A dozen enthusiastic teenage girls crowded outside East High School on a recent December evening. Like most of the school’s visitors, the girls came from out of town — eager to take a brief walk through the building that served as the backdrop for the “High School Musical” franchise.
As the teenagers anxiously waited for their 4:45 p.m. tour to begin, they snapped photos and videos of the Salt Lake City high school’s exterior. Some pressed their noses against the glass doors.
Tours cost $8. For fans, it’s a bargain to see the locker-lined hallways where “High School Musical” stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale launched their acting careers.
Seconds after the clock reached 4:45, the door to East High swung open and the pack of girls impatiently shuffled inside. Soft squeals followed.
It’s been 20 years since “High School Musical” debuted on Disney Channel — and “High School Musical” fever is still running hot.
“Ten years ago, I thought maybe (interest) would start dying down, like any movie would. Ten years is a long time, and for some reason, somehow, it’s ramped up,” said Bart Johnson, the actor who played coach Jack Bolton in “High School Musical,” who currently lives in Utah.
“I’m stopped more today — 20 years later — than I was at any point.”
There were fleeting moments while filming when the cast recognized they were making something special, something different. They trusted in their director-choreographer Kenny Ortega, whose filmmaking reputation preceded him with “Newsies,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Hocus Pocus” and the Salt Lake City Olympic opening ceremony, but they knew musicals had fallen out of fashion.
Expectations were low.
Disney applied the same formula to “High School Musical” that it used on all its made-for-television movies. No unique marketing tactics were used. No flashy Hollywood sets. No superstars were cast — most of the actors were still relatively unknown. There was no special treatment.
“It just hit,” Johnson said. “It just resonated.”
More than 7.7 million viewers in the U.S. watched the telecast premiere of “High School Musical,” setting a record as the network’s highest-rated telecast at the time. Its soundtrack was the highest-selling album of 2006 and by the end of the year, the movie had become a global phenomenon, attracting over 100 million viewers worldwide.
“Nobody had a clue,” Johnson said. “Nobody thought, ‘We’ve got something massive on our hands.’ Nobody thought that.”
“But it blew up. It really blew up. And it was pretty wild,” he added. “Things changed quickly.”
The magic of Kenny Ortega
When Ortega called Johnson, inviting the actor to audition for the little Disney Channel musical, he added a caveat — the project was still untitled and unlikely to attract a large audience.
A group of Disney-approved actors had been recommended to Ortega for the role of coach Bolton, but none of them embodied the character Ortega had envisioned. He wanted Johnson.
Born in Los Angeles, Johnson was exposed to the film industry from a young age. He had become close to Ortega on the set of “Newsies,” where his mom worked as a hairdresser.
Johnson’s parents moved the family to Utah when he was a teenager, and he eventually developed a deep connection to the state, even as he pursed acting in Hollywood. Ortega remained actively supportive of his acting aspirations, and Johnson held a deep respect for the director.
“You’re the coach. I like you as my coach," Johnson recalled Ortega, who he considered a good friend, saying during the phone call. “I know you love Utah. I know you love spending time there. Let’s go up to Utah this summer, make this movie and have a great time.”
The film’s low expectations didn’t faze Johnson. Ortega was directing, and that was all the convincing he needed.
“The guy is a genius,” Johnson said. “I would have said yes to anything — but something in Utah, I was thrilled.”
Ortega was deeply involved in casting “High School Musical,” often hand-selecting obscure actors and dancers — choices that ultimately launched the careers of mega-stars like Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale.
Thousands of performers tried for a spot in the film, each one going through a grueling, Broadway-style audition process that quickly distinguished the pros from the amateurs.
On the day KayCee Stroh, the actress who played Martha, auditioned in Salt Lake City for a backup dancer role, she was one of roughly 500 performers vying for a spot. She was highly trained, with more than a decade of competitive dance experience, but she doubted her chances — her body type was different from other dancers, which often put her at a disadvantage.
Stroh tried out in one of the final groups. Mid-audition, Ortega called for the music to pause. He sifted through the dancers, found Stroh, took both of her hands, and said, “Oh my goodness, I love you — you’re different.”
She was cast as Martha, a supporting character in all three “High School Musical” films.
