All of the musical numbers are real.
In the world of High School Musical, breaking into spontaneous, well-choreographed song and dance numbers is part of puberty, just like acne, voice changes, and the realisation that sex might be awesome. This explains even the anti-singing characters (such as Chad) breaking into song unexpectedly, and why none of the adults sing. The adults either have a Weirdness Censor that makes them ignore the kids' performances, or just politely avoid calling attention to it, much as one wouldn't mention a teenager's acne. The kids who deride Troy and Gabriella for sacrificing their other interests for singing just think that it's embarrassing, because it's calling attention to aspects of teenager-hood that everyone just wants to ignore.- So the "High School Musical" in the third movie was the equivalent of a theater instructor in our world putting on a show called "Senior Year: Tampons and Wet Dreams"? Darbus is edgy.
- More like "Senior Year: Zits and Dandruff." Still gross but not as risque.
- This entry is now headcanon!
The films were intended as a parody.
They were going to be an loving parody of tween-Disney, with all the random moments, intentionally bad acting, effects, singing the works. However, an excecutive worked out the how MUCH they could make from this and all of the parody was removed and the story was rebuild to have coherent plot, good acting, and good singing. The emcee is God.
As suggested at the Agony Booth.
Now the coincidence at the beginning of the film makes perfect sense. Why God is bothering with tween romance, on the other hand, is beyond me.- Maybe, because Troy and Gabriella will give birth to a Physical God of tween pop music, who will sing a sappy pop ballad that ends the world.
Troy's story is based on Brian Thompson
Actor pretending to want to be a pro athlete?Just imagine them as friends rather than siblings living in the Pokémon world. Ryan is gay, but he's not in the closet.
Many assume Transparent Closet. However, he isn't in the closet. It just never comes up in conversation during the movie. Judging by the way he dresses, he's comfortable enough to have come to terms with it, so he doesn't feel the need to talk to somebody about it, and for reasons unknown, he might just not be interested in a relationship (or could be the only out kid at his high school). Ryan is bisexual.
He's a really, really femme guy, but that has nothing to do with his orientation. This is why he's able to have so much Ho Yay with Chad while also being in relationships with Martha and Kelsi.
- In the second movie, while Kelsi was still being put together with Jason, during the dance numbers that required couples, Ryan danced with Martha or Sharpay. YMMV on how much of a couple this made them.
Ryan has Dyslexia.
He couldn't read the basketball team's shirts, not because he was written as a Dumb Blonde in the first film, but because he has a learning disability.
- This would make more sense than him suddenly graduating from Dumb Blonde to being an actually pretty clever kid come the next two movies. Seconded.
Madison High got picked up for the Disney streaming service
In November of 2017, it was revealed that an HSM spinoff is in the works for the Disney streaming service, coming in 2019. Perhaps Disney finally picked up Madison High. Twinkle Town is supposed to feature a lesbian couple
Simply put, Troy's part in Breaking Free is high, even for a tenor, and at times he's singing the same notes as Gabriella. Not the same notes an octave apart, like Marius and Cosette. The same notes in the same octave. (And around B4, for anyone who knows music) Could this mean the musical was actually written for two women, and Ms. Darbus edited it to appease the Moral Guardians of Albuquerque?
Troy and Gabriella only won the lead roles for “Twinkle Town” to avoid Incestuous Casting
Despite Troy and Gabriella being no more noticeably talented than Ryan and Sharpay— who are undoubtedly more committed and arguably more charismatic and entertaining— it’s treated as a given that if Troy and Gabriella can audition for the call backs that they will get it. This must be because everyone is aware of the fact that casting twin siblings as love interests is gross, and if acceptable alternatives are given, they will be taken. This story is set in a world where The Magic Is Coming Back.
- The effects of the song magic seem to get stronger throughout each movie. In the prelude, it's just Troy and Gabriella unexpectedly being able to sing, and in the first movie the effects are limited to spontaneous musical numbers and perfect unrehearsed choreography and lyrics. But by the third movie, Troy can use a musical number to make his team win the basketball game, and we see the song magic being used to create illusions/conjurations (in the junkyard scene) and manipulate gravity and/or fold space (in "Scream"). Not to mention that each movie shows larger numbers of people getting pulled into specific musical numbers.
- People don't seem to be aware of the existence of the song magic. Nobody really comments on it or studies it, and people talk about singing and theater the same way they do in our world. It's as if the magic didn't exist until it shows up in these movies.
- Similarly, there are no societal or legal measures taken to react to singer powers. No versebreakers to keep musical numbers from getting out of hand, no laws or regulations to stop Troy from using a performance-enhancing song to win the basketball game, nothing.
