All In This Together: The Unofficial Story of High School Musical

by Jennifer Hale

When the Disney Channel aired its original movie High School Musical in January 2006, they were expecting a fairly solid ratings response. What they got was a cultural phenomenon that not only launched the film into the stratosphere, but also turned its young cast into superstars. The first time the show aired, it drew almost eight million viewers; the next night, on a repeat airing, another six. The movie soundtrack hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop-music charts six weeks after its release, with nine singles from the soundtrack on the chart in the same week. The May 2006 release of the DVD sold 400,000 units on its first day; Disney has a version that high schools around the country can license and perform; there are talks about a Broadway version, the sequel High School Musical 2 is scheduled to go into production in January 2007 for a summer 2007 airing, and the soundtrack album has gone triple platinum and remains in Billboard’s Top 20. All In This Together: The Unofficial Story of High School Musical is a comprehensive look at the creation and making of this landmark film. It provides detailed profiles of its cast members, including Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, and Corbin Bleu. It explores in detail the film’s impact, following the cast as they promote High School Musical around the world, and providing all available information and conjecture about High School Musical 2. Timed for release in advance of the movie’s sequel, All In This Together: The Unofficial Story of High School Musical is the perfect collectible for the film’s millions of fans.

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hoped this book would spill the tea on the making of HSM and...*shrug* it kind of did? But not in most of the ways I was hoping for. Like, for example, I wanted BTS production info. It delivered some history of the Disney Channel (cool to reflect on my 2002 experiences with this context), the story of how HSM came to be (someone wanted to make a Romeo and Juliet themed musical--think "Grease" but make it appropriate for kids--and they made HSM!), and cast bios. The writing was...bad. If it wasn't written in 2007, I would have thought AI wrote it based on the number of times they repeated the verbs "opines" and "enthuses". It almost became a drinking game. ALSO, pet peeve: the text features were not helpful. My inner teacher did not approve.

The cast quotes in particular gave me pause. In truth, some of them were quite cringe. And it forced me to reckon with the fact that we put child/teen actors in a really tough place when we, as a society (and certainly Disney as a company) put the yoke of international fame on someone who's prefrontal cortex isn't going to be fully developed for another decade and then expect them to be insightful, responsible role models for the masses (and cancel or love to hate them when they're not).