‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Is Way Better Than It Should Be
Full disclosure: I’m a huge High School Musical fan. I even wrote a list ranking the songs for its 10th anniversary and consider holding the world record for the highest score singing I Don’t Dance in High School Musical 3: Sing It. Just like most fans, I was eagerly awaiting news on the troubled fourth film, but with every delay, rewrite and empty promise, it seemed like we were being forced to abandon the Disney Channel phenomenon faster than you can say Ted Bundy.
Then one day, when creating my account for The Mandalorian App, I saw a peculiar banner for an original show that didn’t take place in a far away galaxy. Titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the absurd name caught my attention while the teenagers with attitude greeting me from the ad made me approach with caution. A whole show based around the admittedly cheesy films that faded close to a decade ago that’s now far outside of my age range? With a new cast and a teen sitcom vibe with none of the original crew on board? Surely this would be terrible. So like any highly skeptical viewer would do, I dove in with an open mind, but with tepid expectations that would surely become something to hate watch. The first episode came and went… and I liked it? Forgoing the lighthearted, over the top vibe of the films in favor of a more grounded, realistic cast of characters made this feel less like a revival and more of an homage, becoming the start of something new while using the familiarity of the films as a backdrop for these new characters.
When it comes to HSMTMTS, think a strange teen smoothie blending High School Musical, Glee and The Office, following a new drama teacher and her students at the “real” East High in Salt Lake City, where the most iconic trilogy in theater was filmed. Using a mockumentary style presentation, the show follows the class as they put together the “first ever” production of HSM at the school where it originated. At the center of this developing musical is Nini, an acting up-and-comer who manages to land the lead roll of Gabriella, Ricky, her skater ex-boyfriend who somehow is cast as Troy while attempting to get his girlfriend back despite having no interest in theater, EJ, Nini’s new boyfriend and all-around all-star who becomes Ricky’s understudy, (much to his detriment), and Gina, the “triple-threat” who doesn’t take the idea of being Nini’s understudy lightly. This creates a situation that’s clearly ripe for drama between the cast, and that’s aside from the Robotics teacher, Mr. Mazzara, having it out for the Glee Clu… I mean the drama department after Ms. Jenn’s production threatens to take away funding and students from his program.
Admittedly, the show doesn’t do a whole lot that I’d call unique. As I joked about above, it takes many of its beats from the shows that came before it, with all the teen conflict you’d expect from a high school love triangle. But what makes it stand out above its premise, (and the original films in some ways), is how multi-dimensional it makes its characters. While the characters in Glee or HSM rarely rose above the stereotypical archetypes they were based around. With the show being up to episode 7 as of this writing, every character is vastly different from who they were in episode 1, with reasonable motivations explaining why the characters act the way they do and logical change that stems from their experiences from week to week. The cast constantly has lapses in logic, emotional outburts and moments of clarity, all of which feel not only earned, but more human than we’d expect from a show of this kind. What we’re left with is a show that’s easy to go along for the ride with instead of disliking any direction each student or teacher is going through. Because even at their best (and worst), we know why they’re at the positions we find them, making it easy to root for everyone involved.
Naturally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the music, which shines brighter than I expected. Sure, it has its rough moments, (I’m looking at you, A Billion Sorrys), but the original music in particular shows how effortlessly talented this new cast is. Much of the singing on the show is performed live and written by the actors themselves, which would be impressive enough without them constantly blowing the vocals away. Fun anthems like Born to be Brave steal the show while Wondering will surely make you jealous over Olivia Rodrigo and Julia Lester’s excess talent. Naturally, old songs return with new twists, with each version putting its own spin on the classics that are sprinkled throughout each episode. Sometimes the hardest part about waiting each week is wondering how the new songs will turn out.
The cast is exceedingly talented, the nostalgic soundtrack surprisingly is taking a backseat to some excellent original compositions and the show has enough twists and turns that not only keep me in anticipation from week to week, but has me declaring that each episode is my new favorite like clockwork every Friday. With a season 2 already green lit and the end of season 1 on the horizon, let’s hope that this new class of Wildcats continues to surprise us.
