25 Secrets About High School Musical To Get’cha Head In The Game
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High School Musical has been around for over ten years at this point, but there’s a lot of things about it only true Wildcats will know.
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What team? Wildcats! What team?! WILDCATS!
It has been twelve years since the original High School Musical film debuted in 2006 and it looks like the East High Wildcats would actually be gearing up for their ten-year high school reunion since they graduated in High School Musical 3: Senior Year back in 2008. Yet even after all this time, we still can’t get the lyrics to “Get’cha Head in the Game” while holding a basketball or Sharpay’s “Fabulous” while lounging poolside out of our heads.
No one really could have predicted the success that the High School Musical franchise was going to come into. Starting off as a tiny made for television movie, its success launched multiple sequels and spinoffs and not only showed how capable a Disney Channel Original Movie could be, but it pretty much laid the groundwork for future DCOMs in the future.
Growing up with these films, fans probably thought they knew all there was to know about the High School Musical franchise, yet despite what you think you may know, there are plenty of interesting and fun secrets that were kept behind the scenes. These films could have actually been completely different altogether as plenty of changes were made throughout their development cycles and even today, there are still rumblings of the franchise going strong.
So take a moment to step back into the hallways of East High and learn some interesting facts about High School Musical you might not know. Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat, right?
25 What’s In A Name?
Looking back, the title High School Musical has to be one of the most mundane and straight to the point titles ever created to the point where when someone asks what the movie is about, you kind of just have to roll your eyes and carry on. While it definitely isn’t the most imaginative name out there, it might make more sense if you understand the film’s development history.
High School Musical wasn’t supposed to be the title at all, but was merely a placeholder title until a better name was created.
Strangely enough, the crew never came up with a better working title and decided to keep it as such at the last minute. Also, the whole concept of the film being called High School Musical is pretty absurd to begin with. After all, the name clearly states what the movie is about, but the most we get are a bunch of teenagers auditioning for a school musical and going on a summer vacation in the first two films and we don’t even get to see any of the actual play until High School Musical 3’s play which was pretty much a retelling of the film we just watched.
Sure, we don’t even get a glimpse of East High’s production of “Twinkle Towne” in the first two films, but could you really imagine the movie going by any other name?
24 Slicker Than Grease Lightning
While High School Musical might have felt like it was revolutionary at the time, you can’t really deny the fact that there have been better musicals centered around teens in high school. While Grease might have been the original “High School Musical,” it might be interesting to note that our favorite Disney Channel Original Movie was originally planned to be the third movie in the franchise.
You really can’t deny the similarities between the two films as well and it is easy to see how the first film was heavily inspired by the original high school themed musical that started it all. Almost opening up exactly like Grease, High School Musical had two kids meeting during a holiday vacation only to end up returning to school after break and one of them turned out to be a transfer student. It is just like Grease for kids!
Even though it was originally supposed to be a sequel, it was probably easier to ditch the original project due to getting the rights to the name and making the series more “G” rated and less controversial than its predecessors. At least we got to see Vanessa Hudgens take up the role of Rizzo in Grease Live!
23 Dancing Wasn’t The Only Skill Required
When auditioning for a role in a film, a wide set of skills are needed to truly earn the part. Singing, dancing, and acting are all crucial aspects and were things that Disney was naturally looking for when it came to the casting process, but anyone who has seen the films know that there was one other extremely important skill that would be needed by most of its actors.
Knowing your way around a basketball court was something that couldn’t be ignored when casting for the role.
Added to the already demanding skill sets that were needed for a role in the film, it turns out that the first film also included a basketball audition of sorts to see how well the actors knew how to handle a ball. While actual time on the basketball was fairly limited in the movies, one of the big numbers “Get’cha Head in the Game” required not only dancing but the ability to dribble, pass, and shoot a basketball all to a specific beat as well. It’s definitely the most complex dancing sequence in the first film and it is easy to see why that basketball auditions were necessary.
I’m still trying to nail that dance routine down to this day.
