“High School Musical” was the rare made-for-TV movie that transcended its humble origins and captivated a generation of teens and tweens when it premiered on Jan. 20, 2006. It didn’t just launch the careers, Vanessa Hudgens , Ashley Tisdale and more. It also became a financial juggernaut for the Disney Channel, driving unprecedented demand for DVDs, dolls, T-shirts, posters, sleeping bags, lunch boxes — you name it, Troy and Gabriella’s faces were on it.
Yet the backstory was heavily inspired by his own upbringing at an all-boys Catholic high school. One day, the star athlete confided a dark secret to Barsocchini. “I’m going to tell you something, and if you tell anyone, I’ll kill you,'” his friend whispered. “‘I always wanted to be a ballet dancer.'” It’s not the kind of skeleton that would make kid’s today flinch. But way back when, he recalls, it would have turned the school upside down.
“We ran auditions as if we were doing a Broadway musical,” Ortega says. “We put the kids through a really long process. Agents would call casting directors saying, ‘What is going on? Why are you keeping them so long?’ I was set on making sure these actors had all that it would take.” After narrowing down the search in an epic 12-hour marathon callback day, it was time to put the decision in the hands of Disney execs. Efron and Hudgens were paired up for the final callback. The casting directors knew they had undeniable chemistry and would make an ideal onscreen duo. The only issue? Hudgens had puppy eyes for her soon-to-be leading man and was nervous to act opposite a shaggy-haired Efron.
The part of Troy’s best friend Chad went to Corbin Bleu, who originally auditioned for Ryan. Meanwhile the 20-year-old Lucas Grabeel, who previously starred in the Disney Channel movie “Halloweentown High” and was working at Blockbuster, initially read for Troy. Ortega liked Grabeel’s energy but suggested he’d be better suited for Sharpay’s theater-loving brother Ryan.
It was the franchise’s genuine innocence that captivated viewers across the country — and the world. Like “American Idol,” another musical phenomenon that existed at around the same time, “High School Musical” could play to tweens, teens and their parents. “One of the reasons it took off is because parents could watch it with their kids without cringing,” Barsocchini says. “People will be critical it’s a phony Disney version of a family, but that’s what we set out to do.
About a hundred years ago, I would go to the Odyssey and dance with Kenny Ortega and Tony Basil. Glad for their wonderful success.
I used to watch this with my sister religiously! Loved it :)
kenny, can I be there as I feel my own well-being would skyrocket with serotonin
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