We’re breaking free! Today, January 20, marks 20 years since the release of High School Musical, the biggest and most commercially successful Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM). It spawned a franchise including multiple films and a Disney+ series. Let’s look back on the film that started it all.
High School Musical
In 2004, writer Peter Barsocchini approached DCOM Senior Vice President Michael Healy with the idea of a TV movie that his 9-year-old daughter would like. The concept of a basketball player who also wanted to dabble in the arts came from Barsocchini’s experience playing basketball in high school with Lynn Swann, who was also interested in ballet (Swann would go on to become a professional football player).
Healy and Disney Channel President Gary Marsh bought the idea, hoping to replicate the success of the Even Stevens and That’s So Raven musical episodes, as well as DCOM’s first musical film The Cheetah Girls (2003). The latter got its own pair of sequels.
Don Schain produced High School Musical. Kenny Ortega was brought in to direct. Around the same time, he also directed The Cheetah Girls 2 (2006), and was already known for the cult classics Newsies (1992) and Hocus Pocus (1993).
Filming for High School Musical took place in summer 2005 at East High School and Murray High School in Utah on a budget of $4.2 million.
David Lawrence composed the music but the lyrics of the famous songs were by a variety of artists. The songs were recorded in five days and the soundtrack was released on January 10, 2006 — 10 days before the film. In those first 10 days, it didn’t make much of a splash, but it would become the best selling album of that year with 3.7 million copies sold in the U.S. and 7 million copies worldwide.
On January 20, 2006, High School Musical aired on Disney Channel. It was an instant success, with the premiere garnering 7.7 million viewers.
The film follows high school juniors Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), who meet during karaoke at ski lodge on New Year’s Eve. Though they make a connection, the pair fail to get each other’s contact information. By coincidence, Gabriella transfers to Troy’s school, East High, in New Mexico. Troy is captain of the basketball team, which his father (Bart Johnson) coaches, while Gabriella joins the scholastic decathlon team. Despite both being interested in musical theater, they have to navigate the “status quo” of different cliques and the meddling of Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and her twin brother Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), who rule the theater department.
The movie also stars Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus, the theater teacher; Corbin Bleu as Troy’s friend Chad; Monique Coleman as Taylor, captain of the scholastic decathlon team; Olesya Rulin as young composer Kelsi Nielsen; Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke, a basketball player who likes to bake; Ryne Sanborn as fellow basketball player Jason; and Kaycee Stroh as Martha, a braniac who likes to dance to hip-hop music. Many characters would play bigger roles in the sequels.
Infamously, Efron did not sing Troy’s part in most of the film. He provides the first and final lines of “Start of Something New” and the beginning of “Breaking Free,” but Drew Seeley was Troy’s main singing voice. Neither Efron nor Seeley were ever told exactly why this was the case. Efron was a trained singer and insisted on using his own voice in High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3. There were indications that Efron and Seeley’s voices were blended but Seeley has set the record straight — he sang in the first film, while Efron sang in the sequels. Everyone else in the series did their own singing throughout.
After the film’s release, the soundtrack hit number one on the Billboard 200 in March 2006. By August, more than three million copies had been sold and it was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA. In January 2023, it was certified 5× platinum by the RIAA. The film’s lead single, “Breaking Free”, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100.
The DVD was released on May 23, 2006, selling 1.2 million copies in its first six days, making it the fastest-selling TV movie of all time. It was certified Platinum, the second DCOM to do so after The Cheetah Girls.
Despite being an audience hit, High School Musical wasn’t a success with critics. Its Tomatometer is 67% versus an audience score of 74%. The critics consensus reads, “High School Musical is brazenly saccharine, but it makes up for it with its memorable show tunes, eye-popping choreography, and appealing cast.”
The film was nominated for dozens of awards, and won the following:
- ASTRA Awards — Favorite International Program
- Billboard Music Award — Soundtrack Album of the Year
- Humanitas Prize — Children’s Live Action Category (Peter Barsocchini)
- Nickelodeon Australian Kids’ Choice Awards — Fave Movie
- Nickelodeon UK Kids’ Choice Awards — Best TV Actor (Zac Efron)
- Primetime Emmy Award — Outstanding Choreography (Kenny Ortega, Charles Klapow, and Bonnie Story)
- Primetime Emmy Award — Outstanding Children’s Program (Don Schain, Bill Borden, and Barry Rosenbush)
- Television Critics Association Awards — Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming
- Teen Choice Award — Television – Choice Breakout Star (Zac Efron)
- Teen Choice Award — Television – Choice Chemistry (Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron)
- Teen Choice Award — Television – Choice Comedy or Musical Show
- Casting Society of America — Best Children’s TV Programming (Jason La Padura and Natalie Hart)
- Directors Guild of America Award — Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Program (Kenny Ortega, Don Schain, Matias Alvarez and Tobijah Tyler)
- Golden Reel Award — Best Sound Editing in Music for Television – Long Form (Carli Barber and Michael Dittrick)
Sequels, Spin-offs, and Adaptations
High School Musical was just the start of something new. Disney quickly began working on a sequel. Peter Barsocchini, Kenny Ortega, and most of the cast returned for High School Musical 2, which aired on Disney Channel on August 17, 2007. The premiere had 17.3 million viewers — almost 10 million more than the first film. At the time, it was the highest-rated DCOM and the most viewed TV film ever. It got a better critics reception, with an 83% Tomatometer, actually higher than the audience score of 72%.
