Cast of 'HSM3: Senior Year' grows up

From wire reports

When Zac Efron was recently in Munich promoting "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," a TV station showed him a clip from the first "High School Musical" movie.

It took him back - and aback.

"We didn't know what we were doing," Efron said. "You could see it in our faces. We had no idea what we were getting into."

How could they? When the first "High School Musical" movie premiered on the Disney Channel on Jan. 20, 2006, expectations were sunny, but not extraordinary. "High School Musical" ("HSM" to diehards) was seen as a solid offering to the channel's tween-age audience.

Then the movie aired, and there were reports of a huge spike in text-messaging during the show's initial broadcast. (OMG!!!) Then the soundtrack started climbing the Billboard charts, eventually selling more than 4 million copies. Then the DVD, released in May 2006, broke records, moving more than 1.2 million copies in its first week.

"High School Musical 2," which debuted on the Disney Channel in August 2007, was a no-brainer. So were the concert tours, ice shows and mega-merchandising that have brought the "High School Musical" movies to an estimated 455 million people worldwide. (Or, as Entertainment Weekly noted, doing the math, roughly 7 percent of the globe.)

And there is a near-apocalyptic anticipation of today's release of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." The first in the series made for the big screen, "HSM3" is the culmination of what has introduced the musical form to a new generation, made it cool for boys to dance and made its presence felt on a global scale.

"I was at an orphanage in Kenya," said "HSM" director and choreographer Kenny Ortega, "and kids are yelling, 'Say hello to Troy! Say hello to Gabriella!' "

Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez - portrayed by the skyrocketing Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens - are the mainstays of the ongoing "HSM" story, which is set at Salt Lake City's real-life East High. The narrative involves all the conventions of the great Broadway shows: true love, jealousy, courage, friendships, betrayals, basketball and music, music, music. And dancing, dancing, dancing.

Yet, when it came time to make an "HSM3" movie, Efron and Ortega were ambivalent, even with Disney promising that it would open in theaters instead of television.

"I questioned it, and I think Zac and a few others had to question it, too," says Ortega, who choreographed and directed the first two movies.

But money tends to answer those kinds of questions. Disney ponied up hefty pay raises to the cast members and bumped Ortega's big-screen budget to $30 million. ("HSM2" cost roughly $6 million.)

While "HSM3" is obviously bigger and splashier, the essential formula remains the same. The kids put on a show. Troy and Gabriella bask in their happiness, break up and come back together again, saving their on-screen kiss until the very end. Self-centered Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) is mean until she isn't.

There are 10 new songs, loads of costume changes and dance numbers and three new cast members - sophomores - who may well continue the franchise in a fourth installment. (Writer Peter Barsocchini is fleshing it out as we speak.)

That means the three luckiest people in the world right now are Justin Martin, Matt Prokop and Jemma McKenzie-Brown, who play those new roles.

None was a fan of musicals, much less "HSM," before joining Ortega's team, but their tune has changed. (Why wouldn't it?) They have a decided view of their film's attraction.

"They look at it and think, 'I don't have to be what other people expect me to be,'" said Prokop, 18, who plays Jimmy "The Rocket" Zara, charismatic goofball and fawning acolyte of Troy Bolton. "I don't have to be a star of my basketball team, but I can be in a musical."

Troy Bolton, of course, does both.

"There's someone for everyone, " Prokop says. "Lots of characters, and they're so different. There really is someone for anyone to attach to."

"There's like 10,000 productions of 'High School Musical' going on in schools," said British native McKenzie-Brown, 14, who plays the scheming Tiara, "personal assistant" to the series' resident evil, Sharpay. McKenzie-Brown may be overestimating, but not by much.

"It reaches out to the kids also because it gives them a positive thing to look up to," said Martin, 14. "The 'HSM' message is 'be whoever you want to be.' "

And - parents, take note - every graduating "HSM" senior is heading off to college.

Says Barsocchini: "I wrote the first movie for my daughter, who's now 14. College is very important to me. I want my daughter to go to college."

"We've taken our share of knocks from people saying, 'But it's not like high school. There's no drugs. Nobody has STDs,' " Barsocchini adds. "And we're going, 'That's available in the marketplace. We set out to entertain.' "

Given the cash cow that "HSM" has been for the company, you'd think Disney might have been a little looser with the purse strings for the series' big-screen maiden voyage. Ortega notes that most movie musicals cost north of $80 million and have an 80-day shooting schedule. Ortega had $30 million and 45 days.

"I long for the day that I have all I need to work with," says Ortega, who functioned as something of a father figure to the cast members.

"I'm proud of the film. We've come a long way. I'd liken the movie to an off-Broadway musical, and I love off-Broadway. So I just wrapped my head around the limitations and brought it to life. What we didn't have in money and schedule, we had in support. Disney gave us complete freedom."

Indeed, the personal nature of the project belies the notion that "HSM" emerged as a strict product of the Disney marketing machine.

Barsocchini wrote the original movie for his young daughter, Gabriella, and her friends as an endorsement of childhood enthusiasm for singing and dancing. ("They liked 'Grease,' but, you know, Rizzo gets pregnant," he says.)

Disney originally wanted the characters to be middle-schoolers. Again, using his experience with his daughter and her friends, Barsocchini argued that 11-year-olds "don't care where they're at. They want to see a few years down the road." To that end, Barsocchini kept writing "High School Musical Project" on the scripts. He was shocked when that ended up being the title of the movie.

"HSM: Senior Year" tries to grow the characters - and their audience. The Wildcat seniors fret over choices about their futures as well as what to wear to the prom. But its tone is still light as a feather, reflecting its creators' desire to give kids a release from the real pressures they face every day.

"It's innocent, it's silly, it's childhood," says Olesya Rulin, who plays smart girl Kelsi. "Kids these days are forced to grow up too fast. Why can't you just play with your friends and sing and dance? I'm 22 right now, and I can tell you, you don't do it that often when you're an adult."

Adds Efron: "The movie is slightly more grown-up, but, gosh, it'd be wrong to lose what made people love 'High School Musical' to begin with. You're making it for the fans, and the fans just want to have fun."

The Los Angeles Daily News and Newsday contributed to this report.