Series / High School Musical: The Musical: The Series

They're (almost) all in this together.

"I've seen the original movie thirty-seven times. And the first 15 minutes of both sequels."

— Carlos

Okay. Everybody knows High School Musical; it was the film series that set a template nearly all Disney Channel Original Movies since have attempted to emulate. It was a huge success for the network, and launched many careers. BUT, what if we have a show set at the school where the films were set, about the kids of that school staging their own version of High School Musical? Hence, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Yes, we know, it's a mouthful.

In a somewhat-meta move, Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders), a former background dancer of the original film, joins East High School to direct the stage the adaptation of it. Perpetual ensemble-member Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) auditions for lead alongside her new boyfriend, senior theatre jock E.J. (Matt Cornett), but soon butts heads with new girl Gina (Sofia Wylie). Further complicating things is her ex-boyfriend Ricky (Joshua Bassett), who's never liked theatre but auditions in the hopes he can win her back. When Ricky and Nini are cast as Troy and Gabriela, everyone in the drama department gets ready for...well, drama.

Unlike the original High School Musical, which was set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this show acknowledges that the real East High is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is shot on location there. The series debuted in 2019 as one of the launch titles for Disney+. It was renewed for a second season before the first premiered - though rather than staging the second High School Musical movie, the students performed the Beauty and the Beast musical. It was initially slated for 2020, but due to COVID-19 production was delayed and it didn't come out until 2021. The third season, which began in July 2022, follows the cast to summer camp and includes performances based on the Frozen stage musical, as well as songs from the Camp Rock film series. A fourth and final season aired in August 2023, moving the action back to East High where the characters stage an adaptation of High School Musical 3: Senior Year at the same time an (in-universe) sequel, High School Musical 4: The Reunion is filmed at their school.

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Tropes

• Actor Allusion: Nini's final scene in the series has her in car, reflecting on her past time with the group and driving away, a not-to-subtle nod to Olivia Rodrigo's song "drivers license", which launched her musical career into the stratosphere, meaning she didn't have time to fit the show into her now busy schedule.
• Almost Kiss: Ashlyn and Maddox have one in the season 4 episode "Trick Or Treat", which freaks Ashlyn out because she's still dating Big Red at that point.
• Amicable Exes:
  • Ricky and Nini end up this way by the end of season 2, recognizing that even though they both care for each other they've grown into two different people.
  • Big Red and Ashlyn have a peaceful break up When they both admit they want to explore the same sex attraction side of their bisexuality.
  • E.J. and Gina are this by the end of season 4, as the latter has realized why the former kept secrets from them previously and they both understand they wanted something different.
  • Maddox and Maddison end up at this, having broke up before the show.
• Ascended Extra: Liamani Segura's character Emmy was a fairly minor character at the camp in season 3. In season 4, she becomes part of the main cast.
• Arc Words: "Trust the process," which is uttered several times throughout the show.
• And Starring: As always, given to the token adults in the cast: "with Mark St. Cyr and Kate Reinders".
• Artifact Title: In the second season they perform Beauty and the Beast rather than adapting the second High School Musical movie to stage. The only references to the original films are a selection of songs sung in the season premiere and the main characters referring to each other as "Wildcats". The third season will see this to a greater degree, as they are neither in high school (instead going to summer camp) nor performing a High School Musical (instead taking on Frozen). Averted in season 4, where the characters return to East High to put on a performance of High School Musical 3 at the same time that a fictional fourth High School Musical movie is being shot at the school.
• Artistic License – Religion: The writers set the show where the original 'High School Musical'-movies were shot, but ignore that it happens to be located in the religious center of Mormonism. No character is ever mentioned to be Mormon, despite around half of Salt Lake City's residents being followers of the religion, and families appear to have few kids for Utah standards. Additionally, while Salt Lake City is definitely far more accepting of homosexuality than the rest of the state, it is unlikely that not a single person would have a problem with Carlos and Seb being openly gay, or Nini being raised by a lesbian couple.
  • Carlos is mentioned to have been the victim of homophobic bullying during PE class in Season 4 during the Origins Episode but other than that he receives no on screen bullying.
• Aside Glance: Plenty, as befitting a mockumentary.
• Back for the Finale: After extended absences through season 3, Seb returns in the penultimate episode to join Carlos for Camp Prom and Big Red returns in the finale to watch the production.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Two in the first season finale: Ricky and Nini get one after reaffirming their love for each other, and Big Red and Ashlyn in the stinger.
