High School Musical (2006)
Disney is far more than just animation. When I was a child, there were dozens of live action Disney TV shows and movies that dominated the horizons of my permitted viewing material. Lizzie McGuire, Holes, The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Even Stevens, The Mighty Ducks, The Princess Diaries, Two of a Kind and Pirates of the Caribbean: all Disney. I gravitated towards the Disney shows and movies set in high schools: programmes that tended to follow the same sweet and edgeless formula. Gangs comprised of nerds, cool kids, doofuses and punky girls roamed spotless corridors, getting up to shenanigans and avoiding the beady eyes of authoritarian teachers. There was always a will they-won’t they romance, there was always a parental conflict and there was always a musical number. High School Musical is the film that perfects this formula. It’s aggressively chirpy, annoyingly squeaky-clean and perfectly fine-tuned.
Teenage basketball star Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and science whiz-kid Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) meet on New Year’s Eve at a Utah ski lodge. Neither Troy nor Gabriella has ever sung before an audience, but an impromptu midnight karaoke duet reveals that they have talent and chemistry. As chance would have it, the two are destined to be together: Gabriella is transferred to Troy’s Albuquerque high school. The two reunite and explore their secret passion for music, hiding their meet-ups, auditions and rehearsals from their friends. Gabriella’s Brainiac buddies don’t approve of her obvious crush on the school’s star jock while Troy’s teammates don’t approve of his newfound love for musical theatre. Through the power of song and dance, attitudes are changed, souls are bared and the status quo is shattered.
The story is a sexless, bloodless spin on the Romeo and Juliet formula: star-crossed teenagers from warring clans fall in love. In line with the standard Disney approach, even the most fanatical of evangelical American Christians would struggle to condemn High School Musical. It’s an unreal vision of high school life straight out of Pleasantville: there’s no drugs, no depression, no violence, no threat and no bullying. It has the aesthetics of an American high school (the lockers, the letterman jackets, the pom poms) and none of the emotional truth. This film is so puritanical that Troy and Gabriella don’t even share a kiss. Compare High School Musical to another musical franchise set in a high school, Glee, and you’ll immediately spot the difference. Glee is a soap opera packed with teenage pregnancies and queer sexuality. High School Musical could have been scripted by the Bush administration.
As a seven-year-old child raised on comparatively edgy TV like Malcolm in the Middle and Doctor Who, I was well-aware that High School Musical was cheesy and antiseptic. I also loved it. Beat by beat, scene by scene, this film is a minor miracle of cinematic economy. It’s like Pee Wee Herman’s breakfast contraption or Charles Babbage’s difference engine: a glorious machine with every cog, wheel and gear in the right place. Every single scene is necessary, every transition is sharp, every musical number provides information on the characters, no time is wasted and every interaction adds a little flavour. I couldn’t have put a name to this quality as a child: all I knew was that I was thoroughly entertained. As an adult, I marvel at the workmanship. I love loose, artsy movies that drift into unfamiliar territory, but there’s a clinical satisfaction in geometrically perfect construction. If there’s proof of the genius of the Disney system, High School Musical is it.
You might not know who Ashley Tisdale is. If so, I pity you. Say her name to anyone born at the turn of the 21st century and you’re likely to receive a receptive smile. As Machiavellian queen bee Sharpay Evans, Tisdale is High School Musical’s breakout star. Permanently dressed in pink and armed with a withering mix of passive aggressive condescension and back-handed sympathy, Sharpay is a beautiful family-friendly caricature of the high school mean girl. Watch the way that Tisdale moves her face; the speed at which she transforms from vicious dead-eyed stares to blinding smiles. It’s almost creepy how the warmth vanishes from her face in a split-second, like a magic trick of the facial muscles. 90% of the rest of the cast are genial and polite students: Sharpay and her gay-coded brother/henchman Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) are the only characters who are allowed to be cruel.
Though Tisdale rises above all others, High School Musical has a solid cast that understands the chipper tone and plays into it very effectively. Efron and Hudgens have both done better work since (check out Spring Breakers for Hudgens), but the two are incredibly earnest and lovable as Troy and Gabriella. They don’t just look the part; they give it warmth. In the supporting cast, credit should go to Alison Reed as the camp and snippy drama teacher Ms Darbus, a kindly battle axe who affects a slightly British accent to seem more theatrical. I’m also fond of geeky pianist Kelsi (Olesya Rulin), partly because she closely resembles one of my best friends at secondary school. I’m also fond of her quasi-Maoist hats. Despite its cautiousness, High School Musical is a consistently funny film, often due to unnamed side characters chiming in with odd comments or providing comic relief with poor auditions. I can’t name these actors (or the characters that they played), but I doff my cap to each of them.
I own a physical copy of the High School Musical soundtrack. It wasn’t a gift: I bought it. I didn’t even buy it as a child. I was perhaps fifteen or sixteen when I spent money on it, and I have no regrets. Bop to the Top, Get'cha Head In the Game and We’re All in this Together have the same Disney production line sheen as every element on screen, but they’re fantastically effective, slickly-produced pop tracks that I enjoy to this day. Every number is dropped at the perfect moment and the Efron/Hudgens duo prove themselves to be capable vocalists. Stick to the Status Quo is a solid comedy song with quotable spoken word sections (Crème Brûlée!) and the forever iconic showstopper Breaking Free has stood the test of time wonderfully. Here’s proof: sixteen years after the film’s release, Breaking Free was regularly used to close the night at my University’s student union. At least twelve separate songwriters are credited on the film’s soundtrack, and each deserves their credit.
High School Musical isn’t the best Disney film. Holes has a better story while Freaky Friday has stronger characters and more detailed performances. High Musical excels in the polished flawlessness of its structure and the technical strength of its musical performances. I’m convinced that it’s one of the most impressive movie musicals released in the 21st century; certainly it’s a far stronger candidate than The Greatest Showman, La La Land or Moulin Rouge. It’s more focused and disciplined than any of these other musicals: faultlessly concentrated and pure. Where Damien Chazelle and Baz Luhrmann attempted to make grand tributes to the Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire musicals of old, Disney simply repeated the production line formula that created the musicals of the 40s and 50s. With less flamboyance and more rigidity, the product is finer, stronger and more satisfying.