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High School Musical is a Disney Channel Original Movie that premiered on January 20, 2006. It was directed by Kenny Ortega, written by Peter Barsocchini, and starred Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale.

The plot centers around a group of students in the fictional East High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Golden boy and basketball team captain Troy Bolton (played by Efron) has a Meet Cute with the brainy Gabriella Montez (played by Hudgens) at a ski resort on New Year's Eve, which transitions into awkward attraction when she later transfers to East High. The two of them end up being considered for the school musical, to the consternation of the Evans twins, Sharpay (played by Tisdale) and Ryan (played by Lucas Grabeel), who rule the drama club. Also unhappy at this development are Troy and Gabriella's best friends, fellow jock Chad Danforth (played by Corbin Bleu), and academic decathlon leader Taylor McKessie (played by Monique Coleman), who would prefer that Troy and Gabriella not get distracted from their respective clubs. Can Troy and Gabriella convince East High that they can do theater and their respective niches at the same time?

The movie spawned a concert tour, a novel series, two sequels, a Spin-Off and a web series. See the franchise page for more on those.

We're all in these tropes together!

• Absurdly Divided School: A big plot point in the first film was about how the school was so divided into cliques that everyone was horrified when Troy wanted to do something besides basketball. There's an entire song about how some of the students are having their secret passions suppressed, simply because their friends can't stand the thought of them expanding beyond their niche.
• Adaptation Expansion: Numerous novelizations of the book characters (in a series named "Tales from East High") were released between films.
• Aerith and Bob: Sharpay and Ryan, the Evans twins.
• Against the Grain: Both Troy and Gabriella defy their expected roles. This is exemplified by the song "Stick To The Status Quo".
• All There in the Manual: A stage adaptation of the first film was created after the unexpected success, which tied up a few loose ends that were possibly deleted scenes. For example, this was where it was revealed that Sharpay was not only named after a dog but is eight minutes older than Ryan.
• Almost Kiss: Troy and Gabriella almost kiss at the end of the first film before the Crowd Song.
• Appeal to Obscurity: Chad points out that Troy becoming a theater kid would lead to this.
  Chad: Have you ever seen Michael Crawford on a cereal box?^note As for the question, how does Chad know who Michael Crawford is? (Handwaved by having Chad explain that his mom put his picture in their fridge.)
  Troy: Who's Michael Crawford?
  Chad: Exactly my point!
• Armor-Piercing Question: Troy asks one to this dad, who only thinks of his son as a perfect basketball athlete instead of a singer. Leaving his dad speechless.
  Troy: Did you ever think maybe I could be both?
• Arc Words: There are two that originate from the musical numbers of the same name.
  • "Get'cha head in the game!" is somewhat of an in-universe invoked Beam Me Up, Scotty! because it wasn't added to the end of the "What team? Wildcats!" Battle Chant until scenes after its song was performed, yet after it was included, crowds in other films (who wouldn't have been there when the added phrase was adopted in the basketball practice) proudly chant along as if it had always been there.
  • "We're all in this together" became this, to a lesser extent. Notably, Troy reminded Sharpay of it in 2, implying that he forgives her for all the grief she had caused him.
• Artistic License – Geography: Upon returning to school from winter break (explicitly stated to be the New Year), all the students are shown wearing light clothes, and the surrounding plant life is very green and verdant, as if it were spring or summer. Anyone who lives in, or has just spent time in Albuquerque knows that the city (though in a desert climate) can actually get viciously cold during the winter months, the daily average temperature in January being approximately 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Award-Bait Song: "Breaking Free" is this in-universe for the talent show.
• Beta Couple: Chad and Taylor, who go through a lot less drama than Troy and Gabriella.
• Betty and Veronica: Gabriella (the Betty) competes with Sharpay (the Veronica) over Troy (the Archie).
• Be Yourself:
  • Troy is being a "Well Done, Son" Guy to make his dad happy about being the basketball captain, as well as convince his friends that he cares about them, but as numerous people point out, he seems rather comfortable being on stage and performing. Eventually, Troy's critics back down and admit that they'd been selfish.
  • Seeing the most popular boy in school do something outside of his stereotype encouraged many students to seek other interests, but "Stick to the Status Quo" made it clear how disgusted their friends were with the idea. Considering how everyone makes up eventually, they too had realized their selfishness.
