High School Musical 2 is the sequel to the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical. It debuted on August 17, 2007 on Disney Channel in the U.S., and on Family Channel in Canada. The premiere brought in a total of 17.3 million viewers in the United States -—almost 10 million more than its predecessor —- making it, at the time, the highest-rated basic-cable broadcast in U.S. history. The premiere brought in a total of 17.5 million viewers in Asia—almost 9 million viewers in the Philippines alone - making it the highest rated international cable movie broadcasted in Asian history.

Plot

The summer brings excitement to the East High Wildcats as they go over their plans for their break from school. Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) stresses over getting a job, with the price of college looming on his mind, as well as trying to make sure he and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) are able to stay together all summer. The final bell rings, and the students converge in song (What Time Is It?). As a symbol of his feelings for her, Troy gives Gabriella a necklace with his initial “T” on it on the last day of school.

Sharpay and Ryan Evans (Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel) plan on spending the summer at their family’s country club, Lava Springs (Fabulous). However, Sharpay’s summer plans also include breaking up Troy and Gabriella by getting Troy hired at Lava Springs, and making her move on him. But what Sharpay does not plan on is Troy talking the club’s manager, Mr. Fulton (Mark L. Taylor), into hiring Gabriella and their close group of friends; this includes Gabriella’s best friend, Taylor (Monique Coleman), and Troy’s best friend, Chad (Corbin Bleu). Mr. Fulton is unable to fire the “extras” at Sharpay’s command, since her mother (Jessica Tuck) approved of their hiring, so she orders him to make them want to quit. Fulton exerts his powers of intimidation upon explaining their place at the club. Seeing how his friends are intimidated and unconfident, Troy offers to help his friends working in the kitchen, and convinces them that they can work their hardships out (Work This Out).

While Troy continues to worry about obtaining a college scholarship, Gabriella is simply thrilled to be in one place over the summer; the first time in her life when she doesn’t move to a new city. Sharpay schemes harder than ever to make the Wildcats miserable, and win Troy, who has to choose between two worlds: his own with the Wildcats and Gabriella; or another, in which Sharpay’s family can offer him an easy way to college and other luxuries he has only dreamed about.

Meanwhile Kelsi, inspired by their relationship, writes a ballad for Troy and Gabriella, and Troy agrees to sing with his friends in the upcoming talent show (You Are the Music in Me). Sharpay conspires to get Troy to perform with her in the show, and holding his future over his head. She and Ryan trap him as he prepares for a date with Gabriella, and show him the song she wants to make him do with her (Humuhumunukunukuapua’a). Later, she takes Kelsi’s song away, speeds up the tempo, and forces Troy to sing it with her.

A visit from a local college basketball team, The Red Hawks, causes a rift between Troy and Chad when Troy chooses to spend time with the RedHawks, instead of his friends, alienating especially Chad. As Troy grows further away from what was formerly his, Ryan realizes he doesn’t mean much to Sharpay anymore. Taylor and Gabriella even invite Ryan to the baseball game, and Chad offers him Troy’s place in the game (I Don’t Dance). Troy and Gabriella’s relationship is silently strained to the breaking point when Troy sees Ryan with Gabriella, sparking a little jealousy. Troy’s relationship with Chad is tentative, as the latter feels Troy is abandoning him and the rest of their friends. Despite that, Troy (forced by Sharpay) and Sharpay (singing all but one line) then practice their song for the Midsummer Night’s Talent Show (You Are the Music in Me: Sharpay Version).

When Sharpay discovers that Ryan and the Wildcats are putting together their own performance in the show, she finally crosses the line by getting Mr. Fulton to ban all staff members from performing in Lava Springs’ annual Midsummer Night’s Talent Show, even though Ryan has been working with the group to put together a performance. Gabriella confronts Sharpay. She makes it clear that she refuses to play Sharpay’s “game”, and quits her job at Lava Springs. Troy overhears the exchange, and tries to persuade Gabriella to change her mind. They emotionally sing the song (Gotta Go My Own Way), in which Gabriella expresses her loss of trust with Troy, and how she just can’t stay while she has a broken heart. The song ends with her leaving Troy’s necklace in his hand, and running to her car crying, and Troy walking back toward the country club alone. Shortly after, he has a discussion about this with his father, who remains supportive of his son.

Troy returns to work the next day to find that all his friends refuse to talk to him, but Kelsi silently shows Troy the notice from Mr. Fulton. Troy becomes fed up with the downhill events that are occurring for his friends (Bet on It), and goes to tentatively reconcile with Chad. Troy confronts Sharpay, and tells her that he won’t sing with her because of how she treated his friends, causing Sharpay to burst into tears. The Wildcats later convince Troy to sing in the talent show, which he does only under the condition that they are allowed to perform as well.Ryan gives Troy a new song (Everyday) to learn moments before the show, saying that Sharpay wants to do to this song instead. As Troy goes onstage, he asks Sharpay why she switched the song, and Sharpay is shocked to find that her brother tricked her. Troy sings alone — until Gabriella is revealed from behind the Wildcats. In the end, Sharpay herself proudly presents her brother, Ryan, with the award for the talent show. After the talent show, the Wildcats (including Ryan and Sharpay) all head out to the golf course to enjoy the fireworks. Troy and Gabriella finally share their first kiss — with them kissing for the present, not the future (You Are the Music in Me (Reprise, Abridged)). The next day, the staff celebrates a great summer and a job well done with a “staff-only” pool party. (All for One).