  • Ricky and Gina share one in the final moments of season 3
  • Ashlyn and Maddox have one in the series finale.
• Bittersweet Ending: Season 3 ends with one: Frozen goes off without a hitch and the live stream is popular enough to trend in Brazil. the kids gain much notoriety from the associated documentary, and Ricky and Gina finally kiss. However Nini leaves for good, and the documentary turns out to wildly misconstrue everything that happened to them at camp in order to create a dramatic narrative.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Big Red and Antoine/Andy have some of this
• Betty and Veronica: Ricky is the Archie to his childhood crush Nini's Betty and the cunning and troubled Gina's Veronica. Thankfully, and finally, he leaves Nini in Season 2, and he kisses Gina in the Season 3 ending, beginning their relationship.
  • In Season 2, oddly, Gina is torn between EJ's Betty, whom she initially sees as a brotherly figure, and Ricky's Veronica, who "intrigues" Gina. Gina breaks up with EJ in Season 3, and she confesses her love to Ricky, and they begin their relationship.
• B-Team Sequel: The in-universe High School Musical 4: High School Reunion doesn't seem to feature Troy, Gabriela, or Sharpay - though they're never explicitly said to not be there, the actors never show up in the final season. Instead the plot focuses on Taylor, Chad, Ryan, Martha, and Miss Darbus.
• Book Ends: Natalie is given the last line of both the first and last episodes of season 1 (not counting the Post-Credits Scene), telling everyone watching to "Buckle up, Wildcats." She does the same in the premier and finale of season 2.
• Call-Back:
  • Two in "Showtime!" to the first season.
    • Natalie announces that Act Two will be starting soon and requests everyone to please stay in the roles that they started with, referencing the several cast changes that occurred mid-production last year.
    • While searching for the missing harness, Carlos stresses that the orchestra "hasn't vamped this much since 'Bop to the Top'", referencing the delay that happened when Seb got cold feet last semester.
  • "Second Chances", the song from the episode of the same name, has Ricky, Nini, E.J., and Gina singing while wearing the same outfits they wore in the pilot episode.
  • In the season three finale Corbin Bleu recognizes Miss Jenn as an extra from the first High School Musical film.
  • "Maybe This Time" in the fourth season premier shows Ricky and Gina flashing back to the moment they almost got together - Homecoming and Gina's confession in season one, and Valentine's day in season two.
  • In "Admissions", Ricky goes to Gina's house with a heart-shaped box of chocolates to confess his feelings. In season 2 she initially thought he got her one and was flirting with her, until she found out it was from her mom instead.
  • When Ashlyn gets to film a scene with Alyson Reed in season four she whispers "I'm dying, I'm deceased, yes". She says the same thing when she's cast as Miss Darbus in season one.
• Caught on Tape: In the third season Ricky tells Carlos that he may have feelings for Gina. This is caught by Channing hiding in the bushes, which drives Ricky's attempts to prevent it from coming to light for the rest of the season.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Nini and Ricky have known each other since they were in, at least, kindergarten. They didn't start dating until sophomore year of high school.
• Colon Cancer: The fact that it has a colonized title after another colonized title is an indicator that this show will not be taking itself seriously, and they lampshade it to the point of Running Gag for tie-in products. The series even provides the page image for the trope.
  • The behind-the-scenes special is High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Special. Another behind-the-scenes series is titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: Extra Credit
  • The first season soundtrack is High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack. Naturally, the second season just adds "Season 2" to the end.
  • The sing-along version is titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Sing-Along.
  • The holiday special is High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Holiday Special.
    • Exaggerated with the soundtrack for said holiday special, which is High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Holiday Special: The Official Soundtrack.
  • In the third season Gina jokingly tells E.J. that he's the star of Disney+'s Frozen: The Musical: The Series, with E.J. quipping that they would never call the documentary that because it's too long and complicated of a title. And then in the finale it's titled Frozen: The Musical: The Documentary.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: "Wouldn't Change a Thing" from Camp Rock 2 was about Mitchie and Shane declaring their romantic love for each other. When Maddox performs it with Jet it's about two siblings who love each other despite their differences. It's also a disco number this time.
• Company Cross References: In the season 4 Halloween episode, Miss Jenn dresses as Mary Poppins; Jet and Maddox dress as Shang-Chi and Xialing.
