The Grease Sequel that Became High School Musical
Ah, High School Musical: I have so many fond memories of your heyday, from enjoying the first two movies and enduring the final one, to only getting a tiny featured extra role in our high school production of the musical and crying about it in the bathroom (I was the kid who also plays cello…
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No But Listen
Ah, High School Musical: I have so many fond memories of your heyday, from enjoying the first two movies and enduring the final one, to only getting a tiny featured extra role in our high school production of the musical and crying about it in the bathroom (I was the kid who also plays cello in Stick to the Status Quo, for those curious). The series is an iconic an influential part of Disney’s noughties back catalogue, leading to other attempts at similar young adult musical sensations like Camp Rock and, later, the Descendants.

But beyond it’s influence on the Disney original movie scene in the coming years, High School Musical was drawing from plenty of it’s own references. I’m certainly not the first person to point out the 2006 movie’s similarities to the 1978 adaptation of the stage musical Grease. The high school setting, the bubblegum tone, the cute central romance – why wouldn’t High School Musical have ripped off a few of those aspects? Grease, after all, remains amongst the most financially successful movie musicals of all time, and trying to drum up even a tenth of that success for a new Disney original by invoking some familiar elements wasn’t a bad idea.

But High School Musical shares more than just a few passing parallels to Grease. In reality, the movie started life as Grease 3 – and, instead of starring Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, it was intended to feature N-Sync’s Justin Timberlake, and pop legend Britney Spears.

After the wet fart of Grease 2 in the mid-eighties, the Grease franchise had been left to fester till 1999, when a script was developed for a second sequel to the movie that would appeal to contemporary audiences via some stunt casting that would have earned it an iconic place in pop culture history if it had gone ahead.

The movie was intended to follow the children of the original cast members Danny and Sandy, along with a few returning cameos from the now-adult (well, more adult than they were in their thirties when they shot the original, anyway) original cast peppered in to keep the connection to the most successful version of the story strong. The members of N-Sync were to star as the T-Boys, with Justin Timberlake as the next generation of the Zuko family, while Britney Spears was slated to star as Sandy’s daughter. Rizzo’s daughter was also written to make an appearence, and Christina Aguilera was the creator’s first choice for the role. As of October 2000, it seemed as though the only thing standing in the way of the movie’s production was the ongoing Screen Actor’s Guild strike – according to Lance Bass, a member of N-Sync, “It’s a go from the studios, and we just got to wait until the strike is over, and then we can start filming”. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, stars of the original movie, were approached to make a return.

Until production hit one minor bump: Paramount wouldn’t grant them the rights to use the characters or setting of Grease for their next sequel. Travolta reported that he was told “Paramount owns the ‘Grease’ name and they’re not doing that”. Whether it was due to fear of a lack of interest from a modern audience or of a re-run of the disaster of Grease 2, the project was shelved.

Well, until an Even Stevens episode came along that changed everything. In October 2002, the Even Stevens episode Influenza was broadcast, the show’s first musical episode and a huge swing for the Disney channel’s original content at the time – the episode proved to be a huge success, and Disney drafted in writer Sean McNamara to write another musical outing for the other Disney show That’s So Raven. This episode consolidated the popularity of the concept, and the search was on for a way to capitalize on the teen musical trend on a bigger scale.

And, so, the script for Grease 3 was dusted off. Of course, all direct references to the original movies were removed, and Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears were replaced in star-making roles for Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. With McNamara’s consultation, Hocus Pocus director Kenny Ortega took on the task of turning the movie into the High School Musical we know and have mixed feelings about today.

Like I said, there are plenty of similarities stylistically and thematically to the original Grease – while it’s far gentler and more clean-cut than Grease, High School Musical has a distinct costuming style (to say nothing of all the iconic red carpet looks Ashley Tisdale turned during the press tours for these movies) and occasionally even musical stings that sound like they could come right out of Grease. I’d recommend Nick DiRamio’s retrospective on the series – he astutely points out some very obvious points of reference that clearly came from the first version of the script as Grease 3.

Would you have watched the Britney/Justin/N-Sync version of Grease 3? Or are you happier with the High School musical we got in 2006? Do you have fond memories of buying pencilcases with Troy Bolton’s face on them? Let me know in the comments!

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By Lou MacGregor

(header image via IMDB)