• Big Finale Crowd Song: "We're All in This Together", which as performed by the entire school, including the jocks, the brainiacs, the skate dudes, the cheerleaders and the Wildcats.
• Bigger Is Better: And better, is bigger, a little bit is never enough!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the post-credits scene, when Sharpay hugs Zeke after trying his cookies, he offers to make her a creme brulee before pulling a smug look at the camera and jumping out of frame.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Thanks to both of their groups meddling, Troy and Gabriella become distanced and give up the callbacks. After the truth is revealed, they eventually reconcile and regain hope.
• Brother–Sister Team: Sharpay and Ryan are twins who frequently perform duets together.
• Camp:
  • High school students singing passionately about how people should adhere to the rules of their cliques.
  • Gabriella has a powerful ballad about her breakup with Troy, despite only knowing him for a week. And she gets back together with him 15 minutes after that.
  • Troy and Gabriella's number at the end is highly heartfelt and romantic...despite it being just the callbacks and not the actual musical.
• Candid Camera Prank: After Sharpay and Ryan discover that Troy and Gabriella have made the final audition stages (Sharpay didn't think they'd even auditioned), Ryan remarks, "Maybe we're being Punk'd! Maybe we'll get to meet Ashton^note Kutcher, the presenter of said show!"
• Character Development: A surprising amount: Troy starts making his own decisions rather than pleasing everyone else, Gabriella becomes more outgoing and gets some real friends, Taylor and Chad both loosen up, and Kelsi learns to be more confident, and Ryan steps out of Sharpay's shadow. Even the teachers get on it, with Ms. Darbus going from Sadistic Teacher to Cool Teacher, and Jack Bolton seeing Troy as his son rather than a basketball star.
• Childhood Friends: Troy and Chad have known each other since kindergarten. In Senior Year, "The Boys Are Back" expands on this, whereas it had been only on an As You Know basis in the first two.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Kelsi and Jason at the end of the movie: Kelsi, who seemed to have a bit of a crush on Troy, is randomly paired up with Jason, his only other friend (with actual lines) who doesn't have a crush/girlfriend/whatever, despite the fact that they never interacted before in the movie and they have nothing in common.
• Comically Missing the Point: Jack Bolton, when Troy tries to confide in him about auditioning for the musical, just thinks he's talking about basketball maneuvers.
  Troy: Dad, did you ever think about trying something new, but were afraid of what your friends might think?
  Coach Bolton: You mean like, going left? You're doing fine.
• Commonality Connection:
  • The apparently opposite Troy and Gabriella, bond over the pressure they're both under and having to live up to their friends and families' expectations all the time.
  • Chad and Taylor are not happy about this, which leads to their own connection as they plot to separate Troy and Gabriella and stop them from singing together.
  • In Senior Year, Kelsi and Ryan were both put in charge of the eponymous play (she's in charge of the music, him of the choreography), and bonded over their shared project.
• Crowd Song: "Stick to the Status Quo" and "We're All in This Together".
• Cultural Rebel:
  • The leads. Troy is a jock and Gabriella is a nerd, but both want to do theater.
  • The basis for Zeke and Martha's Establishing Character Moments during "Stick to the Status Quo". In the same sequence, we have a skater boy who plays the cello and isn't mentioned or seen again.
• Declaration of Personal Independence: Troy has a fight with his father about being able to sing in a musical and not just being a basketball player, and not living up to his father's dreams and instead following his own desires.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Sharpay. In each film.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: The question of which duo is better at singing is only resolved in the first film since the franchise's overall plot is more about gaining acceptance than parts in a show.^note Even then, Darbus' decision can be interpreted as giving people other than Sharpay and Ryan a chance to participate in the musical, since they've played every lead role for years. Sharpay is too insecure to try competing fairly, instead resorting to sabotage/cheating/otherwise rigging whatever auditions are occurring.
• Disappeared Dad: Gabriella's father is nowhere to be seen or addressed, save for a brief mention in Senior Year when Gabriella teaches Troy how to waltz, saying that she used to stand on her father's feet and he'd waltz her around the living room.