22 Ryan’s Not So Bleu
It’s hard to imagine that anyone in the films could have been played by anyone other than their respective actors, yet strangely enough, most of the characters had multiple possible actors going for the part and many of the actors were originally considered for other roles!
Originally, everyone’s favorite jazz square dancing star Ryan Evans was going to be played by Corbin Bleu. Because the producers could not find a counterpart for Ryan that was the same ethnic background, Corbin’s role was later switched to Chad Danforth and Lucas Grabeel got the part of Ryan, which is strange considering how different the two roles actually are. Still, it is kind of hard to imagine anyone making a better pairing for Ryan Evans and Sharpay Evans than Lucas Grabeel and Ashley Tisdale. Those two just had such an awesome dynamic together that it makes sense that they had trouble finding an appropriate counterpart for the sibling of Ryan Evans if Corbin Bleu took the part, even if it would be interesting to picture him in the very different role, regardless. It’s all good, however, because we know that Corbin Bleu’s hair wouldn’t fit under all of those hats that Ryan owned, anyway!
21 Speaking Of Ryan…
Remember that totally weird scene in High School Musical 2 when Ryan Evans and Chad Danforth danced it off together in a totally choreographed dance number and in the next scene, they had for some reason totally swapped the clothes they were wearing in the scene prior? Can anyone tell me what was up with that, exactly? Or am I just reading too far into this?
Most of the High School Musical fanbase was considerably young when the movie debuted on Disney Channel over a decade ago so the idea of someone’s preferred gender probably wasn’t on the mind of younger kids watching the movies, though most older audiences definitely had questions about Ryan Evans’s orientation.
Lucas Grabeel actually pushed for the character he portrayed to be an openly gay character, perhaps having him come out in the third film.
While Disney is definitely an ally of the LGBT community, it probably would have been too controversial for this “G” rated film. Even though Ryan takes Kelsi to prom in the third film, the audience still widely considers him to be a gay character despite it never officially being confirmed. We still have all that Ryan Evans and Chad Danforth fanfiction, right?
20 Learning As You Go
When going for a role in something like High School Musical, it seems likely that dancing and singing would be a pretty common skill set that the producers would be looking for in an actor or actress. While Disney obviously found plenty of talent in these young stars, it might be kind of surprising to know that some of them never had any experience with some of the actual skills they needed to be in the film.
Ashley Tisdale had no dancing experience prior to filming High School Musical.
Arguably, her dance routines in the first couple of films were fairly mild in nature (and let’s be honest, the Dance Along version of the films made us feel like we could pull off the biggest dance number), yet by the third film, she pretty much looked like that she had been dancing all her life. That’s the Sharpay Evans we know!
Because basketball was also such a heavy factor of the films, we already discussed how basketball auditions were also involved… something which Corbin Bleu admits to having no experience with prior to shooting. I guess these stars picked up quite a few new skills over filming the High School Musical trilogy!
19 An Unlikely Duet
Everyone remembers the “B” story drama that surrounded the two adult characters in the original High School Musical following Ms. Darbus and Troy’s Dad, Coach Bolton, making us all wonder if there really was this much shade following a high school’s faculty in real life. They were pretty much the Disney counterparts of Glee’s Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester as the two different school departments were fighting over taking sports or the arts more seriously.
Yet for whatever reason, the films taught us it was nearly impossible for sports and the arts to coincide.
While Ms. Darbus and Bolton certainly weren’t crowd favorites compared to the much younger cast, there was originally a duet planned for the conflicting duo. While it certainly would have been fun to see these two go at it in song, it was likely canned as a number between two middle-aged characters probably wouldn’t appeal to the younger audiences the movie was trying to capture.
Still, these two characters were arguably more entertaining when the two of them were going off against one another, so there is no denying that a dance battle between these two wouldn’t be entertaining. Maybe they will get their chance to shine in an upcoming High School Musical film!
18 East High Is An Actual Place
So many movies these days rely on building their own sets in their own studios, working from the ground up when it comes to making the film’s atmosphere more believable. While Disney Channel Original Movies rarely need to go through so much effort as they are usually working with more mundane environments, the original High School Musical was almost entirely shot in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sorry, Albuquerque, New Mexico. You’re not actually in the films at all!
