What In Tarnation?!?!? In the Classroom

High School Musical 2 has taken over. Don’t believe me? Try the most watched show in cable-TV history or the second best album debut this summer. Nothing to shake a stick at. Everywhere I go at school, I can’t seem to get away from Zac Efron’s mug. It is plastered all over lunch boxes, back packs and messenger bags, notebooks, shirts, there seems to be an endless array of Zac Efron merchandise. I have mentioned here before that the original High School Musical is one of my guilty pleasures. So how does this second act stack up to the original?

Let’s take a look a HSM2 song by song. As any musical aficionado worth their salt know, the opening number is vital to the whole show. Most times it is upbeat and introduces the audience to the heroes of the show. The first song of HSM2 fills that role very well. What Time is It? sets the whole plot into motion. The gang is waiting for the final second of the school year to tick off the clock. The bell finally rings and school is out for the summer. The whole gang sings about their plans for summer break:

What time is it?
The time of our lives
Anticipation
What time is it?
Summertime
School’s out, scream and shout!

[Troy and Gabriella]
No more wakin’ up at 6 am
‘Cause now our time is all our own

[Sharpay and Ryan]
Enough already, we’re waiting come on let’s go

It turns out the HMS gang isn’t quite as carefree as the opening song would have us believe. They all want or need money. Troy (Zac) wants money for college, while others want money for a car. Thankfully Troy suddenly gets a call offering him a job at a nearby resort. He manages to get all of his Wildcat buddies a job too. Little does he know that the resort is owned by Sharpy and Ryan’s parents. Troy job offer was offered as a ploy of Sharpy’s to get Troy to pay more attention to her. This is where we enter the portion of the musical that closely resembles the summer job at the resort episodes from Saved by the Bell (Troy and Gabriella = Zack and Kelly).

We jumped forward to Sharpay’s grand entrance at the resort. During her song, Fabulous, the song writers let the audience know that they are going to completely ignore any character development that occurred at the end of High School Musical and reset the character back to her self-centered ways. Maybe even more so that in the first musical.

Sharpay:

I want fabulous,
That is my simple request,
All things fabulous,
Bigger and better and best,
I need something inspiring to help me get along,
I need a little fabulous is that so wrong?

See has of course set her eye on Troy because he is so fabulous. So she sets her plan into motion to woo Troy by offering him a chance to get a scholarship for college. Much to Sharpay’s dismay, the whole Wildcat crew including Troy’s beloved are now working at the resort.

The crew can’t wait to start their jobs until they discover that their new boss is a bit of a kill-joy at Sharpay’s request. Everyone starts whining about how bad their job is in Work This Out, except for Troy who actually has a good attitude about the whole thing.

Troy:
We’ve got to work, work
to work this out
We’ll make things right,
the sun will shine
If we work, work
there’ll be no doubt
We can still save the summer
If we work this out!

Chad:
(Dude, what have you gotten us into?)

Troy:
(Come on, we can totally turn this thing around)

This will be one of the last moments that Troy isn’t whining about something for the duration of the movie. My major concern during this song was that the boss was going to walk back into the kitchen while they are banging on all the pots and pans. I’m sure they wouldn’t last very long with that kind of behavior.

We find out about the resort’s summer talent show. In a reversal of roles from the first movie, Gabriella urges Troy to sing with her in the contest. Our spunky song writer has even worked up a little diddy, You Are the Music in Me, for our love birds, they even memorize the song within seconds of seeing the sheet music.

You know the words
“Once Upon A Time”
Make you listen?
There’s a reason.
When you dream there’s a chance you’ll find
A little laughter
or happy ever after
yeah harmony to the melody
It’s echoing inside my head
A single voice (Single voice)
Above the noise
And like a common thread
Hmm, you’re pulling me
When I hear my favorite song
I know that we belong
Oh, you are the music in me
Yeah it’s living in all of us
And it’s brought us here because
Because you are the music in me

We then speed off to the sports themed number I Don’t Dance. This song gives some of the second string players a chance to shine and gives Ryan some much needed character development. He begins to show that is more that Sharpay’s lap dog. Of course there are people who are reading into the lyrics of this song, which I think is really unwarranted.

(Ryan) Hey,batter,batter, hey battter,batter swing.

(Chad) I’ve go to just do my thing.

(Ryan)Hey,batter,batter, hey batter,batter swing.

I’III show you that it’s one and the same:

Baseball,dancing,same game.

It’s easy:

Step up to the plate, start swingin’.

Finally, Gabby (as I like to call her) finally wises up and realizes that Troy is an idot and has fallen for Sharpay’s games and decides to get the heck out of resort. The result is my favorite song of the show, Gotta Go My Own Way because I think is was kinda gutsy to do a break-up song in the show for tweens. I also enjoy that one of Troy’s responses to Gabby’s points is a selfish, “What am I supposed to do?”

Troy, heartbroken and not completely understanding what it is he did gets the cheesiest song of HSM 1 or 2, Bet on It (though others are calling it a show stopper). Troy prances around the golf course mulling over what he should do. At one point, he jumps into a sand trap, angrily picks up two handfuls of sand and throws it down with great gusto. Now I like part of Troy’s conclusion, that he needs to grow up and do the right thing but he also decides to follow his heart which can lead a person astray in my experience.

I’m not gonna stop, that’s who I am
(Who I am)
I’ll give it all I got, that is my plan
(That’s my plan)
Will I find what I lost?
You know you can
(You know you can)
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on it, bet on it
Bet on me

Talent show time and again Troy learns a new song in record time. This time it is the rousing Everyday. Nice song but I am still a bit baffled about what faith they are keeping while they are young or what they are celebrating.

[Troy]
Everyday
of our lives,

[Gabriella]
wanna find you there, wanna hold on tight

[Troy]
Gonna run

[Troy and Gabriella]
While we’re young
and keep the faith

[Troy]
Everyday

[Troy and Gabriella]
From right now,
gonna use our voices and scream out loud

[Gabriella]
Take my hand;

[Troy]
together we
will celebrate,

[Gabriella]
celebrate.

Finally everything turns out the way it should be and everyone joins together yet again to celebrate summer vacation with All for One.

Everybody all for one,
A real summer has just begun!
Let’s rock and roll and just let go,
feel the rhythm of the drums
We’re gonna have fun in the sun
Now that all the hard work, work is done!
Everybody, one for all and all for one!
All for one, one!

There is another song that is on the soundtrack and it sounds like it was wise to drop the song from the movie.

HSM2 did everything that HSM1 did so in my book it is yet another guilty pleasure and another

Class dismissed!