• Distant Reaction Shot: Before it cuts to Sharpay freaking out over the announcement of the couple's callback audition, it shows everyone outside East High somehow hearing her and turning towards the source of her voice.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Troy is arguing with his father because he wants to try out for the school musical while his father only wants him to stick to basketball, he fires back "Did you ever think that maybe I could be both?". Very similar to one struggling with bisexuality and angsting with their (non)supportive parents with it.
• Drama Club: Which Ryan and Sharpay are the Co-Presidents of.
• Duet Bonding: Troy and Gabriella, twice. Their meet-cute is a karaoke duet ("Start of Something New"), while sparks fly when they sing a composition for the musical together ("What I've Been Looking For").
• Early-Installment Weirdness: When you revisit any of the songs you could hear Troy singing in the first one, you notice Zac Efron being dubbed over even more than before.
• E = MC Hammer: Gabriella did a ridiculously complicated equation on the board in her head. And then the teacher looks at the calculator for maybe two seconds before looking back up...
• Embarrassing Hobby: One of the driving problems in the story is that multiple characters in the different cliques have their own secret, non-stereotypical hobbies, like a skater dude being into cello playing. Troy's singing finally gives them the confidence to tell their friends...only for their friends to all collectively reject the notion that they can have those interests and tell them to "Stick to the Status Quo", justifying the embarrassment that made them hide their interests in the first place.
• Engineered Public Confession: A rare case where the confession isn't even true. Troy's teammates confront him in the locker room and attempt to guilt him about putting the theatre auditions over his commitment to basketball. He eventually just blurts out that he doesn't really care about singing or Gabriella just to make them leave him alone, unaware that they're secretly broadcasting him to Gabriella out of context, resulting in her believing he truly does find her and singing to be a joke.
• Enter Stage Window: Troy climbs onto Gabriella's balcony in both the first and third movies. By the third, it's implied that he's done it often; she has a basket on a rope ready to go down when he calls her. It's even written into their show.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Troy and Gabriella have ones when they both protest about going to the New Year's Eve party: Troy is playing basketball with his Dad and Gabriella wants to finish her book alone. Of course, the rest of the film is about subverting these impressions by showing they want to be more than the basketball guy and geeky girl.
  • Sharpay only became suspicious of Gabriella after she corrected an equation and was praised by the teacher, immediately rushing to the library after class to search the online news reports. When they first officially met, Sharpay wasted no time in pointing out who ruled the popularity chain as she wrote her name on the audition sheet. It was up until the next class that Sharpay didn't see the new girl as a threat.
• Everything Is Online: One of the "brains" uses her laptop to hack the school's electrical grid, disabling power everywhere except the theater, so that Troy and Gabriella can make their callback at the climax of the show (movie or stage).
• Fanservice: Each movie features some level of shirtless scenes from Troy.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Troy and Gabriella. A stranger pushes them to sing together in Colorado, and then they end up at the same high school, (heck even the same form class), in Albuquerque. Someone up there really wanted them to get parts in that musical.
• Felony Misdemeanor: So many times, especially in the first film. Chad is a walking-talking version all on his own, and "Stick to the Status Quo" is a whole song of over-reactions.
• Foreign Remake:
  • A Chinese one, with the involvement of Disney.
  • Brazilian and Argentinian ones as well, with each having a token "sports-themed song" ... about rugby and soccer. Both films have protagonists and some secondary characters with its first names taken from the actors' names.
• Four-Girl Ensemble: Albeit not as an initial friend group, Sharpay's the sexy one, Kelsi is the innocent, Taylor's the snarker and Gabriella is the mature one.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
  • The Optimist: Kelsi and later Ryan. (Believes everyone can get along and be happy).
  • The Cynic: Chad and Taylor. (Everyone should accept the 'status quo' because it won't change).
  • The Realist: Gabriella. (Aware of the challenges but is prepared to rebel).
  • The Conflicted: Troy. (Constantly confused and in each film resolves his issues by becoming the Optimist.)
  • The Apathetic: Sharpay (Only concerned with her own agenda).
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • The four main girls: Sharpay (sanguine), Taylor (choleric), Gabriella (melancholic) and Kelsi (phlegmatic)
  • The main couples: Chad (sanguine), Taylor (choleric), Gabriella (melancholic), Troy (phlegmatic)
• Funny Background Event: When Troy is being taken out of detention, Ryan is watching...and painting a set ladder in his distraction.