“He is such a visionary,” Stroh said. “I think that is the magic of Kenny Ortega, he’s ahead of his time. He can see a bigger vision.”
Ortega created an environment on set where both cast and crew felt safe taking risks and stretching their limits — which, in turn, elevated the film far beyond what anyone anticipated.
At Ortega’s request, a cast-exclusive hangout room was created on set, giving the young actors a private space to escape the cameras. The room had pinball machines, video games, air hockey and other activities. It was Ortega’s way of ensuring the cast could comfortably unwind during long rehearsal and filming hours.
He also created moments for everyone involved in the film to share input and participate in the creative process, both on camera and behind the scenes. When actors wanted to improvise or alter a line, Ortega encouraged it.
“It was never about just one person, especially with Kenny (Ortega),” said Ro Magala, a Utahn and principal dancer in all three films. “He would grab people, including extras, and he would give them their moment to shine.”
That collaborative spirit is reflected on screen. While spotlighting everyone from extras to leading actors, Ortega would orchestrate a range of moving parts — micro-moments highlighting backup dancers and fleeting, intimate exchanges between characters — and seamlessly blend it into one organic sequence.
There were brief moments, when watching Ortega pull his vision together, which left both cast and crew covered with goosebumps. Some members of the cast even got teary-eyed.
“Kenny Ortega is just a creative genius,” Malaga said. “(He) was probably the only one who had the magic to really know what he envisioned for the project.”
Tapping into Utah talent
More than 50 professional dancers were required to bring the “High School Musical” choreography to life. Ahead of filming, Disney hesitated — the film’s lean budget couldn’t cover flying 50 Los Angeles-based dancers to the Utah set.
But getting young, professional dancers locally wouldn’t be a problem, Ortega knew. Having served as director and choreographer for the Emmy-winning 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics opening ceremony, he was well aware of the state’s deep talent pool. No one would need to travel from LA. The dancers in Utah were just as impressive.
“That’s the thing about Utah — people don’t realize what we have here. We have so much talent. We have a dance mecca. ... We also have incredible theater," Stroh said.
“We come ready to work, with very many talented cinematographers and lighting crews and things like that, who are ready and willing to work, and they’re very hungry and excited to do big things,” she added. “So when there are directors or producers who take a chance on us, it’s almost like we are ‘The Little Engine That Could.’”
Roughly 90% of the dancers cast in “High School Musical” were Utahns, and Brent Geisler, who worked as a production assistant on the first movie, estimates the same proportion of the film’s crew — 90% — were also local.
When Geisler was hired as a production assistant on “High School Musical,” he’d already worked on a handful of Disney’s made-for-television movies.
He was part of a Utah film crew that previously worked together on locally-filmed Disney movies such as “Minutemen,” “Luck of the Irish,” “Halloweentown High” and “Right On Track.” By the time they reunited for “High School Musical,” the majority of the crew had been working together for a decade, so they approached the project like a “well-oiled machine,” Geisler said.
“When a crew is great and they are tight and get along well, there’s a magic brought to (the project) because it makes the cast feel more comfortable and lighter. It supports the director. It supports the producers,” Geisler said. “It just lifts the project to a different height.”
“‘High School Musical’ is so great because it had the best crew on it,” he continued. “This Utah crew was one of the best in the world. Easily one of the best in the country.”
Even after “High School Musical” became a global phenomenon, Disney returned to Utah for both sequels, continuing to rely heavily on the state’s skilled crew and performers.
Disney wouldn’t find better talent anywhere else, Johnson said. There wasn’t any reason to change a single thing.
“Everybody at Disney knows this: the talent that’s available in Utah is unmatched. So they love shooting Utah,” Johnson said.
“I‘ve shot movies all over this country. All over other countries. There’s no place in the world that is like Utah. It’s the nicest, kindest, most wholesome, uplifting, beautiful culture and community I’ve ever seen,” he continued. “The filmmakers from LA say Utah is unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. It’s a beautiful place with the kindest, most loving, wonderful people they’ve ever experienced.”
Within Salt Lake City, where the majority of the three films were made, it’s not difficult to find connections to “High School Musical.” Thousands of East High students served as background actors, local families opened their homes to be used as film sets, and dozens of other locals were hired as dancers, actors and crew.
