Musical: China – College Dreams, released in 2011.
Obviously, High School Musical also spanned the usual merchandise, like clothing, novelisations of the film, as well as other books expanding the stories of the characters, and video games. This has continued to exist even twenty years after the movie’s premiere. In 2026, High School Musical celebrates its 20th anniversary, so there may be reunions with cast members for this event. In 2016, for the 10th anniversary of the film, there was a televised “mini” High School Musical reunion broadcast on Disney Channel in January of that year. Zac Efron was the only one of the six main cast members not to appear in person, but there was a pre-taped message from him to make up for that. The cast reminisced about their time filming these movies, reliving some of those highlights together.
We also can’t forget how High School Musical inspired not only other Disney Channel content but also other series around singing and theatre. For Disney Channel, High School Musical led to new musicals being created as part of the Disney Channel Original Movie catalogue. These films included franchises like Camp Rock, Descendants, and ZOMBIES. New movies and spin-offs from these film series are still being released to this day. Outside of Disney, other series that are said to have been inspired by the popularity of High School Musical include the likes of Fox’s long-running drama series Glee (2009-2015), based around a glee club at an American high school, and British channel ITV’s Britannia High (2008), set in a fictional London theatre school. Although Glee was a sensation, especially at the start of its run, sadly for me, Britannia High was not and was cancelled after one series.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I obviously can’t deny that High School Musical was a big deal and that it changed the world of television forever, inspiring numerous series and television movies in the years since.
It also made real stars of its main cast, who have gone on to work both in music and in film and television. They have become regular appearances on our screens ever since, and for good reason; they are very talented.
But I’m nothing if not honest, so for me, High School Musical just pales in comparison to what came after it. It feels too much like a low budget television movie, probably because it was at the time, before Disney decided to throw lots of money at the series.
I guess it worked on me at least, and I was just excited to see what came next.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: D23, ‘High School Musical Turns 10!’, D23.com, date unknown.
[2] Credit: Stacey Grant, ’23 Surprising DCOM Secrets Even Die-Hard Fans Didn’t Know’, Seventeen.com, 25th October 2017.
[3] Credit: D23, ‘High School Musical Turns 10!’, D23.com, date unknown.
[4] Credit: ‘”High School Musical”, a Smash on the Disney Channel, Will Get a Stage Version’, Playbill.com, 6th April 2006.
[5] Credit: Utah Film Commission, ‘On Location: Utah Schools’, Film.Utah.gov, 13th August 2025.
[6] Credit: Aja Romano, ‘High School Musical – and its ongoing cultural legacy – explained’, Vox.com, 13th November 2019.
[7] Credit: Disney, “Bringing It All Together: The Making of High School Musical”, from High School Musical (2006) Encore Edition UK DVD (2006).
[8] Credit: D23, ‘High School Musical Turns 10!’, D23.com, date unknown.
The Disney Purist 