• Fun with Subtitles: Sharpay attempts to sabotage Troy and Gabriella by moving the callbacks to a day when they both have important events going on. When the day arrives, the captions reflect the characters' anxieties.
  Game Day
  Callback Day
  Scholastic Decathalon Day
  HELP!
• "Gaining Confidence" Song: Troy and Gabriella go through this twice as a sort of Bookends to the first film. They're first forced to sing karaoke together, neither of them thinking of themselves as a singer, but end up enjoying the experience and discovering their interest in music, symbolized by them dancing and engaging with the audience. In the end, they're singing at the climatic audition, and Gabriella's Stage Fright threatens to get the better of her, but they once again end up getting into the song and blowing away the crowd.
• Garden of Love: The not-yet-Official Couple Gabriella and Troy have an intimate conversation in the school's rooftop garden. It's a chance meeting that emphasizes their similar desires and distance from their peers.
• "Gender-Normative Parent" Plot: Troy started to gain interest in Drama/Theatre. His father, the coach of East High's basketball team, wants him to focus on his duty as the team captain.
• Give Geeks a Chance: The super-popular Troy is instantly smitten with the (albeit attractive) Gabriella, who reads at parties and is on the scholastic decathlon team.
• Gone Horribly Right: Chad and Taylor's plan to get Troy and Gabriella to focus on basketball and academics (instead of each other) works perfectly... until both Troy and Gabriella become too miserable to focus on the championship game or the academic decathlon, which was exactly what they were trying to avoid in the first place.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Newcomers Troy and Gabriella get the lead roles in the school musical over veteran actors Sharpay and Ryan.
• Hate at First Sight: The characters Mr. Bolton and Ms. Darbus have argued since the day they met (incidentally, the same day they were both hired to work at Albuquerque High). Even taking the actual reason for their argument into account, it's clear that they enjoy having an excuse to snipe at each other.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Troy and Chad, which is why Chad takes Troy's interest in singing so badly. The rest of the team is downplayed.
  • Gabriella and Taylor develop into this.
• Hidden Depths: Pretty much the whole basis of the film. You've got the Big Man on Campus and Teen Genius who want to try singing musical theatre, a Lovable Jock who is also a Supreme Chef, a nerd who loves hip-hop, and a skater who plays the cello.
• High School: The film is set at a high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico called East High.
• Hooked Up Afterwards: Troy and Gabriella in the first film. Ironically, Chad and Taylor actually get a more conclusive ending and agree to go on a date together.
• I've Heard of That — What Is It?: During "Stick to the Status Quo", as East High's students confess their Embarrassing Hobbies, one admits to playing the cello. His friend immediately replies, "Awesome! [Beat] ...what is it?"
• Identity Breakdown: Troy Bolton's plot in every film is about his identity struggles of being both a star basketball player and a guy who's really into musical theatre, with each film ramping up the pressure it's putting on him.
• Incest Subtext: Sharpay and Ryan Evans have a disturbingly close relationship. Their first duet is a love song rearranged to sound less romantic. When Troy and Gabriella sing it correctly, it's clearly a love song. A joke is made at one point saying that if Sharpay could play both Romeo and Juliet, her brother would be out of a job, which means that the twins have no problem playing romantic roles with each other. The song "I Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You" (never made it to the movie — it only appears on the first CD) is a quartet with duets between Troy and Gabriella and then Sharpay and Ryan (with only a few parts being the four singing together). The video includes a few moments from the movie put in shippy context.
• Incestuous Casting: In-Universe. Twins Ryan and Sharpay play Romeo and Juliet, respectively.
• Inexplicable Cornered Escape: Gabriella and Troy are trying to secretly practice the song they'll perform during call-backs to avoid any interference from Sharpay. In one instance, Gabriella is singing in the girl's bathroom when Sharpay happens to walk by. Sharpay stops and heads into the bathroom to figure out who's singing. Sharpay walks through, but no one's there so she leaves. Gabriella then pops out from an alcove by the sinks. This became something of a meme because there was simply no way for Sharpay to not see Gabriella given the angle and lack of cover.
