High School Musical

On New Year's Eve, high school juniors Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) meet at a ski lodge party during winter break. The two are called upon to sing a duet together for karaoke ("Start of Something New"). Returning to school after break, Troy sees Gabriella in his homeroom. She explains that she has just moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and transferred to East High School over the break. As Troy shows Gabriella around the school, Drama Club President and East High's designated "Ice Princess" Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) assumes that Gabriella is interested in auditioning for the school musical, Twinkle Town. Wanting to eliminate competition, Sharpay has Scholastic Decathlon Captain and Chem Club president Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) investigate Gabriella's past academic achievements to recruit Gabriella for the Scholastic Decathlon. As a result, Taylor and Gabriella became friends over their shared interests.

During basketball practice, Troy is distracted by thoughts of Gabriella and the idea that he might enjoy singing in addition to basketball ("Get'cha Head in the Game"). Gabriella and Troy go to the musical auditions where Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) perform ("What I've Been Looking For"). However, Troy and Gabriella are too shy to audition. When Gabriella gains the confidence to step forward once the auditions are unofficially declared "over", Troy offers to sing with her. However, drama teacher Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) tells them they are too late and leaves. Kelsi Nielsen (Olesya Rulin), the musical's composer, trips and drops her music all over the stage. Troy and Gabriella rush to help her and sing together as Kelsi plays on the piano ("What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)"). Overhearing their performance, Ms. Darbus gives them a callback audition.

When the callback list gets posted, Sharpay discovers that she has competition for the lead role, while the Wildcats basketball team is shocked that Troy has auditioned. After finding out that Troy can do activities outside his clique, other students confess their secret passions and talents ("Stick to the Status Quo"). This alarms Taylor and Troy's best friend Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu). Taylor and Chad come up with a plan to divert Troy and Gabriella from singing in the musical so they can focus on their upcoming competitions.

In the locker room, Troy is tricked by his teammates into saying that Gabriella is not needed. Gabriella watches this via a hidden webcam that the scholastic decathlon team has set up. Upset by Troy's betrayal ("When There Was Me and You"), Gabriella decides to not audition for the musical. Troy, confused by Gabriella's decision, is unable to concentrate on the game, while Gabriella is low in spirits. Realizing their mistake, Chad and the basketball team tell Troy what happened and offer to support him in the callbacks. Taylor also explains to Gabriella but she doesn't believe Taylor's claims. That evening Troy goes to Gabriella's house, and they reconcile, determined to audition for the musical.

Overhearing Gabriella and Troy rehearse, Sharpay asks Ms. Darbus to move the callbacks so they start at the same time as both Troy's basketball championship game and Gabriella's scholastic decathlon competition. Kelsi overhears the conversation, and the basketball and decathlon teams make a plan together. On the day of the competitions, Taylor and Gabriella use the school's computers to delay the championship game by hacking the power in the gym and causing a chemical reaction that forces an evacuation during the decathlon. Troy and Gabriella rush to the auditorium as Sharpay and Ryan finish their callback song ("Bop to the Top"). After Gabriella and Troy successfully perform their song ("Breaking Free"), Ms. Darbus gives them the lead roles, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies.

Both teams win their respective competitions, and the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate ("We're All In This Together"). Chad asks Taylor out, and Sharpay makes peace with Gabriella.

In a post-credits scene, Zeke Baylor (Chris Warren Jr.) paces alone in the gym, when Sharpay runs in, declaring that the cookies he had given her that she had initially rejected are "genius". She hugs him, and he says he will make her a crème brûlée. Zeke smiles in victory.

