BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When the cast and crew of "High School Musical" were shooting that TV movie in Salt Lake City a couple of years ago, not much was expected, and not much of anybody paid attention.
But then "HSM" exploded into the biggest thing ever to hit the Disney Channel and became a bona-fide pop-culture phenomenon.
With the eyes of millions of young viewers aimed in their direction, the cast and crew of "High School Musical 2" returned to little ol' Utah to re-create the magic.
"I'm thrilled we went back there," said Vanessa Anne Hudgens (who stars as Gabriella Montez). "We loved going to Utah."
"Both times," interjected Zac Efron (Troy Bolton).
There was some question about whether they'd return here, given that — in order to premiere this summer — "High School Musical 2" had to shoot early this year. And, given that the story takes place in summer, that made returning to Salt Lake City a bit tough.
So after shooting the opening scenes back in and around East High, the production moved to southern Utah. Most of "HSM2" was filmed at the Entrada Country Club at Snow Canyon.
"St. George served us with great climate," said director Kenny Ortega.
And it became a home away from home.
"I think it's fun," said Corbin Bleu (Chad Danforth). "It's almost like we're in this little place creating something that we know is going to go out there and be big. Obviously, we didn't know that with the first movie. But with the second one, everybody's going to want to see it."
"It was like getting back together with all our old friends," said Efron. "Like we had our own little world away from everyone else."
Lucas Grabeel (Ryan Evans) agreed that it was "great" to get away from all the hoopla that grew up around the first movie.
"I like to be tucked away in the middle of nowhere," he said. "That's really what it was. We were just hanging out. Every morning we'd wake up and see the red rocks against the blue sky. You can see it in the movie — it's gorgeous."
It was more than just the scenery that brought the production back to Utah. Ortega wanted to return because of the "wonderful charm and innocence. And, also, an incredible talent pool."
Which is also one of the big reasons he wanted to do the first "Musical" in Salt Lake City — because of the experience he had here directing the closing ceremonies at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
"That's why when (Disney Channel Worldwide Entertainment president) Gary Marsh put three or four cities in front of me to make the movie in, right off the bat I said, 'My gosh! Salt Lake City! What an extraordinary talent pool!' I really believed that we could find the talent that could serve this idea. There were many reasons why St. George and Salt Lake were where we wanted to be."
"High School Musical 2" picks up pretty much right where the first movie left off. After that opening number celebrating the end of school, Troy gets a job at a country club and starts getting a lot of attention from the well-to-do set. But he doesn't immediately catch on that it's all part of a plot by Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) to steal him away from Gabrielle.
It's not in her plans, but everybody from "High School Musical" lands jobs at the country club, too.
The sequel is sort of a boy-who-got-the-girl-loses-the-girl-because-he-gets-a-big-head. Then boy-realizes-who-his-real-friends-are and boy-tries-to-win-girl-back. It's all headed for the inevitable happy ending at the country-club talent show.
That the plot is lightweight and predictable really doesn't matter. "High School Musical 2" is about the music, and there are 10 numbers that lend the production the kind of upbeat energy that will engage fans.
Ortega gushed over the "cast and the energy that they have, and the enthusiasm that every single person behind the scenes, in front of the scenes, is about on this project.... Everybody was thrilled to come back and to do the second one. That in itself was like a celebration that we never got over."
And, while there's a bigger budget, it's still a TV movie that was shot on a short, 32-day schedule. There were "less than three weeks of rehearsal for 10 production numbers," Ortega said. "That's only achievable when you have this (cast)."
But members of the cast were quick to spread the credit around.
"We are also surrounded by amazing talents that, honestly, make us look really good," said Grabeel, who said the "HSM2" stars were "stumbling through the steps" during rehearsals while the professional dancers — most of them from Utah — were showing them how it was done.
"We couldn't have done it without them," Efron said.
"And we really had a lot of fun," Hudgens said. "It was like we were a big family."
"We had an extraordinary group of kids that back these (stars) up at a national level of talent — a really amazing dance community in Salt Lake," Ortega said. The locals were chosen from 1,800 who showed up at the unannounced auditions.
"We didn't dare even put it in the papers," Ortega said, "because we thought it would be like when I did the Olympics in Salt Lake" and 8,000 people showed up.
And everybody involved seems to like the idea that what could be a second worldwide sensation was produced in little ol' Utah.
"A lot of people just didn't know we were there because we kept it pretty hush-hush. We didn't have all of this (media hoopla)," Grabeel said. "We weren't in L.A. We were in our own world so all we were thinking about was 'High School Musical 2."'
"It's sort of like we have our own little secret," Bleu said. "We got to do the whole movie at a country club in St. George that was completely blocked off.... We just had our own little world that we were able to create and make another great movie."
If you watch
What: "High School Musical 2"
When: Today, Saturday and Sunday, 9 p.m. (the Sunday airing will feature song-lyric captions at the bottom of the screen.)
Channel: The Disney Channel
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