• Insane Troll Logic: After Gabriella's lunch tray is knocked out of her hands and hits Sharpay, a teacher comes by to see what all the fuss is about, and Sharpay immediately launches into an accusation that only gets more nonsensical as it goes. Notably, the teacher doesn't believe her in the slightest.
  "Look at this! That Gabriella girl just dumped her lunch on me! On purpose! It's all part of their plan to ruin our musical. And Troy and his basketball robots are obviously behind it! Why do you think they auditioned? After all the work you've put into this show... it just doesn't seem right!"
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Troy and Gabriella have to compete with Sharpay and Ryan for the lead roles in the school musical. Sharpay and Ryan are insanely talented, but also overconfident and manipulative, whilst Troy and Gabriella are struggling to express themselves and be more than their stereotypes would allow them to be. As their confidence and abilities grow, Sharpay and Ryan grow more paranoid and attempt to sabotage their chance to audition, but get thwarted when they show up anyway.
• Irony: For how badly Chad and the basketball team took Troy's musical interests in the first movie (because it was not only distracting him but was "uncool", in their eyes), Ryan gate-crashed their baseball game in the sequel because he adamantly believed that they ALL had the potential to participate in the resort talent show.
• Just in Time: Troy and Gabriella reach the auditorium just in time for their callback.
• Kangaroo Court: A humorous version is used to separate the various social groups.
• Karaoke Bonding Scene: The first film starts with a karaoke number ("The Start of Something New") between Troy and Gabriella at a ski resort. They're needled into singing with each other but make it work; sparks fly between the two of them that informs their later chemistry when Gabriella transfers to Troy's school.
• Karma Houdini: Chad, Taylor, and the other wildcats in the first film. They deliberately go behind their friends' backs to split them apart just because Troy and Gabriella have developed interests outside of basketball and academics, but never suffer any consequences. Even when they confess what they've done, Troy and Gabriella are more focused on making up with each other than calling out their best friends for betraying them, and by the next scene everyone's hanging out together like it's no big deal. And Troy and Gabriella keep confiding in Chad and Taylor for the next two films, even though Chad is still resentful Troy has goals beyond basketball and Taylor continues to attack Gabriella's relationship with Troy.
• Large Ham:
  • Ms. Darbus of course.
  • Both Sharpay and Ryan are more Evil Is Hammy.
• Last Interviewee Wins: Played with. After a series of Hopeless Auditionees, Sharpay and Ryan audition for the lead roles and blow the competition out of the water, making them shoo-ins for the roles, playing the trope straight. However, after hearing Troy and Gabriella sing a duet outside of auditions, Darbus brings them, along with Ryan and Sharpay, back for call backs. During the call backs, Troy and Gabriella perform second and win the spots in the musical.
• Last-Minute Hookup: See Pair the Spares below.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • "Start of Something New" sums up a good chunk of the first film.
  • As does "What I've Been Looking For" and "Breaking Free".
• Like Brother and Sister: Gabriella and Chad are implied to have this dynamic.
• Like Goes with Like: Chad and Taylor are both black. Each one is a best friend of one of the two main characters. They spend time together and agree to go on a date in the first, are dating in the second, and go to prom together in the third.
• Love at First Note: Troy and Gabriella begin to fall in love during a karaoke performance.
• Make Way for the Princess: After seeing the call-backs for the school's musical, the character Sharpay storms off in a rampage. The students jump out of the way for her, one even mentioning that she's an "Ice Queen".
• Man Hug: Chad and Troy do this after reconciling.
• Maybe Ever After: Troy and Gabriella in the first film. They have an Almost Kiss and their feelings are strongly hinted at in the final song but they don't officially get together or admit they like each other. By the second film they've had a Relationship Upgrade and the third film gives them a definitive Happily Ever After as they head off to college together.
• The Musical: It's in the name.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Chad's and Taylor's reaction after their Zany Scheme goes horribly right and ends up screwing things greatly for Troy and Gabriella. They make amends by deciding to support their friends rather than bashing their other hobbies.