• Damned by Faint Praise: In the season two finale, Lily and Antoine tell the Wildcats that they enjoyed their performances...then the latter has to get a dig in at Big Red.
  Antoine: The beginning, the middle, the end, they were all wonderful. And Big Red! You were also there!
  *Big Red scowls*
• Darker and Edgier: While not overtly so for obvious reasons, being on a streaming service allows for more mature storytelling in comparison to the original High School Musical movies - though not to an extreme degree, of course.
• Demoted to Extra: A number of characters, such as Miss Jenn, Big Red, Seb, and even Nini, are relegated to "guest" roles in Season 3. Somewhat justified as the action takes place at a summer camp and away from the school setting where the cast could all be together naturally. All of them but Nini return in the fourth and final season in either regular or recurring capacity.
• Everyone Can See It: Gina and Ricky's performance of "What Do You Know About Love" gets a little too intimate, which leads to the characters watching to look at each other suspiciously as if they were interrupting something. Gina's own boyfriend at the time, E.J., got jealous when he saw them being too touchy. He also declares that "we all saw this coming" when Ricky's feelings for her are stated in the documentary trailer.
• Fake a Fight: In order to convince the editor of Season 3's Frozen: The Musical: The documentary that Camp Shallow Lake is worthy enough to participate in the reality show, Carlos hatches schemes to portray the campers as more combative than they actually are. More specifically Ashlyn fake fights with Maddox because of a fake love triangle while he himself is much cattier towards fellow actors in the play.
• Fake Relationship: E.J. Caswell and Gina Porter fake dated twice. In Season 1, they go to Homecoming together to try and make Nini jealous. In Season 2, when E.J. sees a North High Student hit on Gina in "The Field Trip", he pretends to be Gina's boyfriend to get the guy to leave her alone. They get a Relationship Upgrade at the very end of season 2.
  • In season 4, Mack suggests to Gina that they should fake a relationship for publicity purposes to promote High School Musical 4. Naturally, Ricky doesn't take it well.
• Faux Documentary: The show relies on a Confession Cam, continuing the trend of mockumentary series such as The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, Modern Family and the like.
  • The third season takes things up a notch when Corbin Bleu appears hosting a documentary about the camp's show, thus making it a documentary within another documentary.
• Foreshadowing:
  • E.J.'s nickname at Camp Shallow Lake is "Rocketman", which mean's it not too surprising when we find out his full name is Elton John Caswell.
  • The fact that Gina performs "Love is an Open Door" with E.J. and "What Do You Know About Love" with Ricky when you consider the relationship her character (Anna) has with each of the men they portray in the songs (Hans and Kristoff respectively) reflects how by the end of the season Gina leaves E.J. and later gets together with Ricky.
• Gay Guy Seeks Popular Jock: When describing E.J. to Ms. Jenn, Carlos laments that he doesn't know he exists. However nothing comes of this, as Carlos' affections soon turn towards (and are reciprocated by) Seb.
• The Ghost: The character of Ryan in the musical. He's definitely there and someone was cast as him, he appears during 'Stick to the Status Quo' and is featured on the in-universe poster for the musical, but we never quite learn who was cast as him and his role is significantly reduced to a non-speaking, non-singing prop for Seb's Sharpay. In Real Life, the performer who plays the student cast as Ryan is primarily a dancer and cannot sing. This creates a fun irony in that Lucas Grabeel, the original Ryan, is usually regarded as the strongest singer among the cast, and indeed Grabeel returns for a Remake Cameo number in which he sings co-lead.
• Have I Mentioned Iam Heterosexual Today: Throughout season 3 Ashlyn starts repeatedly mentioning she has a boyfriend as she starts showing signs of attraction to Val.
• "I Am" Song: "Balance" for Gina in season three, where she's determined to be ambitious but not step on anyone to get there. "Here I Come" is one for Kourtney trying her best to move past her anxieties and face her fears, both regarding the climbing wall and being the lead in Frozen.
• The "I Love You" Stigma: Nini writing a song about how she loves him and posting it online is what prompts Ricky to want to take a break. His reaction is clearly a result of seeing his parents' dysfunctional marriage slowly falling apart at home.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Said by Carlos in one of his confessionals during the documentary for Frozen. He insist that he followed it up with "I'm here to be a star", but Ricky points out that that doesn't sound any better.