Between the releases of the first and second films, High School Musical: The Concert toured the U.S., Canada, and Latin America in 2006 and 2007. It featured the entire main cast except Efron, who was filming Hairspray. Drew Seeley took his place. The cast performed songs from the movie as well as some of their own singles. Jordan Pruitt opened for the tour.
In 2008, the reality show High School Musical: Get in the Picture hosted by Nick Lachey had singers competing for the opportunity to sing and star in a music video that would be shown during the credits of High School Musical 3. Stan Carrasoza won and performed the song “Just Gettin’ Started” for the credits music video.
The third film, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, was released in theaters on October 24, 2008. With a budget of $30 million, it grossed $252.9 million worldwide. It didn’t come to Disney Channel until April 4, 2010. The film earned a 64% Tomatometer and 72% audience score.
High School Musical: The Ice Tour was a figure skating adaptation from Feld Entertainment that opened in 2007. It featured songs and elements from the first two films, and a preview of High School Musical 3.
The first movie was adapted for the stage as High School Musical on Stage! It had a run in Minneapolis before touring the U.S. in 2007 and the U.K. in 2008. A second stage show, High School Musical 2: On Stage!, was created based on the sequel. It toured the U.K. and Ireland in 2009.
Though the main trilogy was wrapped and the characters graduated high school, the franchise wasn’t done. In 2011, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure was released direct-to-DVD a month before a Disney Channel premiere. The film starred Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay alongside a new cast of characters including Austin Butler as love interest Peyton Leverett. It wasn’t as well-received as the first three films, garnering a modest 4.9 million viewers for its premiere and mixed critical reviews.
In 2016, Disney was casting for High School Musical 4, which would have revolved around new characters, but it seems the movie was shelved.
The launch of Disney+ on November 12, 2019 brought High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Rather than being set within the High School Musical canon, the spin-off was about a group of students at East High School, a fictionalized version of the real high school were High School Musical was filmed, putting on their own version of the production.
The series starred Olivia Rodrigo as Nini Salazar-Roberts, Joshua Bassett as Ricky Bowen, Matt Cornett as E. J. Caswell, Sofia Wylie as Gina Porter, Larry Saperstein as Big Red, Julia Lester as Ashlyn Caswell, Dara Reneé as Kourtney Greene, Frankie Rodriguez as Carlos Rodriguez, Mark St. Cyr as Benjamin Mazzara, Kate Reinders as Miss Jenn, Joe Serafini as Seb Matthew-Smith, Saylor Bell Curda as Maddox, Adrian Lyles as Jet, and Liamani Segura as Emmy. Original film star Corbin Bleu had a recurring role as himself in season 2. Fellow High School Musical stars Kaycee Stroh, Lucas Grabeel, Monique Coleman, Bart Johnson, and Alyson Reed all made guest appearances as themselves.
The show ran for four seasons, with the school adapting Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
There were novelizations of the original three films, as well as the series Stories from East High, consisting of 14 novels by several authors released from 2007 to 2009. A pair of longer novels were released as the Super Special Series.
International versions of High School Musical include the spin-offs High School Musical: El Desafío (Argentina, 2008), High School Musical: El Desafío (Mexico, 2008) and High School Musical: O Desafio (Brazil, 2010). All three are based on the first Stories from East High novel, Battle of the Bands. The Mexican film was cast with the reality series High School Musical: La Selección. Disney High School Musical China, a.k.a. High School Musical China: College Dreams, is a Chinese adaptation of the first film.
There have been six video games — High School Musical: Sing It!, High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut!, High School Musical 2: Work This Out DS, High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE!, High School Musical 3: Senior Year DS, and Disney Sing It! – High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
There have been countless merchandise items. Recent releases at Disney Parks include a Wildcats sweatshirt.
Speaking of Disney Parks, there were multiple live High School Musical parades and shows performed at theme parks over the years. These weren’t full narrative shows but featured the film’s songs. The first iteration was the High School Musical Pep Rally pre-parade which was performed before the regular parade in 2006 and 2007 at Disney California Adventure. Stand-still versions of the shows eventually made it to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland.
When High School Musical 2 was released, the live show was updated to High School Musical 2: School’s Out! That was then followed by High School Musical 3: Senior Year – Right Here! Right Now! which ran into 2010. It was replaced by Disney Channel Rocks, which featured music from multiple Disney Channel movies, including High School Musical. It came to an end in 2013.
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