Congratulations, millennials. Your past has become nostalgia.
Case in point: High School Musical turns 20 this year.
Those fictional East High students now are in their mid-30s with careers, mortgages and kids of their own, as are many of the Disney Channel movie’s real-life fans.
Case in point: Natasha Herrera Brown, Straz’s media relations manager, 35, married, one child.
“I was a band kid who loved music and loved Disney, which pretty much made me the target market for this movie,” said Natasha, who was 15 when HSM premiered in 2006. “My friends and I knew every lyric to every song.”
A new generation is discovering High School Musical, this time on stage instead of on the screen. Patel Conservatory is staging High School Musical JR., a condensed version of the story intended for younger casts, April 23-26 in TECO Theater. For more information, please visit our website or call 813-229-7827.
High School Musical and its sequels were staggeringly successful. The Jan. 20, 2006 premiere set a record for most viewers of a Disney Channel telecast: 7.7 million. High School Musical 2 topped that number by almost 10,000,000 viewers in 2007. High School Musical 3: Senior Year was a 2008 theatrical release that had the biggest opening day ever for a musical. (Les Misérables topped it in 2012.)
The High School Musical soundtrack was the best selling album of 2006, spawning hits such as “We’re All in This Together.” The video for the song featured a dance routine that went viral, with scores of videos popping up featuring recreations of the choreography.
High School Musical also made stars of its two leads, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. The plot follows East High students Troy (Efron), captain of the school’s basketball team, and Gabriella (Hudgens), “freaky math girl” and member of East High’s scholastic decathlon team. Their attraction to each other coincides with their discovery of a shared love of performing. This causes consternation for Sharpay, the school’s resident star-in-waiting and drama queen. Hijinks and a happy ending ensue.
“I really admired the classic teenage love story between Troy and Gabriella,” Natasha said, also praising the movie’s “great friendship storylines.”
Those storylines made High School Musical relatable to the teen audience at which it was aimed, according to Sherri Hope Culver, a Temple University professor with a focus on children’s media.
The film’s depiction of “authentic relationships” and “the comedy and drama of high school” struck a chord with its core audience, Culver said. “Emotional moments in middle school and high school are impactful in a child’s life.”
High School Musical remains relatable, even with viewers who weren’t around for the original run.
“The story has endured,” said Patel instructor Jessica Rhodes, who is directing High School Musical JR. “It still feels incredibly relevant and universal, speaking to the American high school experience in a way that resonates just as strongly today.
“It’s been really special to see how connected the students already feel to the material, even though it originally aired before they were born,” Jessica said.
“It was a fun and memorable stage of my life,” said Natasha, adding that she hoped her child would have “her own equivalent of these memories throughout her childhood.”
And besides, she added, “Who doesn’t like a sweet love story with catchy music?”