• Incestuous Casting: invoked In-universe: In the second season EJ belatedly realizes that, since he and Ashlyn have have been cast as Gaston and Belle respectively, he'll have to spend the play romantically pursuing her. Ashlyn quickly shuts down any conversation on the topic, and we don't see any of those scenes play out in the show proper anyway.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Maddox's ex-girlfriend Madison sends her a bouquet of balloons, which freaks her out because they've broken up several times at that point. However, when she reads the card attached see finds out Madison wants her to give the balloons to Ashlyn, since it's become clear that she's head over heels for the girl and Madison wants Maddox to follow her heart.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Andrew Barth Feldman and Roman Banks guest starred in season 2; they were both in Dear Evan Hansen together, making history as the youngest Evan and first Black Evan, respectively.
  • In Season 2, Sofia Wylie's former Andi Mack co-star Asher Angel was cast as Jack.
  • In Season 3, Matt Cornett's former co-star Meg Donnelly was cast as Val. Matt Cornett and Meg Donnelly were co-stars in Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 the summer before Season 3 came out in 2022.
• Kubrick Stare: E.J. has a killer one that he uses at Ricky throughout the latter's audition.
• Last-Minute Hookup: In the series finale has four.
  • Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara get together after dancing around each other the whole series.
  • Ashlyn and Maddox finally confess their feelings to one another after a season of missed connections.
  • Jet and Kourtney are implied to get together after the former spent the past season pining after the latter.
  • And finally, Antoine - or rather, Andy - comes out as queer to Big Red and confesses his love, and Big Red says he'll call him. This one is more played for laughs.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The pilot's opening scene tricks you into thinking Disney+ has stalled, when it's actually Ms. Jenn watching the original film on her phone.
• Locker Mail: In the episode "Valentine's Day" of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Big Red himself is the mail. He wants to do a singing telegram for Ashlyn, so he tries to hide inside her locker in order to surprise her. Unfortunately he gets stuck, so by the time she opens it he falls out and sprays confetti everywhere.
• Long Bus Trip: Olivia Rodrigo leaves the series at the end of season three, with her character Nini moving to California with her moms and biological dad to further her musical career. This was a given as Olivia's music career made a major breakthrough between seasons two and three, and as a result her character was dropped to recurring/guest and she wasn't available to film with the rest of cast, outside of Kate Reinders and Dara Reneé. Showrunner Tim Federele stated the door is always open, but there are no plans for her to return for future seasons.
• Local Hangout:
  • In season 1, students and faculty alike tend to frequent Publik Coffee, a Real Life Salt Lake City coffee chain, outside school hours. (The location shown onscreen is about a ten-minute drive from the East High campus, or about an hour's walk. Ironically it's the farthest location in the chain from East High - there's one just a ten-minute walk from the campus, west along 900 S.)
  • In season 2 the hangout of choice is changed to the fictional Salt Lake Slices, a pizzeria owned by Big Red's parents.
• Love Triangle:
  • One of the central plots revolves around Ricky, his ex-girlfriend Nini and her new boyfriend E.J.
  • E.J. is pretty much gone from the equation by mid-season...just in time for Gina to enter into it.
  • In season 2, Gina is shown giving Ricky longing looks when looking at him and Nini being lovey dovey. Later she reveals that she gave him a last-minute love confession when she thought she'd have to leave, and now that she's staying things are awkward.
  • In season 3, Gina and EJ are a couple right when Ricky starts realizing he may have feelings for Gina.
  • For the grown-ups, we see Ricky's dad and Miss Jenn develop feelings for each other, with Mr. Mazzara developing a crush on her as well.
  • In season 4, Ricky feels threatened when Gina gets cast as the new female lead in High School Musical 4 and has chemistry with the male lead's actor, Mack. Later, it's also revealed that Seb kissed Big Red while Carlos was at camp, although they stress it meant nothing and eventually Seb and Carlos make up with each other.
• Missing Mom: Ricky's mom travels for work a lot as a way to get away from her loveless marriage. She was gone both in the six weeks ago flashback and in the present, and it is unknown if she returned home between them. Ricky's comments about his father's cooking abilities indicates that this may be a more recent development, however.
• Mockumentary: The series takes on this tone, as the creator and show runner was inspired by Waiting for Guffman. In-Universe, no real reason is given for why a documentary crew might be filming them, and the characters - many of whom are underage - seem to have no problem letting the cameras follow them into very intimate places, including their own bedrooms and the school bathrooms.
