is High School Musical (2006) anticapitalist?
surprise: the movie is a metaphor for electoral politics!
Becoming a local or national elected official has historically been reserved for white, wealthy, men. Over the past few years, with the advent of social media and the rise to stardom of AOC, more and more “regular” people are running for office with grassroots support behind them. Take Marcela Mitaynes in Brooklyn, for example, who beat out a 26-year incumbent in the recent primary in New York City. How exactly does someone from outside the establishment get elected and shake up the system? Well, High School Musical (2006) is the perfect case study of how organizing has the power to triumph over tradition, wealth, and capitalism!
When new girl Gabriella Montez shows up in Troy Bolton’s orbit during winter vacation, it’s clear that she is going to shake up the world as he knows it. The first song in the movie, “Start of Something New” foreshadows the changes that Troy and Gabriella will bring to East High (electoral politics) later in the film. Gabriella and Troy prophesy together in New Year’s Eve karaoke:
“Living in my own world /Didn’t understand /That anything can happen / If you take a chance.
I never believed in / What I couldn’t see /I never opened my heart (Oh) / To all the possibilities.
I know that something has changed / Never felt this way / and right here tonight / This could be the start of something new.”
These opening lines in the first song of the film show that together, Troy and Gabriella are embarking on creating something completely new, possibly even radical. They don’t know it yet, but the the “something new” they’re anticipating is a grassroots campaign.
Once the school year resumes at East High and it is revealed that Gabriella is a new student there, she immediately begins challenging what Troy thought he knew about the political structure of East High. While Gabriella looks over all the school’s extracurricular offerings, Wealthy Theatre Kid Sharpay Evans saunters up and makes it clear to Gabriella that there’s no point in her auditioning for the school musical, as the lead roles always go to Sharpay and her brother Ryan. In this moment, the metaphor crystallizes: the casting of the school musical is a metaphor for a local election. Sharpay and Ryan represent a political dynasty/legacy, trained in the establishment and with the resources to secure their spot year after year. Gabriella recognizes that Sharpay’s reign is unearned, and decides to challenge the incumbent.
The difference between the Evans and Montez campaign strategies is summed up in the first round of auditions for the musical. For pairs auditions, they both sing the song “What I’ve Been Looking For.” Ryan and Sharpay go first, performing a clean, up-tempo, choreographed duet. It is impressive and shiny, yet soulless. When they finish their performance, there’s a Jeb Bush “please clap” moment while Ryan and Sharpay demand applause from the student body/audience (the voters). On the other hand, Troy and Gabriella sing the song at the slower tempo in which it was meant to be sung. Though their performance is less polished, it is full of genuine emotion and connection to the cause. They may not have the support of a Super PAC behind them to create glossy ads, but their platform is so pure that even Mrs. Darbus, the grumpy theatre teacher, is affected. She had previously disqualified them for being late to the audition, but the purity of their campaign overcomes the rigid structures that typically keep the process insular and exclusive. Ryan and Sharpay (Joe Kennedy) may have the upper hand, but Troy and Gabriella (Ed Markey) have overcome this first obstacle by connecting to the people. They have made it onto the ticket and next stop is callbacks for the musical, AKA the primary election.
Following this audition, Sharpay spirals, demonstrating how removed she is from her supposed constituents, and how committed she is to doing anything to maintain her power. As other students begin to get inspired by Troy and Gabriela challenging the system, the song “Stick to the Status Quo” breaks out in the cafeteria during lunch. This song is pretty straight forward; a nerd reveals that she loves to dance, a basketball player reveals that he loves to bake, etc. Each of these revelations is met with the refrain, “No no no, stick to the stuff you know. / It is better by far to keep things as they are / Don’t mess with the flow, no no. / Stick to the status quo.” In this song we see the tension between the impending revolution and the hold that the longstanding system has over the community. Sharpay, the one who has the most to lose if this revolution occurs, makes her stance clear during the bridge of the song:
“This is not what I want
This is not what I planned
And I just gotta say
I do not understand
Something is really wrong
And we’ve got to get this back where they belong”
A rigid, hierarchical system where the wealthy and white are the elected leaders is beneficial to Sharpay, and she vows to ensure that no one challenges the current system. She wields her power as a political dynasty against the Montez campaign, sabotaging their chances by convincing Mrs. Darbus to change the time of callbacks to conflict with Gabriella’s Scholastic Decathlon and Troy’s Basketball Game. This tactic is not dissimilar to widespread voter suppression and disenfranchisement, which work to keep those who have always had power in power.
The Evans campaign, however, underestimates the power of grassroots organizing. Troy and Gabriella have been rehearsing consistently and diligently for the callbacks, putting their heart and soul into their platform. Initially, Gabriella’s Scholastic Club Friends and Troy’s Basketball Teammates try to keep the pair from auditioning for the musical, withdrawing their support. But when both groups realize how committed Troy and Gabriella are to the cause, they join forces and endorse the pair. They all begin organizing in earnest to get Troy and Gabriella to callbacks by planning disruptions for both the Scholastic Decathlon and the Basketball Game, allowing everyone to flood into the auditorium in time for the callback (election). A huge portion of the student body gets involved to support Troy and Gabriella, and though they may not have usually cared about the musical, they now see that Sharpay and Ryan do not always have to get the lead roles. The rise of the Montez Campaign over the Evans Administration is a beautiful demonstration of what can happen when the people unite behind candidates and causes that actually speak to them. Money, prestige, and legacy carry a lot of weight, but a new, organized, progressive wave has the power to upend the status quo.