So why Salt Lake City, Utah? Well, that was where the location for the actual high school represented in the films takes place in. Not only that, but East High School was the actual name of the high school that it was shot in. Apparently, the school was happy to have the film be shot in their school grounds because they were able to reuse the same hallways and classrooms later on it its two sequels. While the second movie only had a brief opening scene used in the school, the third movie predominantly took place in the high school much like the first one.
Another fun fact? That pink locker that Sharpay had in the third film is still painted pink to this day. I’d be totally jealous of the lucky student that got that locker every year!
17 What Team? The… Leopards?
What team? Wildcats! What team? Wild… wait, what? The Leopards? Yeah, that kind of doesn’t have the same ring to it. It is kind of hard to imagine the idea that East High’s mascot from the film could have been anything other than the Wildcats. With the number of times that they actually scream out their school mascots name and the way that they call each other “Wildcat” as if they couldn’t actually remember anyone’s name in the film, no other team mascot feels like it would work. Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat, right?
It turns out that they almost weren’t the East High Wildcats at all.
Initially, the movie was going to have the school mascot be the East High Leopards, but this was later changed to the East High Wildcats. So why the Leopards? Because the Leopards were the same school mascot that was used in real life for the same high school of the same name that the movies were shot at. While most of the songs probably wouldn’t sound quite the same with the word leopard replacing wildcat in them, you can’t help but wonder how much easier it would have been for the film’s development crew to stick with a mascot that was already featured all over the school.
16 Keeping On Schedule
There have been numerous memorable songs throughout the High School Musical franchise’s run and while everyone probably has their favorite, arguably none of them are as iconic as the tween anthem “We’re All in This Together.” Not only is it the first film’s final number, it also got a reprise toward the end of the third film. And yes, we all still very much remember the dance moves to this day.
What may not be well known is that the entire High School Musical crew was under a lot of stress when it came to filming this number at the end of the first film. Their shooting time was running out on the East High location and because of the number’s theatrics, there wasn’t a lot of time to mess up. When the number was run, a bunch of confetti and balloons were released which would have taken too long to clean up if anyone messed up the part and the number would have had to be redone. Because this was the biggest number of course featuring the entire cast along with a bunch of backup dancers, the time limit only added to the stress of making this final number work… but in retrospect, it looks like everything turned out just fine!
15 Class Participation
I remember the single “What Time Is It?” releasing right in the middle of summer vacation, quickly making it the anthem for every upcoming summer thereafter as it was released in order to promote the second film’s release ahead of time. Then I remember the second movie which promoted summer vacation throughout its run releasing the weekend before school was back in session. Poor planning on Disney’s part!
“What Time Is It?” may have just been one of the most uplifting songs in the series, and while it is the only musical number shot at the staple filming ground of East High, the actual students of the high school got to take part in its production… sort of.
At the beginning of the song when everyone counts down to the final school bell, they throw up a bunch of old school assignments as confetti on the final bell’s ring. Those assignments were actual assignments that were donated by actual students at East High. Naturally, each assignment was carefully scrutinized to make sure that there was no offensive material on them that could be seen in case someone paused the movie at the perfect time and zoomed in times a hundred. While not big, it’s still cool that the students got to have something of theirs in the film.
14 No Rest For These Actors
We’ve all had those teachers in school… the ones where a student would let out a rather loud yawn and then the teacher would shriek “No yawning in my classroom!” as if the student was yawning according to their own will. Of course, yawning actually helps us to pay better attention after our breathing has slowed down when we are bored or tired, but our teachers never cared.
Director Kenny Ortega never cared much for yawners, either.
While I don’t necessarily agree with this method (because I run on four cups of coffee a day and can’t help but yawn throughout it either way), Kenny Ortega actually kept a “Yawn Jar” on set and would have any of the actors place money in it when they would yawn. I’d easily be broke if I worked in an environment like that.
