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About The Movie
High School Musical
is a Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) with choreography by Kenny Ortega, Charles Klapow, and Bonnie Story. The film tells the story of two students,
Troy, who is the captain of his school's basketball team, and Gabriella, a shy new student. Together, they try out for the
lead parts in their school musical. Despite some students' attempts to thwart their dreams, Troy and Gabriella persist and
inspire others along the way.
Troy and Gabriella, without knowing each other, both
go to a 'young adults' New Year's Party, while on vacation. They both get chosen for karaoke and "rock the house" with their
song, "Start of Something New". Afterwards, Troy and Gabriella introduce themselves
to each other, and then part company, but not before promising to call each other later (each having the other's number and
picture on their cell phone).
Later, due to her mother's job being transferred to
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gabriella starts school at East High, not knowing that
Troy also attends that same school. Troy is also the captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team, which is coached by
Mr. Bolton, Troy's father.
Welcoming the students back from their holiday vacation,
Ms. Darbus, their homeroom teacher and the drama teacher, encourages the students to sign up for the Winter Musical auditions,
announcing that there would be singles auditions for the supporting roles and pairs auditions for the two leads. After class,
Troy finds Gabriella after seeing her in class. It soon becomes evident that the two (and particularly Troy) both wish to
sign up or, at least, hope that the other will do so first.
However, Troy sneaks out of doing basketball practice
during free period, evading both his friend Chad and his father, to go watch the auditions. Gabriella shows up for the audition
as well. Though late for the auditions, the two sing a song from the musical and both get callbacks.
Gabriella and Troy begin to feel the pressure that their
stereotypes place on them. Gabriella is a super-braniac, and Troy is the star basketball player, and neither is considered
a singer. Although moving to a new school has given Gabriella a chance to start over before anyone can label her a math geek,
Troy struggles to get his dad to accept him singing in the musical.
Troy gets in trouble with his dad and his friends when
he directs his attention towards the musical instead of basketball, especially since the Wildcats are gearing up for their
big game in two weeks. Similarly, the scholastic decathlon team begs Gabriella to focus on their upcoming competition.
In addition, the dynamic duo Ryan and Sharpay Evans,
who have always starred in the school musicals, are furious. Sharpay and Ryan refuse to have any competition, and do what
they can to stop Troy and Gabriella from stealing 'their' parts in 'their' show.
The Decathlon team and the basketball team get together
to split up Troy and Gabriella. Troy is confronted in the locker room by the entire basketball team and breaks down, telling
them that he doesn't want to do the callbacks, not knowing that Gabriella is watching the whole thing on a laptop wirelessly
in a different room.
Heartbroken, Gabriella stops talking to Troy, and Troy
is puzzled as to why. Troy's basketball performance worsens, and both the Decathlon team and the basketball team feel guilty
and finally admit to both Gabriella and Troy what they did. Gabriella, however, is not convinced
After finding why Gabriella won't talk to him, Troy
goes and apologizes to Gabriella, telling her that he did not mean what he said and that he still wants to sing with her in
the callbacks. Seeing that he's telling the truth, Gabriella agrees to sing with him in the callbacks.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Sharpay, as co-presidents of the
Drama Club, have convinced Ms. Darbus to reschedule the auditions to the same time as the championship basketball game and
the scholastic decathlon, and Ms. Darbus unknowingly changes it. The basketball team and the decathlon team have a plan of
their own, however, to get Troy and Gabriella to the audition without missing anything.
Everything comes together on the final day - the callbacks,
the basketball game, and the scholastic decathlon. Gabriella and her team compete in the scholastic decathlon. During the
competition, they send a virus to the gym computer, which responds by causing the gym's lights and scoreboard to flicker and
show incorrect scores. The game is halted, and everyone is asked to make an orderly exit. The decathlon team also send a virus
to one of pieces of lab equipment to cause a chemical experiment to go bad, and release a pungent gas, forcing the competition
to be delayed. At this point, both Troy and Gabriella are running to the callbacks.