  • In the third season we achieve the rare nested mockumentary, suggesting that the original mockumentary is merely a Modern Family-style framing device and there is no actual documentary crew.
  • Ricky calls attention to this in the series finale, asking "who the *bleep* are you guys?" We never get an answer, and we also never get a Confession Cam moment after that.
• Manipulative Editing: The Disney+ documentary about the Frozen musical is wildly inaccurate and manipulated to cause drama.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Ricky and Gina have their moments. Exemplified in season 4 when the lights go out and Ricky jumps into Gina's arms instead of the other way around.
• Meaningful Echo: Both times Gina confesses her feelings for Ricky, she ends her speech by telling him that whatever he says she's "going to walk out of here with my head held high."
• Musical World Hypotheses: Mostly diegetic, as most musical numbers are either a rehearsal, a performance connected to the characters' involvement with the titular school play, their own songwriting exploits, or just for fun (but still actually happening). But there are several exceptions:
  • "Role of a Lifetime" is All Just a Dream while Miss Jenn is knocked unconscious.
  • In season two, "Red Means Love", "Granted", and "Second Chance" are All In Their Heads. "1-2-3" is actually performed, but what we see of it is clearly an embellished performance the girls are imagining.
  • In season three "Finally Free", "Balance", "This is Me", and "Here I Come" are All in Their Heads - though the events that occur during the last one do actually happen. "Love is an Open Door" is another song that Gina and E.J. actually perform, but what we see of it is clearly a version they're imagining with full costume. "A Different Way to Dance" happens all in Gina's head, but like Miss Jenn in season one it's because she's been knocked out.
  • In season four "Nightmares Come to Life" is All In Their Heads. "Maybe This Time" is actually sung, but shows Ricky and Gina imagining their past selves singing it as well.
• No Full Name Given: As of Season 3, "Big Red" has yet to be given an official first, and Miss Jenn a last name ("Jenn" only being an abbreviation of her first name, Jennifer). Also, it is not revealed until midway Season 3 that "E.J." is short for "Elton John".
  • Season 3 adds siblings Jet and Maddox to the main-cast. They were not given a surname during their debut-season, despite the fact that siblings would only need one between them.
• Non-Indicative Name: According to the official song, at Camp Shallow Lake there is no lake (it's all a fake)!
• Once a Season:
  • Each season (the premieres of 1 and 3, second episode of 2 and 4, and the series finale) has Ricky running in at the last minute with his guitar. In the first two seasons it's because he wasn't sure he was planning on auditioning until just then. In the third it's because a sudden change of summer plans leaves him available to show up at Summer Camp. In the fourth it's because he and Gina are specifically trying to keep their relationship a secret and don't want to show up together. In the series finale, after some last-minute encouragement from EJ, he shows up late to Gina's press conference with his electric guitar to serenade her with his Love Confession song before she leaves for New Zealand to shoot her new movie (though as it turns out, she had already singlehandedly relocated the production to Salt Lake City shortly before Ricky showed up).
  • The first rehearsal of each play begins with everyone joining hands in a circle and the director awkwardly singing a segment of one of the show's songs in falsetto.
• The Oner: The season 2 opening number "Something in the Air" is shot like this, though there are two spots where the camera passes by a column and the scene might be edited.
  • Gina convinces Quinn to shoot all the scenes between herself and Mack for High School Musical 4 in a single day, but near the end they have one scene left that they'd never be able to complete before the minors legally have to stop. Quinn says it can't be done because it requires multiple set-ups, but Gina suggests they do it in a single take to get it in the can. It works.
• Opposites Attract: On the surface, Ricky and Gina couldn't be more different: he's a skater who's lived in Salt Lake City his whole life; she's an ambitious theatre kid who never stays in one place for too long. He hates change; she has never known stability. But as creator Tim Federle puts it, they're both outsiders, and that leads to them relating to each other.
• Origins Episode: "Trust the Process", the sixth episode of season 4, shows how every character still on the show came to be involved with the first season's production, as well as key parts of their backstory.
  • Ashlyn had no friends, and Kourtney was sick of playing third wheel to Nini and E.J., so they agreed to help each other branch out.
  • Mr. Mazzara doubted the capabilities of Miss Jenn and the arts in general because of his failed boy band career.
