High School Musical

**High School Musical** is a Disney Channel Original Movie that was released on January 20, 2006. It is the first instalment in the High School Musical Franchise.

The film was written by Peter Barsocchini and directed by Kenny Ortega.

## Plot

On New Year's Eve, high school juniors Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez meet at a ski lodge party during winter break. The two are called upon to sing a duet together for karaoke. Returning to school after break, Troy sees Gabriella in his homeroom. She explains that she has just moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and transferred to East High School over the break. As Troy shows Gabriella around the school, drama club president and East High's designated "Ice Princess" Sharpay Evans assumes that Gabriella is interested in auditioning for the school musical, Twinkle Town. Wanting to eliminate competition, Sharpay has scholastic decathlon captain and chem club president Taylor McKessie investigate Gabriella's past academic achievements to recruit Gabriella for the scholastic decathlon. As a result, Taylor and Gabriella became friends over their shared interests.

During basketball practice, Troy is distracted by thoughts of Gabriella and the idea that he might enjoy singing in addition to basketball. Gabriella and Troy go to the musical auditions where Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan Evans perform. However, Troy and Gabriella are too shy to audition. When Gabriella gains the confidence to step forward once the auditions are unofficially declared "over", Troy offers to sing with her. However, drama teacher Ms. Darbus tells them they are too late and leaves. Kelsi Nielsen, the musical's composer, trips and drops her music all over the stage. Troy and Gabriella rush to help her and sing together as Kelsi plays on the piano. Overhearing their performance, Ms. Darbus gives them a callback audition.

When the callback list gets posted, Sharpay discovers that she has competition for the lead role, while the Wildcats basketball team is shocked that Troy has auditioned. After finding out that Troy can do activities outside his clique, other students confess their secret passions and talents. This alarms Taylor and Troy's best friend Chad Danforth. Taylor and Chad come up with a plan to divert Troy and Gabriella from singing in the musical so they can focus on their upcoming competitions.

In the locker room, Troy is tricked by his teammates into saying that Gabriella is not needed. Gabriella watches this via a hidden webcam that the scholastic decathlon team has set up. Upset by Troy's betrayal, Gabriella decides to not audition for the musical. Troy, confused by Gabriella's decision, is unable to concentrate on the game, while Gabriella is low in spirits. Realising their mistake, Chad and the basketball team tell Troy what happened and offer to support him in the callbacks. Taylor also explains to Gabriella but she doesn't believe Taylor's claims. That evening Troy goes to Gabriella's house, and they reconcile, determined to audition for the musical.

Overhearing Gabriella and Troy rehearse, Sharpay asks Ms. Darbus to move the callbacks so they start at the same time as both Troy's basketball championship game and Gabriella's scholastic decathlon competition. Kelsi overhears the conversation, and the basketball and decathlon teams make a plan together. On the day of the competitions, Taylor and Gabriella use the school's computers to delay the championship game by hacking the power in the gym and causing a chemical reaction that forces an evacuation during the decathlon. Troy and Gabriella rush to the auditorium as Sharpay and Ryan finish their callback song. After Gabriella and Troy successfully perform their song, Ms. Darbus gives them the lead roles, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies.

Both teams win their respective competitions, and the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate. Chad asks Taylor out, and Sharpay makes peace with Gabriella.

In a post-credits scene, Zeke Baylor paces alone in the gym, when Sharpay runs in, declaring that the cookies he had given her that she had initially rejected are "genius." She hugs him, and he says he will make her a crème brûlée. Zeke smiles in victory.

