[IMG:L]Even if you don’t have kids, you’d practically have to have been in an isolation chamber for the last 18 months to be unaware of High School Musical and the impact it has had on pop culture. The made-for-Disney Channel musical, starring a fresh-faced but relatively unknown cast, was the surprise hit of 2006, scoring two Emmy Awards and launching a global merchandising empire of enormous proportions –and inspiring a legion of devoted teen and ‘tween fans who know every lyric by heart.
A hit in over 100 countries and a No. 1 soundtrack album that sold four million copies to date and won a Billboard Soundtrack of the Year award, HSM spawned books, toys, interactive games, a concert tour, stage versions both professional and amateur (the latter licensed over 1,500 times), an upcoming ice show and the inevitable sequels, the first of which premieres Aug. 17 on Disney Channel. It also turned those unknown faces into bona fide stars, with record and movie deals, and in the case of current Rolling Stone cover boy Zac Efron, true teen idol status. (View photo gallery)
Obviously, there’s a lot riding on the success of High School Musical 2, but director-choreographer Kenny Ortega shrugs off the pressure. “I have to honestly say that we didn’t come to work feeling pressured. We came to work believing in the work, believing in each other and doing the best to raise the bar on ourselves and do the best job that we could. I think we have something special.”
[IMG:R]The plot finds deposed queen bee Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) plotting to get her status back and steal heartthrob Troy (Efron) away from Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) by getting him a summer job at her family’s country club. When Troy unknowingly foils her plan by getting his clique—including Gabriella—on the payroll, Sharpay tempts him with alluring material goods and a life-changing college basketball scholarship.
“He has to make some tough decisions in the film. He doesn’t have his future set and he’s trying to figure that out. It was fun to play that,” notes Efron.
Hudgens sees change in Gabriella as well. “You get to see a side of her that you haven’t seen before, see her fight for what’s right and get a little feisty,” she says.
There was, however, no impetus to stray from HSM’s winning, if candy-coated, formula. “Obviously, we were not trying to do the literal world of high school,” says writer Peter Barsocchini, discussing his initial concept of the project. “I’d seen enough movies about kids in high school that were not so nice, not so fun. [Kids] get plenty of the angst issues when they walk into school and go through metal detectors and drug lectures and all that. We were going the other way.”
Ortega gives credit to Disney’s spot on-marketing but also believes HSM’s success is a “sign of the times, ” and isn’t surprised that in an uncertaiin world, young people gravitate towards the fun and optimism of High School Musical. “There’s a certain safeness and hope and many other things that the kids are responding to and embracing and in a big way, saying, ‘We want more of it.’”
Back on the same Utah location for HSM2, Ortega had less than three weeks to choreograph and rehearse 10 original numbers and less than a month to shoot. He incorporated more sports into the sequel, such as the baseball diamond-set “I Don’t Dance,” and it’s not a coincidence that the jocks-can-do-theater point made by the original has had a cultural impact.
[IMG:L]Notes writer Barsocchini, “Drama teachers are constantly calling us, shocked that kids are coming from the sports teams to audition” for local productions of High School Musical. “One school had 700 kids show up and a lot of them were athletes. It’s having an influence of being inclusive between athletes and drama kids.”
Ortega is just glad that a new generation has taken to the musical format. “That for me is the most thrilling part of the success.”
HSM’s success has had a major effect on the lives of its cast members, as much as they might try to downplay it. Efron and Hudgens have been a couple since the first HSM, where they were first paired during the audition process. “I think we clicked from the very beginning, ” says Efron. Besides hectic days of travel and publicity events, the pair have had to get used to paparazzi and screaming fans following their every move. Even so, “I like to think that I haven’t changed a whole lot since all this happened,” says Efron, whose best-known pre-HSM appearance was a recurring role on the WB’s Summerland.
Hudgens echoes his comment when she says, “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve changed. I’ve been shopping a little more,” she concedes, but says going to the mall “is kind of tough because you get recognized and trailed by girls. Life definitely gets chaotic and crazy and way more than I ever expected.”
The surreal aspect first hit home to her when on her first trip to New York the cast performed in Times Square on Good Morning America, “and I’m looking at my surroundings just realizing where I am. It’s still very overwhelming for me, but I’m very blessed and appreciative of it all.”
Ashley Tisdale, previously the most recognizable cast member from her role as good-girl Maddie in Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, agrees. “I’ve been performing since I was 3 and it’s just really cool to be recognized for something, something big like this,” she says. Lucas Grabeel, who plays her brother Ryan, is “grateful for the opportunity to do things that we didn’t do before. We performed in front of 65,000 people in São Paulo, Brazil. Now, that’s something I would never do if it weren’t for High School Musical.”
[IMG:R]Similarly, Monique Coleman (Taylor) acknowledges she “would not have ever have had the opportunity to be on Dancing with the Stars if it wasn’t for High School Musical. And for a true Cinderella story, one need look no further than KayCee Stroh, a Salt Lake City dance teacher who took some students to the audition, caught Ortega’s eye with her hip-hop moves and won the role of Martha. “I am the American Dream,” says Stroh, who relocated to Los Angeles after HSM.
Most of the cast has lined up new gigs. Tisdale is shooting the movie Picture This in Montreal, Grabeel is acting in The Adventures of Food Boy in Salt Lake City and plans to open a production company, and Moscow-born Olesya Rulin (Kelsi) is currently making the comedy Major Movie Star with Jessica Simpson.
On the music front, Corbin Bleu (Chad) is on tour to support his album Another Side, and Hudgens, whose debut album V went gold, plans to start work on a follow-up soon. While Maria in West Side Story is her dream role, her next acting job doesn’t have to be a musical. “I want to find something that I’m passionate about rather than doing all the movies I can do, just to do it,” she says.
Efron, on the other hand, may remain in singing and dancing mode. Currently playing Link Larkin in Hairspray, he’s attached to the musical remake of Footloose that Ortega will direct. He does, however, want to try other genres. “I love straight comedies, adventure, fantasy, anything,” he says.
At present, he and the rest of the cast are in negotiations to reprise their roles in High School Musical 3, which Ortega will shoot next spring for a theatrical, not TV, premiere. Efron would like to see it focus on the gang’s senior year: “A graduation or prom/dance would be great,” he declares, enthusiastic about revisiting the franchise. “There’s a joy at the center of every single one of their performances and they bring that through the door every single day and that’s why I’d want to do this again and again,” adds a similarly eager Ortega, who runs a nonsense-free set.
[IMG:L]”Kenny was like, ‘Everyone check your egos at the door,’ but we didn’t have a problem with that anyway,” comments KayCee Stroh. “Getting those musical numbers down to Kenny’s liking is not an easy task,” adds Grabeel. “There wasn’t a lot of time to be goofing around or acting like a diva because we had to get it done.”
That no-diva zone extends off set, and you won’t find this bunch emulating the wild antics of some other young stars making headlines for the wrong reasons. Monique Coleman, who’s taking advantage of her fame to become involved with charity work “and things that have to do with what I want to say as a person,” knows HSM is too good of a thing to jeopardize.
“This is such an awesome opportunity. Why would you want to ruin that? There’s definitely no one that’s telling us how to behave. No one is dictating for us what to say or who to be,” she insists. “This is really who we are and how we feel. We are so passionate about this project, about each other and everything that’s a part of it.”
