High School Musical (2006)

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is a musical drama series released on Disney+ based on the High School Musical movie series. What makes this series interesting for viewers is the set of East High School is a fictional version, as a group of teenage theater students participate in a staging of High School Musical: The Musical. This article will discuss the elements of the series.

Many episodes have noticeable references to the original High School Musical movies themselves. The school building itself and everything inside the school has the exact same appearance as the school seen in High School Musical. Rather than the original teenage characters making their appearances, there is a new group of teenagers who will be cast as the original characters of High School Musical. There are four seasons in this series, spanning over the course of all three movies in the original series of the same name. Song titles such as "Start of Something New" are heavily referenced in all plots and subplots.

**Spoiler Alert**

At the close of the second act, what I believe to be the central theme of Anything's Possible  hit me. It's a moment right after Khalid (Khal), played by Abubakr Ali, scuffles it up with his now ex-BFF Otis (Grant Reynolds). I'll get to that in a sec...

Anything's Possible is Billy Porter's directorial debut. It's a high school rom-com with a remixed trope:  boy meets cute girl (who just so happens to be trans), boy loses cute girl, boy gets cute girl back. Cue Janet Jackson's "Free Xone" from Velvet Rope. And their meet-cute is pretty simple; the moment Kelsa's (Eva Reign) blush of a smile and sparklers bedazzles Khal, it's on like buttered popcorn. Or at least goofily apparent they are destined for, at least, the next 98 minutes.

One signature of this Porter-directed high school rom-com is that these kids were "serving looks," as they say. Kelsa's besties Em (Courtnee Carter) and Chris (Kelly Lamor Wilson) are funky-fly-fresh with their own soundtrack. Still, our introduction to this bouncy, rhythmic trio of blue-haired, spacesuit-bedecked, midriff-baring with a boa crew is as expected for teenage besties in cahoots. Porter's light, artsy, syncopated entree into this genre was a little Sixteen Candles a skosh of  High School Musical, mixed with a sprinkle of Crush.