It wasn’t all bad, however. It’s not like Kenny Ortega was just taking the money from his overworked and tired cast members and pocketing it himself. Throughout each of the movie’s filming, he would actually donate the money collected from the “Yawn Jar” to the Make a Wish Foundation and would donate it in the names of the cast members. I guess he’s pretty sweet after all!
13 That Doesn’t Sound Like My Troy
You remember when you first made that huge High School Musical playlist on your iPod featuring every song from each of the three movies, including the second one’s NonStop Dance Remix (it’s a thing) and would totally jam out at the gym, but then you realized that Troy Bolton’s voice sounded kind of different between the first and last two films? Is this only me? Something is telling me that I’m the only one that used High School Musical songs at the gym.
Either way, that musical disparity is because Zac Efron didn’t actually sing in the first film.
Troy Bolton’s songs were actually written for a different vocal range so the first film had Drew Seeley singing the part. Not only that, but Drew would take the role of Troy in High School Musical: The Concert, much to the disappointment of fans who were wondering why Zac Efron wasn’t reprising the role of Troy Bolton on stage.
Of course, this lead many fans to wonder whether Zac Efron could hold a tune at all and if he was just there for show, but of course, Zac Efron totally proved his chops in later films like High School Musical 2 and Hairspray.
12 Speaking Of Troy…
Even though Troy Bolton may have featured the singing voice of Drew Seeley in the original movie, Zac Efron almost didn’t play the role of the character at all as another Disney Channel star, Sterling Knight was up for the part.
Despite not getting the part of the East High basketball star, Sterling Knight has actually made quite a few other appearances in other Disney Channel shows and other Disney Channel Original Movies as well. He actually got another big break in a Disney Channel Original Movie called Starstruck, and much like Zac Efron, his voice wasn’t used for the vocals in his film either other than the song “Starstruck.” Not only did he star in the role on that film, but he also starred in the show Sonny With A Chance and its spinoff, So Random.
Even though Zac Efron and Sterling Knight were both up for the role of Troy Bolton, the two would still appear together down the road in the non-Disney film 17 Again. In the film, Zac Efron actually plays the father of Sterling Knight’s character, but his character is actually transformed from an adult to a teenager again so the two characters share quite a bit of screen time together.
11 But What About Gabriella?
Of course, it wasn’t just other actors that were fighting over the role of other characters. Gabriella Montez had a few other people up for the role as well. Ashley Tisdale originally auditioned for the role of Gabriella Montez but was later moved to the role of Sharpay Evans. While we knew that Ashley Tisdale could play the sweet role based off of her other characters in other Disney media, we still can’t help but imagine her playing anyone other than the narcissistic Evans sibling and Kenny Ortega felt like that was a better fit.
Before Vanessa Hudgens actually landed the role of Gabriella, someone else landed the role altogether. Actress Cassie Steele was pretty much planned to take the part after her role in Full Court Miracle and Disney’s producers wanted her to be the lead. Unfortunately, Cassie Steele was already working on her show Degrassi and had to turn the role down because the filming schedules of the show and the movie wouldn’t be able to coincide.
With all these weird possibilities, however, we still can’t help but be glad that everyone received their respective roles. Maybe the films would have been just as good with different actors and actresses, but we like our Wildcats just the way they are!
10 Speaking Of Vanessa Hudgens…
These Disney Channel stars don’t stay young forever and at some point or another, they land themselves into some pretty hot water. Unfortunately for Vanessa Hudgens, her scandal appeared while the whole High School Musical trend was going strong.
Only a month after the release of the second film in the franchise, some personal photos that she had taken had leaked on the internet showing her not only in lingerie but also showing her in her suit as well. While things like this happen fairly often with popular celebrities, Vanessa Hudgens’s photo leak was a bit more controversial due to her still being such an iconic celebrity for tween audiences and still in the process of filming these kid-friendly shows.
