High School Musical is an Emmy Award-winning Great American television film. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOM) ever produced,[2][3] with a television sequel High School Musical 2 released in 2007 and the feature film High School Musical 3: Senior Year to be released theatrically in October 2008. It will be the first Disney Channel Original movie to have a theatrical sequel. A fourth installment, High School Musical 4, has been announced to be in the writing stages.[4] High School Musical was Disney Channel's most watched movie at its time, with 7.7million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US.[citation needed] In the UK, it received 789,000 viewers for its premiere (and 1.2 million viewers overall during the first week), making it the second most watched program for the Disney Channel (UK) of 2006. It was also the first ever Disney Channel Original Movie to be broadcast on the BBC on December 29, 2006. The film's soundtrack was the best-selling album in the United States for 2006.[5] With a plot described by the author and numerous critics as a modern adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, [6] High School Musical is a story about two high school juniors from rival cliques – Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), a beautiful and shy transfer student who excels in math and science.[7] Together, they try out for the lead parts in their high school musical, and as a result, divide the school. Despite other students' attempts to thwart their dreams, Troy and Gabriella resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to "stick with the status quo." High School Musical was filmed at East High School located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the auditorium of Murray High School, & Downtown Salt Lake City. Murray High School was also the set of: Take Down (1978), Read It and Weep (2006), Minutemen (2008)[8] and High School Musical: Get in the Picture (2008)[9]. //

Plot

East High School's basketball star Troy Bolton and math-whiz Gabriella Montez meet at a New Year's Eve party at a ski lodge over Christmas Break. Here, they take part in a karaoke contest and sing ("Start of Something New"). They discover they have a great chemistry between them and end up exchanging numbers. A week later, Gabriella's mother is transferred and Gabriella begins classes at East High in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Troy sees her in homeroom. After making sure that it is her on his cell phone, Troy accidentally gets detention, along with Gabriella, his best friend and teammate Chad Danforth, scholastic decathlon captain and science club captain Taylor McKessie, and Drama Club co-presidents Ryan and Sharpay Evans. After homeroom, Troy and Gabriella see each other again and as they start talking near the sign-up sheet for the winter musical auditions, Sharpay sees them and assumes that Gabriella is interested in signing up. With Ryan's help, Sharpay determines that Gabriella is an "Einsteinette", and puts an article of her previous academic achievements into Taylor's locker. During detention, Taylor approaches Gabriella and invites her to join the school's scholastic decathlon team. Due to their detention, both Troy and Chad miss their basketball practice, much to the annoyance of Coach Bolton. During a confrontation between the coach and Ms. Darbus, it is made clear that neither of them has any real respect for the work that the other does. Troy eventually takes part in basketball practice, but he cannot seem to stop thinking about Gabriella and how he might actually enjoy singing ("Get'cha Head in the Game"). Troy skips basketball practice during free period to go for the auditions, which Gabriella also attends. However, both are too shy to come forward, so they hide behind a janitorial rolling cart as Sharpay and Ryan perform their version of the audition song ("What I've Been Looking For"). When Gabriella finally decides to audition, Troy offers to sing with her, but Ms. Darbus says it is too late. After a confrontation with Sharpay, Kelsi Nielsen, the composer of the musical, trips and drops her notes and piano music. Troy and Gabriella rush to help her, and she offers to let them hear how the song was originally supposed to sound. Troy and Gabriella then sing the slower version of the song ("What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)"). Ms. Darbus hears them from behind the auditorium entrance and gives both Troy and Gabriella a callback. The next day, Sharpay sees the callback sheet and is furious. Once Chad and all the basketball players find out that Troy skipped basketball practice to audition for the musical, they are all shocked. At lunch, everyone learns that Troy is doing something way out of a basketball player's nature, and the students start confessing their secret passions and talents ("Stick to the Status Quo"), including basketball player Zeke Baylor's love for baking. At that moment, Gabriella slips and accidentally spills her lunch all over Sharpay's shirt. Sharpay tells Ms. Darbus that Gabriella did it on purpose and tries to convince her that Troy and Gabriella are trying to destroy the musical, but Ms. Darbus won't hear a word of it. Troy asks Gabriella to meet him at his secret hideout, the balcony of a greenhouse. There, she reveals that singing with him at the party was like meeting a new friend at kindergarten; she felt that he was like a best friend, although she hardly knew him. Meanwhile, Zeke attempts to talk to Sharpay, who says that she would rather stick pins in her eyes than watch Zeke play basketball. Chad and Taylor decide that they need to devise a plan so that everything returns to normal. The basketball team tricks Troy into saying that Gabriella is not too important while she watches them through a wi-fi link. Gabriella is hurt and confused about where she and Troy now stand ("When There Was Me and You"). Troy tries to talk to Gabriella, but she tells him that she is not interested in taking part in the musical anymore and that it was never important to her. After feeling guilty about ruining Troy and Gabriella's relationship, and noticing that they are no longer interested in the basketball game or the decathlon, Chad and Taylor decide to tell them the truth. Chad, Zeke, and Jason explain everything to Troy in the greenhouse and offer to support him at the callbacks. Taylor and the scholastic decathlon team tell Gabriella what they did, but she is still angry and hurt because of what Troy said, convinced that he meant it. That night, Troy goes to her house, but she pretends to be busy with homework. He then calls on her cellphone from her backyard, telling her that the guy she met on vacation is much more like him than the guy that "said those stupid things". He climbs onto her balcony and starts singing the harmony of "Start of Something New" in an attempt to persuade her to attend the callbacks with him. Gabriella then forgives him, and together with Kelsi, they start practicing for the callback at school. Soon, Sharpay and Ryan overhear Gabriella and Troy practicing, and feel intimidated by the competition. Sharpay succeeds in convincing Ms. Darbus to change the callbacks to the same time as the basketball championship and scholastic decathlon. Kelsi overhears their conversation with Mrs. Darbus, and when she tells everyone about this, they are devastated. However, the chemistry team, the basketball team and Kelsi work together to come up with a plan. On the day itself, Taylor and Gabriella send a code by computer into the system to disrupt the basketball game by shutting down the scoreboard, and boiling a hazardous chemical to stall the decathlon. As Troy and Gabriella then rush to the theater, Sharpay and Ryan finish performing their song ("Bop to the Top"), confident that they will get the part. Troy and Gabriella show up after Ms. Darbus has called their names twice, and she tells them again that they are too late. Many other students start streaming into the auditorium to support them and Ms. Darbus has no choice but to allow them to perform their song. Gabriella freezes when she sees everyone staring at her, but Troy tells her to look only at him, and she finds the courage to sing ("Breaking Free"). In the end, Ms. Darbus decides to award the lead roles to Troy and Gabriella, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies (and at the basketball game, Sharpay accepts her defeat and tells Gabriella to "break a leg"). After winning both the scholastic decathlon and the basketball game with Troy's last minute shot, (to which Troy and Gabriella tried to actually kiss, but were interrupted by Chad) the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate ("We're All in This Together").

