17 things yous probably didn't know nigh the 'High School Musical' movies

high school musical

"High School Musical" is ane of Disney Aqueduct'due south virtually successful franchises.
Disney Channel
  • "Loftier School Musical" premiered on Disney Channel on January 20, 2006 and launched a franchise of movies.
  • There are some things fans might not know about the beloved franchise.
  • Some cast members auditioned for other roles in "HSM" and Zac Efron was the biggest prankster.
  • Visit Insider'due south homepage for more than stories.

When "High Schoolhouse Musical" premiered on Disney Channel on January 20, 2006, it became a global success. The movie, which focused on basketball player Troy Bolton and volume-smart Gabriella Montez breaking the status quo at East High by auditioning for coveted roles in the schoolhouse musical, was filled with catchy songs and matching choreography.

The popularity of "HSM" led to ii more films and propelled stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Monique Coleman, and Corbin Bleu to fame.

Here are 17 things you probably didn't know about the honey franchise.

Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel, who played on-screen siblings, didn't like each other at all when they starting time met.

Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel played twins.
Disney Channel

In diverse interviews, the costars accept spoken candidly virtually non connecting on gear up.

"I remember auditioning with Ashley and hating her because she wanted to rehearse a lot," Grabeel told Billboard in 2018. "I was similar, 'Expect, I don't desire to socialize much, I but desire to piece of work on my own affair, I came prepared.' But nosotros ran through the scene together outside, and she gave me notes in true Sharpay way. I was similar, 'Who is this girl telling me how to do my own audition?'"

When the pair teamed up to sing "What I've Been Looking For" on Tisdale's YouTube channel, they explained that they only didn't empathize each other.

"I think nosotros only didn't know each other and I retrieve I was definitely a lot like Sharpay," Tisdale said.

Nowadays, Tisdale and Grabeel are close friends.

"We only needed to live some life and go through some experiences together and learn where both of us came from and so it happened," Grabeel said.

"HSM" was filmed at an actual high school in Utah, while classes were in session.

Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella and Zac Efron as Troy in "HSM."
Disney Aqueduct

In the movies, East High School is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But in reality, the schoolhouse is located in Salt Lake City and their mascot is a leopard.

Because they fabricated the movie during regular schoolhouse hours, the cast and coiffure was often on a time crunch. Specifically while filming "Nosotros're All in This Together" in the gym, they had to make sure at that place were no errors.

"Once the confetti went off, you could only do it in one case considering there wasn't fourth dimension to clean information technology upwards," Coleman told BuzzFeed.

Unfortunately, parts of the school'due south interior were damaged after a flash overflowing took place in 2017.

Some other actor and vocaliser, Drew Seeley, sang Efron's tracks in "HSM."

Drew Seeley on MTV's "Total Asking Live" in September 2008.
Peter Kramer/AP

Most "HSM" fans probably know that Efron's singing voice wasn't heard as well much in the start movie and the soundtrack. It has been speculated that his vocals were likewise low and he couldn't hit a majority of the high notes, so they went with Seeley, who also auditioned and wrote "Go'cha Head in the Game."

Seeley did get to sing Efron's parts when the bandage embarked on a concert bout, which the player couldn't nourish because he was busy working on "Hairspray."

Efron ended upwardly singing for real for "HSM two" and "HSM iii," though.

"That was a very huge bespeak for me," Efron told the Orlando Watch in 2007. "I had to put my foot downwards and fight to get my voice on these tracks."

He added: "In the first moving-picture show, subsequently everything was recorded, my voice was not on them. I was not actually given an explanation. Information technology merely kind of happened that fashion. Unfortunately, information technology put me in an awkward position. Information technology's not something I expected to be addressed. Then 'Loftier School Musical' blew up. I'yard very fortunate that Drew has gotten proper credit and too that I've gotten the opportunity to come dorsum and try it once again with my own voice."

Monique Coleman almost quit interim right earlier she booked the role of Taylor McKessie.

Monique Coleman starred as Taylor McKessie in the "HSM" movies.
Disney Channel

"I was going through a period which a lot of actors go through where you are on the brink of giving up considering it only doesn't look similar it's going to happen for you," Coleman told BuzzFeed.

She was too hesitant to audition for the movie and said it "was actually an agile argument between me, my agents, and my manager."

Coleman ultimately gave it a shot because she "connected" to Taylor.

"At the time, Raven-Symoné was the nearly prominent African-American on the Disney Aqueduct [on "That's So Raven"], if not the just i," Coleman explained to BuzzFeed. "I really wanted my nieces and godsisters and merely other girls that were like me growing upwardly that didn't really have a role model that looked like them [to meet themselves equally] the smartest girl in schoolhouse."

Several of the main bandage members auditioned for other roles in "HSM."

Troy and Gabriella met subsequently beingness paired upward for karaoke at a ski lodge.
Disney Channel

Tisdale and Coleman both auditioned to play Gabriella.

"I just knew that I was terrible," Coleman recalled to BuzzFeed."I didn't actually feel equipped to sing and dance."

Speaking to Insider, Coleman said that "the audition was actually awful, but at the end of my audience, I basically made the casting manager aware of the fact that I knew that information technology was terrible."

"And I think in that moment, they saw the potential or the seed of Taylor McKessie," she added.

Grabeel likewise tried out for the function of Troy and vividly remembers hearing Seeley's audition correct earlier his.

