59 Facts About High School Musical For All The Fans Out There

'High School Musical' is a 2006 Musical TV movie directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini.

The film is the first one in the High School Musical series. The popularity of the film generated a media brand and a series of high school musical films, including 'High School Musical 2' and 'High School Musical 3: Senior Year'.

'High School Musical' premiered to 7.7 million people in the United States and is one of the highest ratings the network has ever had.

The film has also had a lot of popularity internationally; since around 2019, roughly 225 million people have viewed 'High School Musical'.

The narrative centers around a famous school player and an intellectually talented girl who obtain leads in the school play and form a friendship that disrupts the social order at East High.

The novelization of the blockbuster film, 'High School Musical: The Junior Novel', was published by the Press of Disney Channel in June 2006. This novel debuted at the top of the New York Times best-seller list and stayed there for 16 weeks.

The East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah was used to film the film. Sharpay's pink locker is still in use by students.

The unofficial title for the picture was called 'High School Musical' while the producers came up with a better name. However, there was almost no alternative by the time post-production began, so the filmmakers reluctantly decided on 'High School Musical.'

The film is based on a 1999 scenario called 'Grease 3.' Production would have had to seek permission from the owners of the Grease rights, so the concept became High School Musical.

The third chapter was supposed to be a Halloween-themed film called 'Haunted High School Musical', in which spirits infiltrated East High School and terrorized the students and instructors.

Continue reading to learn more about High School Musical and its production.

If you enjoyed reading this article, you must also check out these other fun articles about the Lion King musical facts and Matilda the musical facts.

The Plot Of High School Musical

• The film's screenwriter, Peter Barsocchini, admits to stealing the notion of star-crossed lovers.
• His childhood at an all-boys Catholic junior high provided a lot of inspiration for the storyline.
• Two polar-opposite high school students secretly resolve to test for their school's theatrical. Their abilities challenge the elite and flip the world on its head.
• At a Christmas karaoke party, Troy Bolton, a fantastic athlete at a high school in a small town, falls for geeky beauty Gabriella Montez.
• Troy and Gabriella try out for the forthcoming school musical as they return to campus.
• Meanwhile, Sharpay Evans, played by Ashley Tisdale, who is envious of them, plots to ruin their prospects.
• The two must juggle their commitments to the basketball team and the scholastic decathlon to make it to auditions.
• In an end-credits clip, Zeke Baylor (Chris Warren Jr.) is pacing alone in the gym when Sharpay comes in and declares that the cookies he gave her, which she had previously rejected, are 'genius'.
• He hugs her and says he'll cook her a crème brûlée. Zeke beams with delight.
• On the eve of New Year, while shooting, the falling snow was potato flakes.
• A duet with Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton was planned but never filmed.
• Zac Efron put in multiple hours of basketball training to prepare for his part as Troy Bolton, a basketball standout and captain.
• The Ski Lodge, which was essentially a dance studio, was used to film nearly the whole film at East High.
• The initial mascot was supposed to be a leopard, not a wildcat.
• In addition to performing, musical, and dance rehearsals, there were multiple rounds of basketball tryouts for the cast.
• Zac Efron was the instigator of the cast's continuing prank war. He used to toss balloons at the cast and crew.
• The pink piano featured in Sharpay's recital of 'HSM 2,' in 'Fabulous' was refurbished white at the ending of the scene for 'Everyday'.