• Zac Efron as Troy Bolton, the most popular male student at East High School, and the captain of the varsity basketball team. Canadian actor and singer Drew Seeley also auditioned for the role alongside Efron but the film producers decided to cast the latter. As the role of Troy was written for a tenor and Efron is a baritone, Seeley provided the character's singing voice, and was dubbed and blended with Efron's voice in post-production. Efron, however, would later do all of his own singing in the sequels.
• Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez, who arrives at East High as a transfer student, and joins the scholastic decathlon team. She develops an attraction toward Troy after meeting him at a New Year's party.
• Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans, Ryan's twin sister, an energetic and proud student with a love of theatre. She enjoys being the center of attention, particularly Troy's, and is wary of Gabriella. She is very mean, unlike Ryan and is admired by Zeke.
• Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans, Sharpay's twin brother, and member of the drama club. He often joins his sister on her schemes to sabotage Troy and Gabriella, but is not as mean as she and is also shown to not be particularly smart, such as not knowing how to spell "drama", and never understanding Sharpay's plans.
• Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth, Troy's friend, Taylor's love interest, and is very good friends with Jason and Zeke. He likes the status quo and is a firm believer in it, but later ends up dating decathlon captain Taylor.
• Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie, Gabriella's friend and Chad's love interest. She is the captain of the school's scholastic decathlon team, and despises the basketball players and cheerleaders, believing them to be airheads.
• Joey Miyashima as Dave Matsui, a principal at East High. He does the morning announcements every day.
• Bart Johnson as Jack Bolton, Troy's father and the coach of the basketball team. He has a mutual dislike with Ms. Darbus, thinks that theater is worthless, and also believes that Gabriella is a distraction to Troy's basketball career. However, he eventually comes around to it.
• Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen, a friend of Gabriella and Taylor, who is a pianist and composer. She is very shy and is constantly bossed around by Sharpay, and finds it difficult to get her music listened to, but in the end, she learns to stand up for herself and not get bossed around by Sharpay.
• Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor, a friend of Troy and Chad who plays for the basketball team. He also enjoys baking and is an admirer of Sharpay.
• Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross, a friend of Troy and Chad who plays for the basketball team. He also tends to ask mundane questions in Ms. Darbus's class. He is good friends with Troy, Chad and Zeke. He and Kelsi show an interest in each other near the end of the movie.
• Kaycee Stroh as Martha Cox, a friend of Gabriella and Taylor and a peppy brainiac who enjoys hip-hop.
• Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus, the stern drama teacher at East High. She despises sports and cell phones but takes her job very seriously, though she can be overdramatic. She clashes frequently with Jack Bolton.
• Irene Santiago-Baron as Ms. Tenny, the chemistry teacher at East High. Gabriella corrects the teacher's math equation on the board in Chem Class.
• Socorro Herrera as Lisa Montez, Gabriella's mother. Her job has caused her to be transferred frequently from city to city, but she has been guaranteed that she and Gabriella will be able to stay until Gabriella graduates from high school.
• Leslie Wing Pomeroy as Lucille Bolton, Troy's mother.
• Joyce Cohen as Ms. Falstaff, the librarian at East High. She keeps Chad quiet in the library and gets a book for Gabriella and Sharpay to read.
• Dave Fox as Coach Kellogg, another coach at East High. He blows the whistle when he says the game is over.
• Anne Kathryn Parma as Susan, a girl who auditions for the winter musical but did not get the role even though Ms. Darbus was impressed with some hand gestures she made. She is the first singer in the auditorium.
• Nick Whitaker as Alan, a boy who auditions for the winter musical but did not get the role. He is the second singer in the auditorium.
• Falcon Grace as Cyndra, a girl who auditions for the winter musical and is not happy when she does not get the role. She is the fourth singer in the auditorium.

The soundtrack was released on January 10, 2006, and debuted at number 133 on the Billboard 200, selling 7,469 copies in its first week. In the album's third week, for the chart dated February 11, 2006, it climbed to number ten, and has since risen to number one on the Billboard 200 twice (on March 1 and 22) and had shipped 3.8 million copies on December 5, 2006. Out of those copies, more than three million copies have been sold by August 2006; it was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.[14]

On its premiere, the film was a success with 7.7 million viewers.[15] However, the reviews were mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 63%,[12] while Common Sense Media rated it at 4/5 stars.[16]

Kevin Carr gave the film a score of 3/5, saying, "The filmmakers were just trying to tell a story. Sex, drugs and violence just didn't factor into that equation."[17] On the other hand, David Nusair gave the film a negative review with a score of 1.5/4 saying, "...it's difficult to imagine even the most die-hard fan of musicals finding anything here worth embracing."[18] Scott Weinberg also gave the film a negative review saying, "A schmaltzy little piece of obvious fluff that's directed in truly horrendous fashion and populated by cardboard characters who spit out simplistic platitudes and breathy pop tunes."[19]

The DVD went on sale on May 23, 2006, under the title, High School Musical: Encore Edition. It created a sales record when 1.2 million copies were sold in its first six days, making it the fastest-selling television film of all time.[20] It is, however, the second DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) on DVD to be certified Platinum in DVD sales, the first being The Cheetah Girls. The High School Musical DVD was also released in Australia on July 12, 2006, through Walt Disney, as well as on European Region 2 on December 4, 2006, where it went on to reach number one in the UK DVD charts. It also aired on Disney Channel South Africa, the latest Disney channel at that time in the southern hemisphere. It was the top-selling DVD in Australia in August 2006. High School Musical also became the first Disney Channel Original Movie to be released on Region 3 DVD, when it went on sale on October 10 and December 15 in Hong Kong and Taiwan, respectively. It was released in Mexico on November 10 and in Brazil on December 6 to coincide with Christmas and the Rede Globo broadcast of the film. It was released in New Zealand on July 12, 2006, and was awarded most popular pre-teen movie in New Zealand for 2006

High School Musical was the first feature-length video content from the iTunes Store in mid-March 2006. At the time, it was available as a 320x240 resolution 487MB download for $9.99 after initially being mistakenly listed for $1.99.[21][22][23]

The Remix Edition, a 2-disc Special Edition, was released on December 5, 2006.[24] The Remix DVD went on sale in France on June 20, 2007.[25] in Germany on September 13, 2007,[26] and in the UK on September 10, 2007.[27] As of 2010, the film has sold eight million DVD units, earning an operating income of $100 million .[28]

Despite being filmed in the 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio, both the original and Remix Edition DVD releases featured a 4:3 (1.33:1) "full screen" version (though not pan and scan as the camera stays directly in the center of the image), the format of the film as shown on the Disney Channel. The widescreen, high definition version is available exclusively on Disney Blu-ray in North America and has subsequently been showing in the UK and Ireland on BBC One and BBC HD, and RTÉ One.[29] The HD version is also available on the video section of PlayStation Store, as well as on Sony Entertainment online for the US market.[30]

• High School Musical: The Music in You
• Sunday School Musical

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to High School Musical.

• Official website
• High School Musical DVDs – Disney's Official High School Musical DVD site
• High School Musical at IMDb
• High School Musical at Rotten Tomatoes
• High School Musical Song Lyrics