"I obviously heard him considering information technology was in a trailer, so information technology was really thin walls and I was like, 'Oh south---. I'm totally not gonna become this considering that guy'due south incredible,'" Grabeel told BuzzFeed.

According to BuzzFeed, Bleu auditioned for Ryan because he wasn't aware of the role of Republic of chad Danforth.

Grabeel was working at Blockbuster video before he auditioned for "HSM."

Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans in "Loftier School Musical."
Disney Channel

Prior to "HSM," Grabeel'south start interim role was in the 2004 Disney Channel movie "Halloweentown High." He went on to country 2 more minor parts before booking the function of Ryan Evans, but they weren't enough to financially support Grabeel.

"After shooting 'Halloweentown High,' I had to go back to work at Blockbuster because I made a little money, merely I didn't book anything right afterward," he told Buzzfeed.

Tisdale and Coleman actually knew each other before "HSM" because Coleman was on an episode of "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."

Monique Coleman as Mary-Margaret on "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."
Disney Chanel

Tisdale starred as candy counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick on the Disney Channel show with Dylan and Cole Sprouse. Coleman also had a recurring role every bit Mary-Margaret, one of Maddie's friends.

The "HSM" soundtrack was the height-selling album of 2006, co-ordinate to Nielsen.

"High School Musical" broke tons of records.
Disney Channel

That year, iii.7 million copies were sold. It was likewise the outset-ever TV movie soundtrack to striking No. 1 on the Billboard Height 200, with a few songs charting on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, they took dwelling a Billboard Music Award for soundtrack album of the year in 2006.

Bleu came up with the tricky and funny T-shirt phrases that his character wore in the movies.

Corbin Bleu equally Republic of chad Danforth.
Disney Channel

The catchphrases seen in all three movies included "I majored in vacation" and "I come with my own background music."

"I kept the one that said, 'I worship waffles,'" Bleu told Seventeen magazine prior to the release of "HSM 2." "The cool thing is that I actually came upward with all of the sayings and they asked me to do the same this time. My favorite one for this movie was, 'Yous've been Chadified.' I'm non certain that they'll end up using it though."

Bleu likewise chose Republic of chad's basketball bailiwick of jersey number.

Zac Efron and Corbin Bleu in "High School Musical."
Disney Channel

He picked No. 8 because it's his favorite number.

In "HSM ii," the pink pianoforte used in Sharpay's performance of "Fabled" was repainted white for "Everyday" at the end of the movie.

The piano was redesigned so it could be used in two dissimilar musical numbers.
Disney Channel

The pink hue perfectly matched "Fabulous," in which Sharpay wore a white and magenta outfit and sang nearly "iced tea imported from England" and "lifeguards imported from Espana."

For the second to last musical number, the characters dressed in white attire and gathered near the matching pianoforte that Kelsi played.

Fans voted for Miley Cyrus to make a cameo in "HSM 2."

Miley Cyrus rose to fame for her role every bit Miley Stewart on "Hannah Montana."
Disney Aqueduct

By the fourth dimension the sequel premiered on Disney Channel in Baronial 2007, Cyrus was already a familiar face, thanks to her starring role on "Hannah Montana."

For the 2d "HSM" moving-picture show, fans got to vote online and make decisions, similar which "Hannah Montana" should appear in the picture and what dessert Zeke should give Sharpay.

Cyrus popped up during the final musical number of the movie, "All for One."

"HSM two" is still the highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movie of all time.

The stars of "High School Musical 2" during "Work This Out."
Disney Channel

According to the New York Times, 17.2 million viewers tuned in across the country when the movie premiered on August 17. 2007. "HSM 2" besides dethroned the TNT motion-picture show "Crossfire Trail" and became the almost-watched motion-picture show on bones cablevision.

Currently "Wizards of Waverly Identify: The Movie" and "Military camp Stone" are in second and third place as Disney Aqueduct's highest-rated original movies.

One of the initial plans for the third flick was for it to accept a haunted theme, merely the idea was quickly scrapped.

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in "HSM 3."
Walt Disney Pictures

When fans got current of air of a tertiary "HSM" movie, information technology was called "Haunted High School Musical."

The thought didn't concluding likewise long, and Disney ultimately went with a storyline that focused on the students' senior year.

"I don't call up the haunted thing lasted very long," Efron told MTV in 2007.

"I think they but kind of threw that out there," Tisdale added.

Selena Gomez was offered a function in "HSM three," merely turned information technology down because she was looking to practice more serious roles.

Selena Gomez starred equally Alex Russo on "Wizards of Waverly Place."
Christopher Polk/Getty Images

"'High School Musical 3' is beautiful, and I think it would be a great opportunity for someone else," Gomez told The New York Daily News in March 2008. "Simply I passed on it because I didn't want to practice it. I plan to take other roles in acting that are challenging for me. After Disney, I want to exist taken seriously every bit an actress for many years."

The extra didn't specify which part she turned down, but fans take speculated that she was offered the role of Tiara Gold, who played Sharpay'southward young assistant.

Manager Kenny Ortega had a jar on set and each time a cast fellow member was caught yawning, they had to put coin inside.

The cast of "Loftier School Musical two" at the premiere in August 2007.
Chris Pizzello/AP

The coin that was accumulated was subsequently donated to the Brand-A-Wish Foundation located in Utah, where they filmed.

"Every twelvemonth for like, five years, on Christmas he would donate to a charity in our names," Coleman told BuzzFeed.

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