During a junket given to a British colleague, actor Zac Efron (Baywatch, The Greatest Showman) told the interviewer that people tend to be ashamed of having seen High School Musical. As if it were a shame to have seen him, loved him and maybe remember him today. But Ashley Tisdale, the wicked Sharpay, does not think so, who in a recent TikTok has redone - as a physical activity in this period of LockDown - the ballet of We're All in This Together. Yet, shame or not, everyone my age knows High School Musical, and as one of the characters of the TV series, Carlos says, “the first 15 minutes of the sequels”.
Start of something new
The TV series starts from a particular premise: everything we have seen in films is part of films. High school East High (which really exists and which has lent its walls to the films and this series) is a normal school with its students, its teachers and its extracurricular activities. Among these stands out obviously that of the Mazzara teacher of robotics and the activity of the theater teacher, Miss Jenn. The newly arrived teacher, in fact, decides as a first activity to put back in place a musical inspired by the film: it cannot exist that since then no one in that school has ever tried.
Thus begins the incipit that will see adults and children alternate in a series of very classic plots, not too original but brilliantly linked to the sung pieces (which take advantage of both the original songs of the film, and some unreleased ones). Maintaining a choral vision of the main characters, the unfolding of the plot obviously does not start with a love story already written in the stars, but with adolescent problems, a few too many hindrances and a theme closer to the realistic rather than the cinematic. We find in fact Nini, girl who recently broke up with her boyfriend Ricky (for reasons that I am not here to explain) and she started with EJ. Everything goes smoothly, were it not that after the auditions to put in place High School Musical: The Musical, Nini and Ricky find themselves having to interpret the characters of Troy and Gabriella.
The other characters are finally well characterized, each with his own dynamics and his personalities, avoiding "burning" issues only for the sensationalist, but aiming for greater realism. Even the balance of "good and bad" is different from the film: if in fact in the Disney film there was a need to give a classic color to the film, now everything is more gray. The characters are wrong, that's not why they are fools.
(Don't) Stick to the Status Quo
From a technical point of view, the series has a particular construction: a hybrid between Glee (even mentioned in an episode), a docuserie and the classic HSM, this High School Musical: The Musical: The Series meanwhile, he has no songs that avalanche for no reason. Every second sung is contextualized: we are talking about characters who (in theory) are real, and to be such they cannot jump onto the canteen tables without thoughts. The plot unfolds in a classic and easy way, without distortions or twists but with a construction that manages to captivate both the old fans of the series and the simple lovers of light, musical and adolescent contents.
In fact, the real magic lies in knowing how to "imitate" the feeling given by High School Musical, deviating a lot from it. Indeed, often this HSMTMTS he manages to make fun of himself on this issue, overcoming the limits that a cult for kids can impose. With ten episodes (and a special) this first season goes away fast, especially given the hybrid running time of 30 minutes per episode.
The series has already been confirmed for a second season, which this time around won't see any film-related events again Disney, but it should lead the guys from East High to work on a new musical: precisely this anthological form linked to the subject of the various seasons gives us hope that perhaps, after two sequels that are not too successful, the brand has managed to renew itself enough to become palatable again. I remind you that High School Musical: The Musical: The Series will be available from March 24, to coincide with the launch of Disney +.