Principal Cast

• Zac Efron as Troy Bolton:

The male protagonist of the story and the captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team. His best friend is Chad Danforth. At a New Years party at a ski resort, he is pressured into singing "Start of Something New" with Gabriella Montez; prior to that, he had only sung in the shower.[10] Troy is torn between basketball and singing; he wants to sing with Gabriella, the girl he has a crush on, but his teammates push him away from it with peer pressure and even trickery because they are worried that his pursuit of singing will affect their chances at winning the championship game. Troy is also the Wildcat captain, a star player and the son of basketball coach Jack Bolton (Bart Johnson), and his lovable mother Lucille Bolton (Leslie Wing). Troy also enjoys snowboarding. Troy and Chad have known each other since preschool.

• Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez:

The female protagonist, who has a secret crush on Troy. She is a shy and a very intelligent student who has just changed schools. She originally meets Troy at a New Years party when they are forced to sing a karaoke duet. She meets him again when she moves to the same school as Troy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is reluctant to let everybody know of her past achievements, but soon everybody finds out that she has won numerous Scholastic Competitions thanks to Sharpay. She had previously been in a church choir, but passed out after having everybody stare at her while singing solo. She and Troy audition for their high school musical, get a callback, and then win the lead parts for the winter musical. She also helps East High win the Scholastic Decathlon award.

• Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans:

The antagonist of High School Musical. She is an arrogant person who always wants her way. She has a domineering personality and likes to be in control even of her twin brother Ryan. She auditions with him for the winter school musical against Troy and Gabriella. When she discovers that Troy and Gabriella have a callback, she changes the callback date in order to make sure that Troy and Gabriella fail to get the leads. The plan however fails with the aid of Taylor and Chad. Sharpay ends up being the understudy for Gabriella, and in the end, wishes Gabriella good luck by telling her to "break a leg". Chad, at one point, calls Sharpay and Ryan "show dogs" (the name Sharpay being a homophone of Shar Pei, a breed of dog). She also refers to famous Broadway songwriter Stephen Sondheim by calling Kelsi "my sawed-off Sondheim". Despite her resentment of Troy and Gabriella taking the lead from her in the school musical, she seems to have a small romantic interest in Troy, and feels somewhat jealous of Gabriella. At the end of High School Musical, she seems to at least get along with Troy and Gabriella. However, in High School Musical 2, she reverts to hating Gabriella and develops an interest for Troy.

• Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans:

The twin brother and acting partner of Sharpay Evans, with whom he has starred in seventeen school productions to date. In High School Musical, both Ryan and his sister function as antagonists, while in High School Musical 2, he becomes a protagonist. Ryan is an excellent dancer and singer, tending to lean toward high-energy, upbeat songs and expressive choreography, often to the point of absurdity. He has a much more highly developed sense of fashion than most East High students, wearing button down shirts and slacks and topping each outfit with some type of floppy hat. The hats are one of Ryan's most notable features; he wears over twenty different ones throughout the two films. In High School Musical, both Ryan and his sister's roles are as antagonists, attempting to keep Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez from being awarded the lead roles in the school's winter musical, Twinkle Towne. In spite of a few moments where Ryan appears annoyed by Sharpay's domineering attitude, he accepts her leadership unquestioningly throughout the film. Aside from his performance talent, Ryan is also a skilled baseball player as revealed in the sequel.

• Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth:

A member of the East High Wildcats team and Troy's best friend. He seems to be extremely devoted to basketball. Initially, he is a little snobby, selfish, and unsupportive of Troy's auditioning for the musical. He thinks that a musical is not meant for basketball players. However, he realizes later that singing is something that Troy really enjoys and so Chad lends his support to his best friend's audition endeavor. After teaming up with Taylor McKessie to pull Troy and Gabriella apart, and then to put them back together, he asks her out. In High School Musical 2, he develops a friendship with Ryan Evans.

• Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie:

The leader of East High's science club, which competes in the Scholastic decathlon. She befriends Gabriella when she arrives to the school and convinces her to join the Scholastic Club. Initially, she tries to stop Gabriella from singing, but eventually, she ends up supporting her. She has a strong dislike for athletes including Troy Bolton. However, her opinion of athletes changes over time. Chad Danforth asks her out by the end of the film and she agrees to go out with him.

• Alyson Reed as Miss Darbus:

The drama teacher at East High. She is an advocate of theater and has a strong dislike for cell phones and sports. She often gets into arguments with her nemesis, Coach Bolton, and apparently, has very little to practically no knowledge of basketball.

• Bart Johnson as Coach Jack Bolton:

The Wildcats' coach and Troy's father. He is a former champion Wildcats player, and expects his son to follow his example. He has had numerous intense arguments with Ms. Darbus and is upset over his son's decision to pursue theater, but then he eventually comes around. Similarly, he disapproves of Troy's relationship with Gabriella because he feels it may interfere with his basketball tournament. But he seems to change his mind when he sees his son and Gabriella sing during the callback.

• Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen:

A pianist and the composer of the Twinkle Towne musical. She is very eager to assist Troy and Gabriella as they prepare for callbacks. Initially, Kelsi is shown lacking confidence; however, by the end of the movie, she stands up to Sharpay. Troy calls her the playmaker to build her confidence. She has a crush on Jason.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on January 10, 2006 and debuted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, selling 7,469 copies in its first week. In the album's third week, for the chart dated February 11, 2006, it climbed to number ten, and has since risen to number one on the Billboard 200 twice (on March 1 and March 22) and had shipped 3.8 million copies on December 5, 2006. Out of those copies, more than 3 million copies have been sold by August 2006; it was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.[citation needed] In 2007, the soundtrack got into the Guinness World Records for "Most hits from a soundtrack in the US Chart simultaneously". Nine tracks were simultaneously in the US Hot 100- a world first. [11]