  • Miss Jenn saw Carlos being bullied and immediately brought him into the theatre program to help him.
  • Seb fell for Carlos as soon as he saw him in Miss Jenn's office, auditioning to get closer to him. He also convinced Natalie to join him as stage director, because she was his girlfriend at the time.
  • Gina was called to the principal's office because of her history of acting out at her previous schools, and he told her to try and get invested in things. She then ran into Ricky, who was practising "I Think I Kinda You Know" and also mentioned Nini auditioning for High School Musical. She convinced him to audition and sing the song there, and then decided to audition herself in order to get close to him.
  • Miss Jenn was at a callback for the touring production of Wicked and doubting her cotninued attempts to break in to the industry when she ran into Alyson Reed. The latter convinced her to go to East High and foster new talent instead, even giving her her catchphrase: "Trust the process".
• Percussive Maintenance: Ricky's computer freezes just before he has to leave for auditions, and he smacks it several times trying to get his High School Musical DVD out of it. Mr. Mazzara berates him for it, but a few minutes later we see him trying the exact same thing.
• Playing a Tree: Nini had always done roles like this or the back of a cow, with Gabriela being her first starring role. In Season 2, she is cast as a personified version of the Rose, and then gets demoted to a fork.
• Precision F-Strike: The use of "crap" and "hell" throughout a couple episodes prove that we ain't on Disney Channel no more.
  • In the original trailer, Natalie says, "Buckle up, Wildcats. Sh*t's about to get real." When it aired on television, it was changed to "...it's about to get real." The censored line appears in the Disney+ version.
  • When Carlos helps the cast turn into proper reality show material in "The Real Housewives of Shallow Lake".
  Carlos: They key to any great reality show is the three Bs: bombshells, betrayals, and b*tch slaps.
  • Antoine (real name Andy) gets a non-verbal one when he tries to crash the performance of High School Musical 3, flipping Big Red the bird (which gets blurred, but is still obvious).
  • When Ricky questions why he's confessing his relationship struggles with Gina to a random camera following him around in the series finale:
  Ricky: Who the f*ck are you guys anyway?
• Product Displacement: Surprisingly averted, and not just for the benefit of Disney-owned brands. In particular, Instagram (owned by Facebook) is mentioned by name in nearly every episode.
• Quote Mine: In the third season finale the cast are shown a trailer for the in-universe documentary filmed about their time at camp, and most of it is out-of-context confessionals to make it look like there are various rivalries and love triangles occurring during the events that really aren't (or at least aren't as major as they appear).
• Race Lift: Scattered across the productions In-Universe.
  • Chad Danforth is Black in the original High School Musical, but played by the white E.J. (except for the few scenes where he's played by Latino Carlos).
  • The white Mrs. Potts, Babette, and Lumierre in Beauty and the Beast are played by Kourtney, Gina (both Black), and Carlos respectively. The Beast at North High is played by Howie, who is Black.
  • The white Elsa, Anna, and Hans are played by Kourtney, Gina, and Jet respectively (all Black). Young Anna is also played by Emmy, whose actress is mixed Mexican-Filipino.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: None of the characters involved in the documentary in season three seem to think that their Talking Heads would be aired as part of the finished product. This leads to everyone being caught off-guard when the trailer airs clips of Ricky saying he has a crush on Gina, Jet saying he has a crush on Kourtney, and Maddox saying she has a crush on Ashlyn.
• Rearrange the Song: Several High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast songs get this treatment:
  • "Bop to the Top", as it's performed in the series, becomes a slow ballad when Kourtney sings it for a mic check.
  • There's a piano-medley of "Fabulous", "You Are the Music in Me", and "All for One" in the season two premier.
  • A small one, but Seb rearranges "Beauty and the Beast" to be slower for Kourtney so she can work on volume control as Mrs. Potts.
  • "The Mob Song" gets a dance remix in a later season two episode.
  • Happened several songs in season three. Notably, "Fabulous" becomes a cha-cha/dubstep number while "Wouldn't Change a Thing" becomes a disco track.
• Recurring Extra: All the dancers who perform alongside the regulars are the same people in each episode, with some of them getting names and lines every now and then. The third season has a different troupe of dancers due to the different setting, but the same applies to them as well.
• Remake Cameo: Of sorts.