Sharpay and Ryan have just finished performing their
song, "Bop To The Top" with only a few people in the audience. Ms. Darbus calls
for Troy and Gabriella, but they are unfortunately not there yet. Less than a minute later, they arrive, but Ms. Darbus says
they are too late. The basketball and decathlon teams follow not far behind Troy and Gabriella and fill the auditorium to
watch Troy and Gabriella. Ms. Darbus is forced to let them sing, having seen such an excellent display of 'showbiz' and determination
from Troy, Kelsi, and Gabriella.
At first, Gabriella gets stage fright, but Troy reminds
her to be who she wants to be. They perform the song "Breaking Free", leaving the crowd, including Ms. Darbus, cheering uncontrollably.
Even Troy's dad and Gabriella's mom watch the song and are visibly proud. Everyone realizes that Troy and Gabriella are meant
to sing together.
The Wildcats return to the gym, where the lights are
working again, and they win the championship with a game-winning shot from Troy, giving a final game score of 68-67. While
the Wildcats are celebrating, Gabriella comes in and tells Troy that her team won the decathlon. Filled with joy, Gabriella
and Troy are just about to share a romantic kiss when they are interrupted by Chad, coming to give Troy the game ball. They
try again but are interrupted by Taylor who was asked out by Chad.
Sharpay then comes up to Gabriella to congratulate her,
telling her to "break a leg," which scares Gabriella until Sharpay tells her that that means "good luck" in theatre lingo.
Everyone realizes that people should be able to do what they're truly passionate about, and not just stay in the stereotypes
given to them by others. With this new philosophy, the whole school decides that they should support each other, singing and
dancing in the final song, "We're All in This Together."
Cast
Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is the captain of the Wildcats basketball team and his
father is the coach. Troy has a great voice but doesn't know about his talent until he sings in front of people at a party
with Gabriella. He is dedicated to his basketball playing and, during the course of the movie, develops a great interest and
devotion to his singing.
Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) moves to New Mexico after Winter Break vacation, and
only knows one person: Troy Bolton, who she met at a ski lodge in Colorado. She is extremely smart, though she doesn't want
to again be labeled as the school's "freaky math girl". Gabriella has a great voice, and once performed in church choir, but
realizes she has tremendous stage fright. In the end, with a little help from Troy, she manages to overcome it.
Sharpay "Ice Princess" Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is an egotistic girl hooked on doing anything to get
what she wants. In the movie she is the most known in the school. Sharpay is head of the drama club and seems somewhat jealous
of Gabriella. At the beginning of the movie it appears as if she likes Troy; however, Zeke has a crush on her, and Sharpay
ends up liking him at the end of the movie because of how good his baked cookies are. She also ends up being the understudy
Gabriella for the Winter Musical. She proudly flaunts the fact she and her brother have starred in seventeen of the school's
productions.
Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) is mostly pushed to the side to let Sharpay into the
picture. Ryan is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. He can often be very ditzy at times and is the nicer of the two.
In the movie, not many details about this character are revealed, but one can conclude he is extremely flamboyant. He also
goes along with Sharpay's plans, because he doesn't really know what to do without her. It can be concluded also that, aside
from Sharpay, he has no other friends and is visibly intimidated by the jock crowd. (Sharpay cuts through the group, but Ryan
goes around, he avoids eye-contact with Chad, and is more upset that the 'Jocks rule most of the student body, but if Troy
makes it to the auditions, then they've conquered the entire student body' than Sharpay is about them making it to the callbacks)
Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) is Troy's best friend and member of the Wildcats basketball
team. From the start he's a little selfish and isn't very supportive of the 'singing thing' because he wants to win the upcoming
big game more then wanting to help his friend. But then he comes to see that singing is something that Troy truly enjoys and
so Chad throws his support to his best friend's audition endeavour.
Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) is the leader of the school scholary/science
club. She befriended Gabriella when she came to the school and convinced her to join the scholastic club. While she at first
tried to stop Gabriella from singing, she eventually ended up supporting her new pal.
Minor Characters
Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) is the harsh drama teacher at East High. Her nemesis
is Coach Bolton, and she will only ease up on talented singers. Her lack of knowledge for sports is prominent. She likes to
pronounce 'musical' with a flourish.
Coach Bolton (Bart Johnson) is the Wildcats' coach and Troy's dad. He is a champion
basketball player. His nemesis is Ms. Darbus.
Kelsi "Play Maker" Neilson (Olesya Rulin) is the pianist for the East High Winter Musical, and
is the composer of the songs "What I've Been Lookin' For" and "Breaking Free". Kelsi is not the most confident person as noted
by her reaction to Sharpay's comment that Kelsi knows nothing about musicals. Kelsi is of great assistance to Troy and Gabriella
by playing the piano while they practiced for the callbacks.
Zeke (Chris Warren Jr.) is a member of the Wildcats Basketball team. He is obsessed
with baking (revealed during Stick to the Status Quo), and at the end of the movie Sharpay starts
to like him for his excellent
Awards
On July 6, 2006, High School Musical received
6 Emmy Award nominations, including: Outstanding Casting, Outstanding
Directing, Outstanding Choreograph, Outstanding Children's Program, and two nods for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the
songs "Breaking Free" and "Get'cha Head In The Game". The Emmy Awards will be held live on Sunday, August 27 at 8 on NBC.
Teen Choice Awards has given High School Musical 4 nominations, including:
Choice Comedy/Musical, Best TV Chemistry - Zac Efron + Vanessa Anne Hudgens, and two nods for Choice Breakthrough Artists for Zac
Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens. The Teen Choice awards will be held live on Sunday, August 20 at 8 on FOX.
On July 23, 2006, High School Musical
received a TCA (Television Critics Association) award for Outstanding Achievement In Children's
Programming.
Fandom
During the sequence when Troy and Gabriella sings,
"Start of Something New", they are just looking on the lyrics during the first and second stanza. Then, they are not looking
at the lyrics anymore.
- During the sequence when Troy is heading to the first
audition, his shoes switch between blue shoes with white accents and white shoes with blue accents.
- During the intervention scene, the screen says "Recieving
Wi-Fi Signal"--ironic since this is a scene with the smartest students in the school.
- During the intervention scene, when Gabriella enters
the cafeteria carrying a lunch tray, and passes Troy, she sits down. The shot then switches to Troy walking off then back
to Gabriella, where her lunch tray has disappeared from sight.
- Troy mentions to Gabriella that his friends don't know
his rooftop hide-out exists. And yet they easily find Troy to tell him that they're the reason Gabriella stopped talking to
him.
- In the story, Troy and Gabriella had never sung "Start
of Something New" before, but by the second half of the song they are not looking at the words on the screen.
- Again, when Troy and Gabriella are singing "What I've
Been Looking For" they are not looking at the lyrics.
- Sharpay's name is the only one for the pairs on the
audition list.
- During "Stick to the Status Quo", Sharpay turns to
begin to walk down the stairs, but in the next wide shot of the cafeteria, she is at her post at the middle of the balcony.
When it goes back to her she is halfway down the stairs.
- During the scene in Mrs. Darbus's classroom, while
Chad is talking to Troy, Chad is wearing a watch, but when he goes and see Troy at his locker in the next scene he has no
watch on.
- During the scene of We're All in This Together,
Troy has a jacket on, then off, then on again
Stage Musical
It was announced in Playbill on August 1, 2006 that Stagedoor Manor — the summer theatre camp made famous by the movie
"Camp" — will be home to the first stage production of Disney's original movie "High School Musical."
Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theater International
granted the first license of the amateur stage production to the Loch Sheldrake, New York program, which is slated to perform
in August. [1] The part of Troy will be played by Jordan Campbell and the part of Gabriella will be played by Andrea Ross.
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