• New Year's Kiss: Subverted at the New Year's party where Troy and Gabriella meet. After their karaoke performance and conversation builds up some chemistry between them, the final countdown to the new year begins. Once the countdown ends, they watch the fireworks together and stare at each other intensely, suggesting they may want to kiss, but they just exchange phone numbers and part ways.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Chad and Taylor's Zany Scheme to con Troy into confessing he doesn't care about the callbacks for the musical, and forcing Gabriella to watch while he does so. Their intent, ostensibly, is to get Troy to focus on the upcoming basketball game, and Gabriella on the scholastic decathlon competition. What ensues is nearly the termination of the Official Couple.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: In the first film. For the main boys, we have Troy, the Nice Guy who tries to do the right thing; Ryan, the self-centered right-hand man of Sharpay; and Chad, the buddy who willing manipulates his best friend but makes up for it in the end. For the girls, we have Gabriella, the sweet but shy brainiac; Sharpay, the snobby popular girl who doesn't like her spotlight stolen; and Taylor, the brainiac who mediates between the two.
• Official Couple: Troy and Gabriella are the main pairing of the franchise.
• Offscreen Crash: A guy tries to dance across the stage. We then see Kelsi wince as he crashes into the equipment just offstage.
• Older Than the Demographic: Despite being themed around high school, the franchise was not intended to be aimed at teens. Many of its fans were middle school-aged.
• Only Sane Man: Troy and Gabriella in 1 as the only two people in the school who think it's okay to have more than one hobby. Of course, everyone else thinks they're the crazy ones: just watch "Stick to the Status Quo".
• Opposites Attract: Everyone sees Troy and Gabriella, a popular Lovable Jock and shy Teen Genius, as this trope. In reality they're not that different.
• Pair the Spares: When Troy and Gabriella established themselves as a couple, Sharpay suddenly falls in love with Zeke despite her clear attraction toward Troy in the earlier scenes.
• Popularity Food Chain: Played with. The social circles just run in totally separate spheres rather than on a hierarchy: Sharpay is the Alpha Bitch of the drama club, Taylor is the Academic Alpha Bitch of the nerds, Chad is a Jerk Jock and rules the basketball team. Each group appears to dislike the others pretty equally and even Troy, the Big Man on Campus, isn't universally liked. The lack of interaction and mingling between groups drives the plot of the first film and is why Troy and Gabriella's friendship and interest in singing is such an issue.
• Really Moves Around: Up until moving to Albuquerque and transferring to East High (and meeting Troy Bolton), Gabriella Montez and her family would usually move to a new place once the school year was over because of her mom's job.
• Reconstruction: The Big Man on Campus trope is taken apart and then rebuilt with Troy. All three films examine how having to be East High's golden boy 24/7 wears him down, Gabriella liking him for just being himself rather than his status feels like a rarity, his attempts to please everyone often hurt those closest to him, and having so many expectations to live up to means any deviations, singing, different college plans, causes instant issues with his dad and friends. However, each film manages to conclude with the good influence he's able to have when he's true to himself, and that his popularity can be a good thing in uniting different students.
  Gabriella: It seems like everyone on campus wants to be your friend.
  Troy: Unless we lose.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chad and Taylor to Troy and Gabriella.
• Relationship Sabotage: Chad and Taylor work together to break Troy and Gabriella up so the latter two won't want to audition for the musical. Chad and the rest of the basketball team corner Troy in the locker room and peer pressure him into saying that he doesn't really care that much about Gabriella and the big game is his priority. The players secretly film this, which Taylor and the science decathlon team then show to a heartbroken Gabriella. It temporarily works; Gabriella confronts Troy and both decide not to audition. Chad and Taylor start feeling remorse though, Chad and Taylor confess what they had done. In the end, Troy and Gabriella make up and rock the audition together with both the jocks and science geeks cheering them on in the audience.
• Rock Is Authentic, Pop Is Shallow: Experienced theater kids Sharpay and Ryan perform "What I've Been Looking For" in their style, an upbeat pop performance. When Darbus and Kelsi hear the same song performed as a raw, acoustic duet by Troy and Gabriella, they are awed. Troy and Gabriella eventually get roles in the school musical over "industry vets" Sharpay and Ryan.
• Running Gag:
  • Ms. Darbus's vendetta against cell phones and obsession with being on time in #1.
  • Troy checking an invisible watch in all three films.
• Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Chad mentions that his mother has seen The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway 27 times.
• The Scream: Sharpay's reaction is to scream when callbacks for the auditions are announced and she and her brother have to compete with Troy and Gabriella for the talent show.
  Sharpay: CALLBACK?! (screams)
• School Bullying Is Harmless:
  • Chad's actions definitely play this trope as far as emotional bullying goes, with him leading the entire basketball team in bullying Troy about daring to audition for the musical and guilting him into turning on Gabriella.^note Including using his fraught relationship with his dad as emotional blackmail. Despite this Troy never gets angry with Chad and only seems to blame himself for giving in, even though he's obviously the victim of intense peer pressure and everything shouldn't be as fine and happy as it turned out.
  • Taylor's treatment of Gabriella is just as bad, as she records Troy's response without context and shows it to Gabriella, (who struggles with fitting in, and currently sees Troy as her only real friend), completely devastating her. Like Chad, Taylor's never called out for it, everything turns out fine, and she becomes Gabriella's best friend anyway. (And at least Troy and Chad had over a decade of friendship to justify quick and easy forgiveness. Gabriella was a new student and had just met Taylor who up to that point only ever seemed interested in Gabriella as an Academic Decathalon team member).
• School Rivalry: East High have a rival school (the imaginatively named "West High") whose basketball team has knocked the Wildcats out of the playoffs for several years running. Finally beating them is the focus of the basketball subplot.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Troy and Chad. From what's seen of them, Zeke and Jason also qualify.
• Serious Business: The passion and drama put into songs about things like the jock and the genius daring to try out for the musical reach ludicrous levels. For example, see "Stick to the Status Quo". "No, no, NOOOOOOOOO!!!" about a basketball player who likes cooking, a nerdy girl liking hip-hop, and a skater dude playing the cello indeed.
• Shipper on Deck: Kelsi displayed shades of this towards Troy and Gabriella in the first movie and afterward. Subverted with everyone else at first, but played straight by the third movie, where pretty much the entire school adores the two together (Sharpay being the main exception).
• Shout-Out: "Bop to the Top" has Sharpay in a blue dress and on a ladder, similar to a scene from Singin' in the Rain.
• Show Within a Show: The titular high school musical (which is never really seen, but is apparently called "Twinkle Town" based on a poster seen behind Troy and Gabriella when they sneak in during Ryan and Sharpay's rehearsal).
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy:
  • Played disturbingly straight with Sharpay's obsession with Troy. She wants him purely because he's, in her words, "East High's Primo Guy" and pursues him relentlessly for the status he'll give her. No wonder Troy has a complex about being the 'basketball guy'.
  • Subverted concerning Gabriella. When they first met, Gabriella had no idea the whole school idolized Troy and the main point of their relationship is not being the stereotypes everyone thinks they are. Her position is actually...
• Softer and Slower Cover: "What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)"
• Spin-Off:
  • Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico all have local High School Musical installments. They're all based on the first Tales from East High book.
  • Sharpay gets her own, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure.
• Stage Mom: Troy's dad, but for basketball instead of the stage.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Played straight in the first film, with the whole school seemingly working to separate Troy and Gabriella, albeit mostly because of the singing thing. After that... Not so much.
• Status Quo Is God: The song called "Stick to the Status Quo" is the first one and many characters have Aesop Amnesia.
• Take a Third Option: When it looks like Troy and Gabriella have to choose between doing the callbacks or the championship game/decathlon. They manage to delay the game and decathlon so they have time to audition.
• Technician Versus Performer: Ryan and Sharpay versus Troy and Gabriella. Ryan and Sharpay have been singing for years, view star roles as status symbols, and audition with professionally choreographed routines and costumes, while Troy and Gabriella just want to sing because it makes them happy, start doing it in secret and audition in their sports uniform and lab coat.^note Somewhat played with in that with their "main things" (basketball and academics) they're more obviously Technicians and train and study intensely, while singing is an outlet for them.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: The first film features one of these as a variety of terrible wanna-be actors try out for the school play. This is supposed to show how talented Ryan and Sharpay are. However, as their competition are those who can't sing on key, forget their lines, are creepy, and lock up with stage fright, it actually creates the impression that the only reason they keep starring in school plays is that they are the only people who are vaguely competent at acting or singing.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: There's a song for virtually every issue.