  • Kaycee Stroh (Martha Cox) appears, apparently as herself, now a member of the Salt Lake City school board in "What Team?" It is implied that her influence was decisive in allowing Miss Jenn to keep her job as East High drama teacher.
  • Lucas Grabeel (Ryan Evans) gets his own musical number (albeit in a dream sequence) in "The Tech Rehearsal", in a duet with Kate Reinders (Miss Jenn).
  • Corbin Bleu (Chad Danforth) is a recurring guest in season three as himself, and directs the documentary about the camp putting on Frozen.
  • Kaycee, Lucas, and Corbin return in the fourth season along with Monique Coleman, Bart Johnson, and Alyson Reed.
• Remember the New Guy?: Miss Jenn claims to have been an extra in the first High School Musical film, which her actress Kate Reinders wasn't in. Justified in that her single line and scene wasn't used for the film.
  • Corbin Bleu remembers her by face and name in the season three finale, over a decade after they would have filmed the movie.
• Relative Error: Since they never tell anyone about being siblings, a rumour briefly spreads that Maddox has a crush on Jet.
• Self-Deprecation: The show openly acknowledges that a sports star also being into musical theater being some huge shocking idea was already kind of silly when the franchise started, and no one at all finds it the slightest bit unusual anymore.
• The Show Must Go Wrong: The drama class have a notoriously hard time staging their musical in the first season.
  • Miss Jenn accidentally starts a fire backstage, forcing production to move to a dilapidated theatre...which then moves back to the school (in the gymnasium) after Kourtney's attempt at a mic test blows out the sound system. The only person available to run the sound system there is Big Red, who basically joined the tech team by accident, and repeatedly hits the wrong sound queues in the first act.
  • Kourtney then gets forced to sub in for Gina after the latter has to move away at the last minute, only to return partway though the first act and get the part foisted back onto her (though at least both girls are happy about this development).
  • Just before the act break, Ricky sees his mom in the audience with her new boyfriend and has a Heroic BSoD. This coupled with finding out that there's a talent scout in the audience for Nini makes him panic and drop out of the part, causing E.J. to get bumped to the role of Troy and Carlos into Chad.
  • Nini is so focused on said talent scout that she doesn't see Ricky's text regarding the situation, and is caught off-guard by E.J. showing up in Troy's role...who then goes off script, declares that he's not the person she should be performing with, and leaves. Nini has to pull Ricky from the audience and force him back into the role.
  • The second season performance of Beauty and the Beast is much less hectic, though the characters stress this is because they're highly wary due to the events of last semester.
  Miss Jenn: High School Musical was wonderful. But it was not exactly...
  Carlos: A smooth opening night?
  Miss Jenn: I think I may have been playing Troy at one point.
  • Still, their attempts at using a harness lift to spruce up the Beast transformation results in Ricky falling on Ashlyn and both of them breaking their wrists. Then, just before the climactic transformation scene, the harness goes missing (actually stolen by rival drama student Lily). Miss Jenn, who's been growing slowly more unhinged over the course of the night, screams at Ricky to "jump off something high", and even after she calms down the cast and crew have to improvise something. We don't see the results, but apparently they were "passable".
  • Defied in the third season. Channing, the director of the documentary covering the production of Frozen the campers are doing, attempts to invoke this because he doesn't think they're generating enough drama for viewer interest. He's caught out and shut down not only by campers, but Corbin Bleu as well.
• Show Within a Show: The High School Musical series is in-universe for this show.
  • In season three, Corbin Bleu announces that he's directing a documentary about the Camp Shallow Lake campers putting on their production of Frozen. Which means there's a play within a documentary within a mocumentary within a show.
  Corbin: How meta is that?!
  • In season four, the production of High School Musical 4: High School Reunion takes place at the school, with most of the cast becoming featured extras and Gina getting cast as a lead.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: "The Ballad of Susan Fine" is composed like any other uplifting number meant to boost morale - but it's all about how Susan Fine, the founder of Camp Shallow Lake, allegedly lost her mind and was killed in the wilderness around the area.
• Spiteful Spit: Mack attends Gina's Halloween party in season four and asks a jealous Ricky to grab him a drink. Ricky does so, but takes a sip from his own and spits it back into Mack's before bringing it over to him.
• The Stinger: If you go back to the main menu in the series finale after the cast do a reprise of "Born to Be Brave" in the credits, you'll miss Miss Jenn and the cast singing "For Good" from Wicked.