The Cast Of High School Musical

• Gabriella's boyfriend, Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), is the most famous boy at East High School as well as the basketball team's captain.
• Troy's girlfriend, Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), is also a student at East High. She also worked at the Lava Springs Country Club as a lifeguard.
• Sharpay's twin brother, Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel), lives in the shade of his sister.
• Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is Ryan's twin sister who is competing for Troy's attention while competing for the talent show.
• Troy's best buddy is Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu).
• Gabriella's best friend, Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman), is dating Chad. She is the captain of the Scholastic Decathlon team at her school. She works as an activities coordinator at Lava Springs throughout the summer.
• Almost 600 young actors auditioned for this film.
• The phrases that feature on the clothes worn by Corbin Bleu, who plays Chad in the film, were created by him.
• Ashley Tisdale tried out for the part of Gabriella Montez, but filmmaker Kenny Ortega believed she'd be a better fit for Sharpay Evans.
• The character of Troy Bolton was offered to Matthew Underwood, but he had to turn it down due to his Nickelodeon commitment.
• Matthew Underwood is known for his role in the film 'Zoey 101'.
• Because his protagonist was the leader of the basketball team, Zac Efron had to train for three hours every day.
• On and off the set, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were dating. From 2006-2010, they were together.
• Before production of the movie began, the actors had to go through two weeks of hard dancing practices.
• During the tryouts for this film, Vanessa Hudgens had to contend with 12 other females for the character of Gabriella Montez.
• Lucas Grabeel and Ashley Tisdale tested together during the second callback, and the Sharpay-Ryan chemistry was immediately formed.
• Corbin Bleu was indeed the youngest of the six major cast members, while Monique Coleman, who portrays Taylor, was the oldest.
• Gabriella Montez had Naya Rivera audition for her. She eventually starred in the show 'Glee', which is based on the same concept.
• Troy Bolton was auditioned by Lucas Grabeel and Hunter Parrish.
• Joey Miyashima, who portrays East High's principal, also appeared in another Disney Channel film, 'Double Teamed', as Palos Verdes' basketball coach.
• In 'High School Musical 3: Senior Year', Jemma McKenzie Brown plays Tiara Gold, who was initially scheduled to be played by Selena Gomez.

Songs In High School Musical

• In just five days, the music was created.
• The score to High School Musical opened at #143 on the Billboard Top 200 in its first week of release, selling 6,500 copies.
• By August 2006, more than 3 million copies had been sold, earning it a quadruple platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.
• It ended up selling almost 4 million copies in the United States, making it the best album of 2006.
• At least eight songs from the film landed on the Billboard Hot 100 in the two weeks succeeding its initial broadcast on the Disney Channel, making it the most simultaneous singles from a single album ever at the time.
• Many additional Hot 100 chart milestones were established or broken as well.
• Julian Nott had wanted to compose the film's score, but he was substituted before he could get started.
• Zac Efron was the very first artist to have four Hot 100 songs in the first two weeks of his career.
• Vanessa Anne Hudgens made history by being the first woman to earn three debut charting credits in two weeks.
• Zac and Vanessa were also the first couples to have three Hot 100 debut songs in two weeks.

Reception Of High School Musical

• With more than 7 million viewers in the first broadcast, this was the most popular film on the Disney channel at the time.
• With more than 17.2 million people, 'High School Musical 2' has become the highest-rated Disney Channel original film debut ever.
• One of the first movies to be available for purchase on the iTunes Store.
• The film has a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews with an average rating of 5.7 out of 10.
• The film received a 4/5 rating from Common Sense Media.
• Kevin Carr rated the film with a three out of five rating, but David Nusair gave it a 1.5 out of four rating and gave it a bad review.
• The film received a bad review from Scott Weinberg as well.
• The first movie in the High School Musical franchise grossed $100 million in operational income after selling 8 million DVDs.
• The St. Petersburg Times named East High School as one of the top five high schools from television and movies.
• With 1.2 million viewers in the United Kingdom, the film became Disney Channel's most-watched show ever.
• The film's first airing, on August 17, 2007, set a new record with 17.2 million viewers.
• The film's second showing received 8.4 million viewers, while the third film received 7.4 million, bringing the total number of viewers for the debut weekend to 33.04 million.
• While critics praised the picture, some thought the timing of its release was strange, with the film opening just as school was about to resume and the narrative being the gang leaving on summer vacation.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked High School Musical facts, then why not take a look at our facts about Grease the musical and facts about Hamilton the musical.