• Through Her Stomach: How Zeke won over Sharpay when she got her hands on her cookies.
• Title In: The callback auditions are rescheduled to the same day as Troy's big game and Gabriella's Scholastic Decathlon. As such, the following titles appear:
  Game Day
  Callback Day
  Scholastic Decathlon Day
  HELP!
• Token Minority Couple: The black friends of the two leads end up paired with each other.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Inverted with Ryan, who goes from not being able to spell 'drama club' in #1, to being far more capable in #2 and #3, including winning a scholarship to Julliard.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Chad, Taylor, Ms. Darbus, and Jack Bolton by the end of the first film and onwards. Ms. Darbus in particular goes from refusing to let Troy and Gabriella audition because they're thirty seconds late, to counseling Troy during his breakdown about his future.
• True Companions: The 'Wildcats', though the main gang is Troy, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, Zeke, Jason, Martha, and sometimes Ryan and Sharpay.
• Tsundere: Sharpay and Taylor are downplayed because their other archetypes (Alpha Bitch and Black and Nerdy) are much stronger.
• Underdogs Never Lose: There's the inexperienced basketball jock Troy and math geek Gabriella auditioning for the leads against professionally trained Sharpay and Ryan. The rest of the school is horrified and tells them to get back to where they belong. Naturally they win everyone over and get the parts.
• Villain Song: The songs themselves aren't really villainous, but Ryan and Sharpay's bit in "Stick to the Status Quo" could count.
• Wardrobe Wound: At the end of the number "Stick To The Status Quo", some chili cheese fries go flying up in the air as a result of a student slipping and land on Alpha Bitch Sharpay, causing her to scream.
• The Wildcats: The name of the East High mascot.
• What Does He See in Her?: Everyone has this reaction to Zeke's crush on Sharpay.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ironically enough, the titular High School Musical (apparently called Twinkle Town), in the first film. You'd think with all the importance placed on its callbacks, we'd get some focus on the musical itself, like maybe showing Troy and Gabriella practicing songs or scenes from it, right? Well, you'd be wrong. After the performance of "Breaking Free", it's never brought up again, not even in the sequels. A Freeze-Frame Bonus at the beginning of 2 has a poster behind Troy and Gabriella that shows Twinkle Town featuring the pair under starring.
• With Friends Like These...: Chad and Taylor for Troy and Gabriella in the first film. Chad, who has been Troy's best friend since childhood, starts a bullying campaign against him singing and sabotages his chances with the girl he really likes. Taylor befriends the already shy and insecure Gabriella, just to get her on the scholastic decathlon, and then tricks the guy she likes into hurting her, leaving Gabriella devastated. They do, however, redeem themselves in the second half of the film. In the second film, Taylor spends most of her time questioning Gabriella's choice to be with Troy, while Chad only complains about the job Troy got him, especially when Troy gets a promotion and Chad guilt trips him into renouncing.
• Work Info Title: The title refers to the high school musical the main characters try to land lead roles in. Fittingly, High School Musical itself is a musical about a high school.
• Would Rather Suffer: Happens when Zeke tries to ask Sharpay out.
  Sharpay: I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.
  Zeke: But wouldn't that be uncomfortable?
• "YEAH!" Shot: The main cast jump excitedly in all main promotional art.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Gabriella tells Troy the variation of "You are more than you think you are" when she tells him he's not just the basketball guy.
• Zany Scheme: In the first movie, Chad and Taylor, along with their respective teams, the Wildcats and the school nerds, cook up a plan to drive Troy and Gabriella away from each other and the upcoming musical so they can focus on their own competitions instead, the upcoming Championship game and the Academic Decathlon. Namely, Troy's teammates exploit his desire of approval from his father by reminding him of East High's legacy of basketball triumphs and his dad's role in it, and Troy, feeling the pressure, is forced to lie and say that Gabriella and the musical are only distractions, while Taylor and the other nerds film the moment with a webcam they hid in the locker room and show it to Gabriella, making her assume Troy doesn't really care for her. The whole thing works a tad too well and causes Troy and Gabriella to feel way too downhearted to properly focus on anything, much to the regret of the Wildcats and the nerds.