## Cast

* Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
* Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
* Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans
* Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
* Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth
* Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
* Joey Miyashima as Dave Matsui
* Bart Johnson as Jack Bolton
* Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen
* Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor
* Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross
* Kaycee Stroh as Martha Cox
* Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus
* Irene Santiago-Baron as Ms. Tenny
* Socorro Herrera as Lisa Montez
* Leslie Wing Pomeroy as Lucille Bolton
* Joyce Cohen as Ms. Falstaff
* Dave Fox as Coach Kellogg
* Anne Kathryn Parma as Susan
* Nick Whitaker as Alan
* Falcon Grace as Cyndra

## Music

See Also: High School Musical (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 22) and had shipped 3.8 million copies on December 5, 2006. Out of those copies, more than three million copies have been sold by August 2006; it was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

## Sequels

* High School Musical 2 (2007)
* High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

### Sing-along Reunion

In April 2020, the cast of High School Musical joined with the cast of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and others to sing "We're All in This Together" from their homes during the Disney sing-along special on ABC during the COVID-19 outbreak.

## Spin-offs

### Television Series

* High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

### Reality Series

* High School Musical: Get in the Picture

## Stage Performances

* High School Musical: The Concert
* High School Musical on Stage!

### 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. 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 film and its sequel, High School Musical 2 and featured a special preview of High School Musical 3: Senior Year when the movie of the same name premiered in theatres.

## International Adaptations

### Argentina

High School Musical: El desafio (Argentina) is a spin-off for the Argentine market, based on the book "Battle of the Bands". The film arrived in Argentine theatres on July 17, 2008.

### Brazil

High School Musical: O Desafio is a spin-off of the American film High School Musical. The Brazilian spin-off is based on the book Battle of the Bands. The film was released in Brazilian theatres on February 5, 2010.

### China

Disney High School Musical China (歌舞青春), also called High School Musical China: College Dreams is a Chinese version of the American series, released in North America on DVD under the Disney World Cinema Brand. Film Business Asia critic Derek Elley rated the adaptation three points out of ten and called the choreography by former Madonna dancer, Ruthy Inchaustegui, and songs "bland". However, Elley picked the three songs as "half-memorable": "the ballad "Rainy Season" (梅雨季) sung by two leading characters, the glitzy "Perfection" (完美) by the college rich-bitch, and the climatic "I Can Fly" (我飛故我在), which doesn't quite succeed at being an anthemnal, uplifting ballad."

## Reception

On its premiere, the film was a success with 7.7 million viewers. However, the reviews were mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 63%, while Common Sense Media rated it at 4 out of 5 stars.

Kevin Carr gave the film a score of 3 out of 5, saying, "The filmmakers were just trying to tell a story. Sex, drugs and violence just didn't factor into that equation." On the other hand, David Nusair gave the film a negative review with a score of 1.5 out of 4 saying, "...it's difficult to imagine even the most die-hard fan of musicals finding anything here worth embracing." Scott Weinberg also gave the film a negative review saying, "A schmaltzy little piece of obvious fluff that's directed in truly horrendous fashion and populated by cardboard characters who spit out simplistic platitudes and breathy pop tunes."

## Home Media

The DVD went on sale 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 film of all time. 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, as well as on European Region 2 on December 4, 2006, where it went on to reach number one in the UK DVD charts. It also aired 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. High School Musical also became the first Disney Channel Original Movie to be released on Region 3 DVD, when it went on sale on October 10 and December 15 in Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively. It was released in Mexico on November 10 and in Brazil on December 6 to coincide with Christmas and the Rede Globo broadcast of the film. It was released in New Zealand on July 12, 2006, and was awarded most popular pre-teen movie in New Zealand for 2006

High School Musical was the first feature-length video content from the iTunes Store in mid-March 2006. At the time, it was available as a 320x240 resolution 487MB download for $9.99 after initially being mistakenly listed for $1.99.

The Remix Edition, a 2-disc Special Edition, was released on December 5, 2006. The Remix DVD went on sale in France on June 20, 2007, in Germany on September 13, 2007, and in the UK on September 10, 2007. As of 2010, the film has sold eight million DVD units, earning an operating income of $100 million.

Despite being filmed in the 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio, both the original and Remix Edition DVD releases featured a 4:3 (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, high definition version is available exclusively on Disney Blu-ray in North America and has subsequently been showing in the UK and Ireland on BBC One and BBC HD, and RTÉ One. The HD version is also available on the video section of PlayStation Store, as well as on Sony Entertainment online for the U.S. market.