Characters

Main

• Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) is the female protagonist of the movie. She is a smart girl, who won East High the Scholastic Decathlon in the first film. Known as the “freaky math girl” in her old schools, she appears shy and intelligent, but finds a new popularity for herself at East High. She is in a relationship with Troy Bolton. Along with most of East High, she takes a summer job at Lava Springs (as a lifeguard), the country club owned by Sharpay and Ryan Evans’ parents. As the summer progresses, she feels that Troy has become a different person when he gets new opportunities with his promotion. The pair briefly split up, but quickly get back together. Her best friend is Taylor McKessie. She is also best friends with Kelsi Nielson and Martha Cox.

• Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is the male protagonist of the movie. He is the most popular guy at East High School, and captain of the varsity basketball team. He is in a relationship with Gabriella Montez. They met at a ski lodge while attending a New Year’s Eve party in High School Musical, and were called on stage to sing a duet together. They exchanged cell numbers, and Gabriella later moved to Albuquerque with her mother, surprising Troy when she arrived at his school. Along with most of East High, he takes a summer job at Lava Springs, the country club owned by Sharpay and Ryan Evans’ parents. Over the summer, he gets new opportunities to go to a great college, and easily obtain a basketball scholarship, but this causes jealousy in his best friend, Chad Danforth, and Gabriella starts to worry that he has forgotten about his friends. He is also friends with Jason and Zeke. For this show, Efron did all of his own singing, whereas in the first HSM, his singing was blended with singer Drew Seeley’s voice.

• Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is the antagonist of the film. She plans to spend the summer lounging around her parents’ country club, Lava Springs, and winning the country club’s mid-summer talent show, as she has in previous years. She has a noticeable crush on Troy Bolton, and is always trying to steal him away from Gabriella and his friends. It is also said that she also has a crush on Zeke. Her plan is taken to a whole new notch when she promotes Troy to be an honorary member of the club, and cancels the Wildcats’ performance in the talent show. She is convinced that Troy and Gabriella singing together could steal her spotlight — after the pair previously beat her and her brother out to star in the lead roles for the Winter Musical of “Twinkle Town”. Her plan failed when Troy confronted her about how she treated his friends. Although she is an antagonist, she is portrayed as both friendly and mean.

• Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) is Sharpay’s fraternal twin brother, who is stuck between being an antagonist, and a male protagonist. Throughout the movies, we see that he owes his total devotion to Sharpay to his utter stupidity; in High School Musical, he is unable to read the word “Drama”. He can be very sneaky and cunning at times, but occasionally has a hard time keeping up with schemes that are not his own. Over the course of the film, he finds his own person, and abandons his place as Sharpay’s “lackey”, even becoming friends with the Wildcats. It was implied that he had a crush on Gabriella on the official website and throughout the film, later to be confirmed by the director.

• Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) is Troy’s best friend, and is also very good friends with Jason and Zeke. He has a summer job at Lava Springs as a waiter and part-time golf caddy, and is saving the money from his job to get a car to impress his girlfriend Taylor, whom he appears to be in a serious relationship with. After Troy gets promoted, Chad becomes a little jealous of him and hated the way Troy is treating his friends. He begins to drift away from him, and as they begin to separate from each other he becomes great friends with Ryan Evans by baseball together. He and Troy make up near the end and it seems that he, Troy and Ryan are best friends at the end of the movie whilst singing “All for One”.

• Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) is Gabriella’s best friend. She is also friends with Kelsi Neilsen and Martha Cox. She is captain of the school Scholastic Decathlon team, and seems to be just as intelligent in math and science. She has a summer job at Lava Springs as an Activities Coordinator. She always sees through Sharpay, and tends to be cynical when it comes to boys. This cynicism appears to have lessened since she and Chad began dating.

Musical numbers

Release

The premiere of High School Musical 2 aired at 8PM Eastern Time on August 17, 2007, and included a telecast hosted by Kenny Ortega and the movie’s cast. On Saturday, August 18, Disney Channel aired “High School Musical 2: Wildcat Chat”, in which the stars of the movie answered questions posed by fans. On August 19, Disney aired a sing-along version of the movie. On May 23, DirecTV announced that they would be hosting an exclusive high-definition airing of the movie a few days after the August 17 premiere on its network-only channel, The 101.

Disney Channel aired a weekly program called Road to High School Musical 2, beginning on June 8, 2007, and leading up to the premiere of High School Musical 2 in August. The show offered viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the movie. The world premiere of the opening number “What Time Is It” was on Radio Disney May 25, 2007, while “You Are The Music In Me” premiered on July 13, 2007.

Disney Channel On Demand debuted the movie on August 10, 2007.

The Sing-Along version of the film aired on August 19, 2007, in which the lyrics of each song would appear at the bottom of the screen.

The Dance-Along version aired on September 8, 2007, in which the entire cast taught the moves to the songs What Time Is It? and All For One.

The Pop-Up version of the film aired on November 23, 2007, in which random movie trivia appeared throughout the film in boxes at the bottom of the screen.

The What’s What version of the film aired on March 7, 2008 at Disney Channel Asia, in which random movie trivia appeared throughout the film in boxes at the bottom of the screen, like the Pop-Up version.