High School Musical 2: Cunning, Blonde & Fabulous. Why Sharpay will never be the villain of HSM
Written by A Robinson
~
As I'm sitting on my day off in the baking heat, pondering what film I should begin my next written venture around, I realise I have to be in the headspace of that film or TV show in order to write fluidly about it. Am I in the mood to write about a dark, gritty gangster epic? Normally, yes, but not today. Today I soak in the sun and wish I had some iced tea imported from England. Wait- I am in England. We're good to go.
Now, a full disclaimer. I am the proud poster child and was the target demographic when Disney dropped the unknowing cultural bomb that was High School Musical in 2006 on Disney Channel. Yes, I like seemingly every other pre-teen girl was instantly obsessed. It reigned supreme over my every interaction with my friends group, every party, every dress up was all centred around High School Musical. I like to joke that my parents singlehandedly funded Disney to make the two sequels out of the sheer amount of merchandise they bought me, to my great privilege. I find it amusing that at the time, and even now as the first film has passed its 15 year anniversary and is enjoying a cultural resurgence, people are able to categorise themselves as either a Gabriella, or a Sharpay. Unlike my peers, who sided with the 'main one' and who got to duet dreamy ballads with Troy, I modelled my young, six year old personality on the one blonde standout character of the film: Sharpay Evans.
She was fabulous. She was bold. She was talented. She was determined. Did she conceive some gentle manipulation in attempt to sabotage Troy & Gabriella's chances of making their callbacks in HSM1? Sure. Call it manipulation, I call it cunning. One could argue that what she did was protecting not only her interests, but the interests of the whole drama department and the show itself. Sharpay proudly proclaims she has been in "17 school productions" - very impressive for a Junior. Needless to say, she lived and breathed theatre. Yes, she flaunted her talents and her passions, but so does every diva of the stage. How could she possibly be at ease when two unknowns, with their respective talents in the athletic and scientific arenas, burst in and override something that Sharpay lived for? How would Troy feel if Sharpay tried out and was the new captain of the basketball team? Or outshone Gabriella at the Scholastic Decathlon? I have no doubt she could; she is a triple threat after all.
However, my childhood hangups do not truly lie with the events of HSM1. Rather, it's better successor: High School Musical 2. I can remember the day it aired on Disney Channel, gathering with friends to watch it together after school. It was a cultural reset in the eyes of a 7 year old. The vibrancy of summer exploded on the screen; the songs were of a much better calibre, and the fresh new setting of a luxurious country club breathed fresh air into these characters and the plotline. However, where my fondness of Sharpay extended into straight up admiration, was her place within the plot and her involvement with Troy.
Through the course of the movie, we see Sharpay get Troy a job at the country club which her family are members at, an unglamorous job as a bus boy in the kitchen. When he brings Gabriella and the other Wildcats in tow, she relents past her initial irritation. Let me just pause before I recount any further: she got Troy a job. With him doing nothing, she got him a job the summer before College applications begin. Let that land. What then follows is a series of promotions and targeted exposure to Troy with considerable people that he would have otherwise never made connections with. She expertly crafted an opportunity for her father to see him golf, invited him to dinner with other U of A board members in which they discuss not only the potential of Troy attending there next fall (not a new concept, the specific dream Troy has had since he was a boy), and also an unbelievable 'in' with the RedHawks that Troy was invited to practise with, in the presence of other U of A superiors. All she wanted in return, was for him to sing with her at the talent show. That is it. Hardly an equal exchange, wouldn't you say?
Instead, what we see is the film frame Sharpay as a calculated villain, a temptress almost, seeking to drive a wedge between him and not only the Wildcats, but more specifically, Gabriella. Sharpay never once forced herself on Troy, never made any physical advances nor declarations of her love for him, if she has any to begin with; at most it was a response to Troy saying singing was clearly "her thing", to which she suggested "it could be our thing?". She just wanted to sing with him, which again would be of benefit to him, as there were more U of A officials attending the talent show which they could witness his rounded talents outside of the gym.
Past this, what I was then infuriated by as a seven year old, and still am 15 years later, is the Wildcat's response to Troy's professional progression. It is not one of support, it is one of envy and resentment. They see that Troy is bewildered at his sudden promotion out of the kitchen and onto the golf green, knowing that it is not something he put himself up for, but they still persecute him for it. And even if it was something he put himself up for- who cares? Some of the most poignant dialogue within all three movies - yes, High School Musical is capable of poignancy, I'll have you know - is the advice Coach Bolton gives to Troy when working on the truck together. With Troy expressing some guilt that he no longer works with his friends, Coach Bolton says "never be ashamed of attention as long as you've earned it" and "the team is now, but you're not going to be a Wildcat forever, everyone's got their own future... there's nothing wrong with keeping your eyes on the prize". What a piece of advice for someone who is on the verge of applying for an incredibly competitive scholarship for an incredibly competitive university. Perhaps Troy indulges a bit in his new life of luxury, but what I find ludicrous is the kind of herd mentality the Wildcats possess against Troy; as if to say 'if we can't have it, you shouldn't either'. What, do they expect Troy to extend his own unbelievable invitation to play with the Redhawks or sit at a private dinner with the Evans' to his whole team? Absolutely not.
As the movie predictably unfolds, Gabriella has an unnecessary outburst and departure from Lava Springs, washing her hands of this "game" that Sharpay is supposedly playing... Chad lays in to Troy and actually accuses him of not being true to himself, and that he should "start answering to himself" - talk about psychological manipulation. Through a now i.c.o.n.i.c solo number of Bet On It, Troy angrily and passionately struts and stomps around the golf course, with a moment of riverside reflection. Proudly proclaiming "I'm not gonna stop, not gonna stop till I get my shot. That's who I am, that is my plan, will end up on top again". Yes! He is finally accepting his deserved place within all these opportunities that lie on his doorstep, ridding himself of anyone who can't be happy for him! Oh wait- what does he do? He quits his higher paying golf job, gets a job back in the kitchen, and breaks his promise with Sharpay to sing with her. But hey! He's back with his Wildcats!
Now, my stance is a strong one, and does not mirror the narrative of a seemingly innocent children's movie, but as I grew older and my experiences of jobs and college applications and stress about my future actually became real things, watching Troy's chosen path leaves me cold. That's not to say there's nobility in his choice, choosing team over himself, but it feels as if he in fact wasted the multiple opportunities that Sharpay passed his way. As long as he was taking them graciously, and he "earned" them, as per the advice of his father, there would be absolutely no existential crisis that Troy would suffer in 'leaving his team behind' and taking those opportunities.
Alas, that's not the path he chose. But it's the path she chose. What followed with High School Musical 3 was a young woman so conscious of her future, so determined to succeed in her own career that her standout number, literally perfectly tilted I Want It All inspired me to my core. Instead of Gabriella's numbers being solely aboutTroy, either duetting with him or solo, Sharpay need not concern herself of idle high school boys, and instead her numbers were all about success and drive and drama. From Bop to the Top in HSM1 "Work our tales off every day" "I believe in dreaming, shooting for the stars" "Anything it takes to climb the ladder of success", through to HSM3 "Imagine having everything we've ever dreamed" and "I want the world nothing less". What an unsurprising role model. The proof of her being a fully dimensional character is in the pudding; she is the only character from the original movies to warrant her own spin off movie, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, which we see her make her dreams come true on Broadway. Hard to imagine she would've been able to do that if she would've denied herself opportunities for the sake of being a Wildcat, don't you think? She wanted it all, and that's what she got. Brava.
Comments
Post a Comment