The stamp of Utah — its talent, film crews, scenery and culture — is embedded in “High School Musical.” Filming in Utah, and emphasizing the state’s positive energy and wholesomeness throughout the film, “was no mistake,” Johnson said.
“‘High School Musical’ has an objective of bringing positive, good, energetic, uplifting, empowering messages. In every song, every scene, every movie, it wants to inspire and uplift everyone. And of course, not every movie (and) not every Disney movie is like that, or cares to be like that,” he said.
“(’High School Musical’) is something Utah should be really proud of.”
Growing up on set
Every major rehearsal day started with a run-through of the film’s closing number, “We’re All in This Together.” It set a tone of unity ahead of demanding hours of work.
During the month it took to film the movie, everyone involved “worked to their limits,” Malaga recalled. Cast members were typically on set for 12 hours a day, while the crew worked even longer. There was a shared mindset of mutual support, along with a willingness to push through rigorous rehearsals to get the film right.
“Those kids worked so hard to make those dances look so effortless and fun. They were having fun, but it was hard. Those were big numbers and a lot of stress at such a young age,” Geisler said.
“They were always teaching each other. They were always rehearsing together — whether it was an official rehearsal or not, or whether we were filming or not, or whether it was their turn or not. They were always kind of working on it because they wanted it to be great.”
Most members of the cast were between the ages of 17 and 22, and none of them had been a part of anything as big as “High School Musical” before. They were excited for the experience, and brought that electric energy to set every day.
Even in the face of long days and intense work, filming was fun, even for Johnson, who was one of the few actors over 25 years old in the cast.
After a day spent together on set, the cast typically continued hanging out, often grabbing pizza or ice cream in downtown Salt Lake City.
“They would hang out together all the time, they all became a really close, tight unit,” Geisler said. “The atmosphere was incredible and really fun. There was never any fights or drama. Everybody just really got along.”
Across all three films, the set became a place where many of the actors lived through pivotal coming-of-age experiences. Even after becoming superstars, most of the cast were still normal teenagers and young adults navigating all the typical events that come with growing up.
Much of what unfolded on screen also played out behind the scenes, as the actors themselves faced many of the same emotions their characters did, giving the films a rare authenticity that resonated with audiences.
For Stroh, the coming-of-age of her character, Martha, mirrored her own journey of discovering self-love and her “true confidence,” she said.
There was an instant spark between Efron and Hudgens, recalled Geisler, who was there when the young actors met. He also saw Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and other cast members connect for the first time. Over the course of the monthlong rehearsals, he watched that early chemistry grow into lasting relationships
“The roles that (Efron and Hudgens) were playing as these two high school kids falling in love was actually really happening behind the scenes,” Geisler said. “They were really going through those feelings as people, as not just as actors, but as humans.”
“There’s this window into this really incredible romance story that we all got to watch for three movies ... it really happened to these kids.”
When the curtain dropped on the third and final “High School Musical” film, the entire cast broke down. Their eyes welled up with tears and everyone was “crying like a baby,” Johnson said. It was time to say goodbye to the East High set which had hosted them through pivotal moments in their lives and their careers.
Most of the actors had become mega-stars. They’d outgrown the Disney Channel. But leaving behind “High School Musical” and the years spent together — “It was so emotional,” Johnson said. “It was an emotional journey.”
‘High School Musical’ mania
It took less than a week for the “High School Musical” stardom to settle in.
Days after the film was released on Jan. 20, 2006, Stroh, the actress who played Martha, was getting approached in public. People recognized her.
“We were all very shocked to see it get to that level, that quickly,” Stroh recalled. “It was just blowing up and gaining so much momentum.”
Disney instantly saw the commercial potential “High School Musical” presented and capitalized on it, molding the film into a financial juggernaut.
If Disney could print Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens’ faces on a product, they did. Cereal boxes, playing cards, board games, T-shirts, lunchboxes, sleeping bags, dolls, posters, pillowcases and video games — all got the “High School Musical” makeover.
A sold out 40-city concert tour followed, along with traveling ice shows, Disneyland parades, sing-along and dance-along versions of the film, and a novelization series.