There were plenty of rumors circulating that the role of Gabriella Montez was going to be recast by the third film, but Disney denied any of those claims. Because Vanessa Hudgens apologized for the leaked photos and claimed that she regretted taking them, Disney claimed that due to her apology and that she learned from her mistake, there was no reason to recast the role. While the leaked photos were shocking at the time, we’re glad that Vanessa Hudgens got to keep her role as Gabriella Montez!
9 The Numbers Don’t Lie
There is no denying the popularity that some of the Disney Channel Original Movies carry, but I don’t think that even Disney could have predicted the success that would come along with the High School Musical franchise. Due to the original film’s success, it made sense that the sequel would be in high demand and was likely subject to higher television ratings. The sequel wasn’t just a success.
It dominated cable television on its premiere with a whopping 17.2 million viewers.
This wasn’t only almost 10 million more than the original film’s premiere, but it also made it the highest rated DCOM of all time as well as the highest rated telecast on basic cable telecast at the time. That’s quite the feat for a made for television movie!
Of course, this helped other popular Disney Channel Original Movies to make a pretty big splash as well and it definitely proved that people were interested in more movie musicals as films like Camp Rock and Teen Beach Movie have also grossed close to 10 million on their premiere ratings and their success also lead to even more sequels. Even today, it shows just how popular these types of films can be as Kenny Ortega’s Descendants follows suit.
8 Who Put Her On The Guest List?
High School Musical and the hit television show Hannah Montana had quite a bit in common when they were both released back in 2006 (only a couple short months shy of each other). Not only did Corbin Bleu appear in the Hannah Montana pilot and High School Musical, both franchises launched soundtracks that would go on to sell millions of copies. Disney Channel was unstoppable at the time.
While this might be common knowledge by many fans at this point, for those of you that missed it, Hannah Montana’s actress Miley Cyrus actually has a brief cameo (brief as in, don’t look away from the screen brief) in the second film’s final number “All For One” where she can be seen dancing along poolside with the rest of the cast.
Her inclusion in the film was actually based off of a contest on Disney Channel’s website that asked fans what Disney Channel star that they wanted to have make a cameo. Let’s be honest though. Due to the success of the show at the time, did anyone think anyone other than Miley Cyrus was going to get the part? Sorry, Kyle Massey, you did not make the cut. They had Miley handpicked probably months before that contest was even up.
7 What’s My Age Again?
Disney Channel Original Movies and shows usually do a pretty good job of casting actors and actresses that are relatively close to the same age as the actors that they are portraying. Unlike shows like Glee that have people in their late twenties portraying high schoolers, this is one thing that Disney is pretty good about. Surprisingly enough, the ages of the actors and actresses portraying the East High Wildcats were all pretty different in age, spanning a good eight years from one another for a few of them.
While most of the actors and actresses were in their late teens when filming, making them only a couple years older than the characters they were portraying, Monique Coleman was actually in her mid-twenties when she was filming the original High School Musical, meaning she was almost thirty by the time that the films had ended. While we have certainly seen some bigger age contrasts in terms of actors and actresses portraying characters of the same age range, it is something that is still quite rare in Disney Channel productions.
It still raises my hopes that maybe, just maybe, I’m not too old to be cast in the next Disney Channel Original Movie. Hit me up, Disney!
6 Speaking Of Monique Coleman…
Monique Coleman has one of the longest-running acting histories of any of the other actors and actresses featured in High School Musical. While possibly due to her being somewhat older, she also got a start in her early teen years. Unfortunately, the actress that took up the role of Taylor McKessie was struggling with finding prosperous roles and was subjected to making only one episode appearances in various television shows early on in her career.
While breaking into the world of acting is tough, not making much progress in her career took a toll on Monique Coleman and she was almost not a part of the High School Musical series at all. Becoming infuriated with the way her career was going, she almost declined the role of Taylor and almost quit acting altogether.
Then, of course, High School Musical happened.
Sure, the movie could have totally flopped, but after being convinced to take the part, she stuck with it and the films turned out to be a whopping success, landing her a role in two more successful sequels as well as getting more gigs later on. It just goes to show you that you should always stick to your dreams even when things get rough!
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/high-school-musical-disney-facts/