DVDs

The DVD of the movie was released on May 23, 2006 under the title, High School Musical: Encore Edition. It created a sales record when 1.2 million copies were sold in its first six days, making it the fastest-selling television movie of all time.[12] It is, however, the second DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) on DVD to be certified Platinum in DVD sales, the first being The Cheetah Girls.The High School Musical DVD was also released in Australia on July 12, 2006 through Walt Disney and was released on European Region 2 on December 4, 2006 where it went on to reach number one in the UK DVD charts. It was also shown on Disney Channel South Africa, the latest Disney channel at that time in the southern hemisphere. It was the top selling DVD in Australia in August 2006. In addition, the Region 3 DVD was released on October 10 in Hong Kong. It also released in Taiwan on December 15, 2006. This is the first Region 3 DCOM DVD ever released. It was released in Mexico on November 10 and in Brazil on December 6 to coincide with Christmas and the Globo broadcast of the movie. The Remix Edition, a 2-disc Special Edition, was released on December 5, 2006.[13].The Remix DVD was released in France on June 20, 2007.[14] and in Germany on September 13, 2007.[15] The Remix DVD was released in the UK on September 10, 2007.[16] Despite being filmed in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, both the original and Remix Edition DVD releases featured a 1.33:1 "full screen" version (though not pan and scan as the camera stays directly in the center of the image), the format of the film as shown on the Disney Channel. The widescreen and high definition versions have subsequently been showing in the UK on BBC One, BBC Two, and BBC HD.[17] The HD version is also available on Xbox Live Marketplace for the US market. [18]

Concert tour The "High School Musical: The Concert" tour started on November 29, 2006 kicking off in San Diego, California. The tour continued until January 28, 2007 performing in major cities around the United States, Canada and Latin America. The concert featured all of the original cast members except for Zac Efron, who was busy shooting Hairspray. Efron was replaced by Drew Seeley (whose voice was blended with Efron's during the movie). The concert featured the original songs from the movie, as well as showcasing songs from Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, and Corbin Bleu. Stage musical On August 1, 2006, Playbill announced that the Stagedoor Manor summer theater camp, featured in the movie Camp, would be the first venue to produce High School Musical on-stage. North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, MA had a stage production of High School Musical running until the end of July 2007, featuring Broadway actor Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kate Rockwell, a semi-finalist on Grease: You're the One that I Want!, as Sharpay.

Ice tour

"Feld Entertainment" produced global tour titled, High School Musical: The Ice Tour which had its world premiere in New York city on September 29, 2007.[19] The cast included 2004 World Junior Bronze Medalist Jordan Brauninger and 2004-2005 Australian national champion Bradley Santer. The show contained elements and songs from both the original movie and it's sequel, High School Musical 2.

Book series

(Main Article: High School Musical Book series) In June 2006, Disney Press published High School Musical: the Junior Novel, the novelization of the successful film. This novel hit number one on the New York Times best-selling list and remained on the list for sixteen weeks.[20] As of August 2007, the novel has sold more than 4.5 million copies, with 1 million copies of the novel's follow-up, High School Musical 2: The Junior Novel, being shipped to American retailers.[20] Shortly after the success of the original novel, Disney announced that a book series, entitled Stories From East High, would be published in February 2007 with a new book being published every 60 days until July 2008. Video games The game is about the High School Musical friends traveling across America in a competition, hoping to win the "The American Amateur Musical" title. With the help of Troy and the others, they will show that they have what it takes to win the competition. The release date was originally set for August 14, 2007 for the Nintendo DS, Wii, and Playstation 2. The release date was later delayed to November 7, 2007.

Reality series

ABC broadcast a new reality series titled High School Musical: Get in the Picture, which started on July 20, 2008.[21] Nick Lachey is the series host.[22] On July 20, 2008, ABC premiered the reality series to poor ratings, with the show coming in fourth place in its time period. [23]

Awards

Year Award Category Result

2006
	Billboard Music Award	Soundtrack Album of the Year	Won
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Choreography
	Teen Choice Award	Television - Choice Breakout Star (Zac Efron)
		Television - Choice Chemistry (Vanessa Hudgens & Zac Efron)
	Television Critics Association Award	Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
	American Music Award	Best Pop Album	Nominated
	Billboard Music Award	Album of the Year
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special
		Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Dramatic Special
		Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics ("Get'cha Head in the Game")
		Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics ("Breaking Free")