An estimated $1 billion in operating profit was made off the franchise between 2006 and 2007. The soundtrack album sold 3.7 million copies in the U.S. and was the first TV movie soundtrack to top the charts. Nine songs off the album simultaneously entered Billboard’s Hot 100.
“Their lives were changed almost overnight. ... It was a big deal. They were blasted everywhere,” Geisler. “They became superstars.”
Still, Disney had not intended “High School Musical” to be part of a broader franchise. When the Disney Channel plans to develop a franchise, the actors are signed for a three-picture contract. There had been no such contract with “High School Musical.” It was a one-and-done.
After filming wrapped, the cast returned to the Hollywood audition circuit and other previous work.
Then, Disney called. It wanted sequels.
Ortega and the entire “High School Musical” leading cast returned to Utah to film both sequels. Each follow-up movie received a bigger budget than the last. Fans crowded the sidewalks surrounding East High and paparazzi hounded the actors at every opportunity. Security guards were brought in to monitor the sets.
When the sequel debuted on Disney Channel in 2007, it attracted the largest single audience in basic-cable television history with 17.2 million viewers nationwide. The third and final movie, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” was released theatrically and generated $252 million at the global box office.
“High School Musical” was no longer just a little TV movie out of Utah. It was a cultural phenomenon.
20 years on, ‘High School Musical’ fans endure
A collective gasp rippled through an East High tour group almost the instant Johnson entered the school 20 years after the first film’s release.
“Coach!” the group erupted, as phones shot up across the crowd with hesitant requests for photos. Johnson graciously introduced himself to each fan and posed for photos.
Then another group arrived, and a pattern took shape. Johnson is used to it. He still gets recognized every day and never tires of it.
“They’ve been so good to me over the years,” he says. “The only time I get mad is when I find out someone didn’t come say hi and they really wanted to.”
Kids as young as 5 and 6 swarmed the actor as he made his way through East High. The “High School Musical” films debuted over a decade before these kids were born, but they are just as excited about the films as kids were in 2006.
The film’s message of inclusivity, overcoming stereotypes, celebrating each other’s differences and confidently taking risks continues to connect with audiences across countries and generations.
“There’s something brilliant about this hyperreality, this really big, magical over-the-top movie, but the pieces are so grounded, the messages are ‘We’re All in This Together,’ ‘Stick to the Status Quo,’ ‘Breaking Free’ — all these different songs that make your heart sing," Johnson said.
“They’re all such really powerful, real, important messages that resonate with so many people.”
Nearly a decade after the final “High School Musical” movie came out, the franchise was rebooted for a four-season TV series, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” — launching the careers of a new generation of performers, including Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, and renewing interest in the franchise.
Parents who grew up with “High School Musical” are now introducing the films and TV series to their kids, pushing the films into cult classic territory.
“The longevity is amazing,” Johnson said.
Twenty years on, demand for tours of East High School continues to keep student volunteer tour guides busy year-round.
Between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. on school days, a constant stream of visitor groups arrive at the school’s main entrance for 15-minute walkabouts through the school — pieced together by student guides with stops at memorable spaces, including the gym where Efron belted “Get’cha Head in the Game.”
Little tokens throughout East High serve as reminders the movies were filmed there, such as a lone pink locker, large handmade decals in the gym and a classroom that has kept its green makeover.
Throughout the tour, visitors are encouraged to take photos or reenact scenes from the movie, and they rarely pass up the opportunity.
Nearly every tour group has visitors from outside the country. In just two groups, people from France, Chile, New Zealand and Argentina came to tour the school.
Since September, more than $12,500 has been fundraised by selling $8 tour tickets. All the money earned in ticket sales goes toward supporting East High students’ extracurricular activities — student government, sports teams and clubs.
Johnson’s recent visit to East High was his first since filming the “High School Musical” TV series. Memories flooded the actor as he made his way through the school’s tiled halls. He has a story for nearly every corner of the school.
He almost never made it over 10 strides without being called out to as “Coach” or getting stopped for a photo. If “High School Musical” mania continues for another 20 years, he won’t mind.
“It’s been a fun ride,” Johnson said. “It’s been a pretty incredible ride.”