• Stuffed into a Locker: Big Red does this to himself in order to be a singing telegram for his girlfriend Ashlyn. Unfortunately he gets stuck, so by the time she opens it he falls out and sprays confetti everywhere.
• Stylistic Suck: "A Billion Sorrys", the song E.J. writes to apologize to Nini after breaking into her phone and deleting a voice mail from Ricky. It's a parody of Justin Bieber and other teen pop stars, but E.J. thinks it's a genuinely touching number until Ashlyn tells him otherwise.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: When it appears that Ricky and Gina are about to be separated when Gina has to go to New Zealand to film her new Romeo and Juliet movie, it turns out that Gina had already announced that they would film in Salt Lake City, forcing the film's director to play along.
• Teacher/Parent Romance: In Season 2, Ricky's drama teacher Miss Jenn dates his father Mike Bowen for a little bit.
• Tempting Fate: When Miss Jenn chastises Ricky for missing a rehearsal.
  Miss Jenn:...so unless there's a family emergency -
  Ricky: My parents are splitting up.
  *Miss Jenn turns to look at him with an Oh, Crap! face*
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: "Now or Never" from the original High School Musical 3 is about the Wildcats playing in their final basketball game of the season and their senior year. When they sing it (the first time) in season four, it's about the drama kids sneaking out of rehearsal for the High School Musical 4 movie in order to audition for the HSM 3 play, since if they don't get enough kids the drama department might shut down.
• Those Two Guys: Emmy and Alex, two best friends at Camp Shallow Lake who are always seen together and end up being cast as Young Anna and Elsa in Frozen.
• Triumphant Reprise: A more hopeful and instrumental rendition of "Second Chance" plays in the season four episode "Admissions" as Ricky and Gina reaffirm their love for each other and kiss in a rainstorm.
• Truth in Television: East High's real mascot is indeed the Leopards, not the Wildcats, as depicted in the films.
• Two-Teacher School: Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara are the only teachers seen with any regularity. Both also appear to be the only teachers of their respective subjects (Drama and STEM), and considering East High has an enrolment of 2,000, they must both have very packed workloads.
• The Unreveal:
  • The penultimate episode of season 2 ends with the cast trying to figure out how to do the Beast transformation without Ricky's harness, which has gone missing. The next episode starts just after curtain call - we never see how the rest of the play goes, and only hear from Ricky and Kourtney that the transformation sequence was "passable".
  • We also don't learn the results of the Menken Awards by the end of the season, since after everything they've been through the cast decide that the stress of trying to be perfect was more of a hindrance than a motivator and they'd rather just be happy they pulled off a decent show.
  • The camp nicknames for the new campers at Shallow Lake at the end of season three, which Val says are being handed out at the beginning of the finale, are never revealed.
  • It's not revealed what happens to the role of Romeo in Quinn's new movie, after Mack quits the production to try and revive his old sitcom as a mockumentary.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Ricky's mom decided to invite her boyfriend to the show without telling him as a surprise which didn't work out to say the least
  • The boyfriend came in the middle of Ricky's big moment causing him to freeze, drop the ball, mess up the dance, and leave the stage early.
  • Ricky finds out that a recruiter for a school Nini wants to go to is there but don't want to mess it up for her so he gets his understudy E.J. to replace him.
  • Ricky doesn't tell Nini in time so she gets surprised seeing E.J. on stage instead who is her ex and doesn't have any chemistry with due to not practising together.
  • This causes her to mess up big time in front of the recruiter and the show goes downhill from there.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Kourtney calls Nini out for stealing Gina's stuff after incorrectly assuming that Gina had stolen her phone, though she later does the same thing.
  • When Ricky considers dropping out of the play, Big Red calls him out on backing out of the commitment when so many people are relying on him.
• Will They or Won't They?: At least one couple each season.
  • Ricky and Nini in the second half of season one. They do, but they end up breaking up partway through season two.
  • E.J. and Gina have this in season two. They do, but they end up breaking up in the penultimate episode of season three.
  • Ricky and Gina in seasons one through three. They do, during the final moments. Unlike the previous two examples, they remained together as of the series finale.
• You Are Not Alone: Kourtney uses the phrase as a Survival Mantra (or a prayer in her words) when her anxiety is getting the best of her. It's later incorporated as a background chant from Ashlyn, Gina, and Maddox during her song "Here I Come".

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