"High School Musical," reviewed: 20 years later
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Tiny "High School Musical" characters flash tiny fist bumps near a model of East High School from a diorama in the basement of the Utah State Capitol. Photo: Erin Alberty/Axios
I made it 20 years without seeing "High School Musical," despite living a mile from East High.
The intrigue: Even as a one-time theater kid who memorized multiple Original Broadway Cast two-cassette recordings, I thought it looked too painfully teeny-bopper when it came out in 2006.
The latest: This week, two decades older, I — a late Gen X'er — joined my 13-year-old Zoomer daughter, whom we call Dragon, to experience this gravitational center of non-cusp Millennial culture.
What's inside: Two teens — basketball star Troy (Zac Efron) and bookish Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) — harbor stage talents that don't match their high school personas.
- The movie follows their "controversial" relationship, secret rehearsals and efforts to break through cliques.
The big picture: Huh.
- In Dragon's words: "I'm a little confused by this whole thing."
Case(s) in point: I can't tell if the extreme camp is supposed to signal "spoof," or whether it's just a Disney Channel thing. Also:
- Why did Gabriella abruptly decide to audition for the musical AND join the scholastic decathlon when she said she needed to focus on classes?
- Is the drama club villain named Shar Pei like the Chinese dog?
- Does East High have enough cafeteria tables for 1,800 students?
Zoom in: Why is joining the musical such a leap for Gabriella, as if AP kids don't mix with artsy kids?
- Do they want to make high school look like a bunch of equally hostile factions rather than a fascist jock-nerd hierarchy? Seems kind of both-sidesy.
What they're saying: "Why does Shar Pei stop hating everybody all of a sudden? I need an explanation of the plot," Dragon noted as the defeated Final Boss Thespian happily joined her classmates for the closing company number.
Excerpts from Erin and Dragon's eight pages of viewing notes:
- I love Shar Pei's penmanship. Best part so far.
- Dragon: "How rich are these people?"
- I fear for Zac Efron's shins in basketball shorts.
- Piano Player is my favorite character apart from Shar Pei's handwriting.
- Dragon: (reads notes over my shoulder) "I was going to say the same thing about his shins."
- GIVE CYNDRA A ROLE. JUSTICE FOR CYNDRA
- High school me was basically a chimera of Shar Pei and Piano Player.
- I miss low-rise jeans, but the shirts of 2006 were abusive to short torsos. I still suffer from tunic camisole dysmorphia.
- Dragon: "It's very lip-syncy." (sings) "TRUUUUUUE" (then silently mouths "true" several seconds later).
- Dubiously healthy rooftop tropical container plant jungle during winter basketball season.
- Dragon: "Is Shar Pei tiny, or are those doors really big?" (Google break: Actress Ashley Tisdale is 5'3".)
- Dragon: "So those doors are just huge."
- Me: "Would you attend East High now that you know about the doors?"
- Dragon: (sighs) "I'm not sure."
- Improbable "¡Arriba!" by Shar Pei.
- "I can't do this, Troy!" WHAT IS GABRIELLA'S PURPOSE IN LIFE
- Mean dad coach can't tell whether his son sings well or not.
- Wild. Cats. Every. Where. Put. Your. Hands. Up. In. The. Air.
- Dragon: "This is a really hard storyline to follow."
- Me: "But do you feel like we LIVED the movie?"
- Dragon: "It's definitely a movie, all right."