The Cast Of 'High School Musical'

One of Disney's standout commercial triumphs during the 2000s, the High School Musical series not only ranked among the Disney Channel's highest-viewed offerings but also propelled almost as many adolescent pop acts into the spotlight as The Mickey Mouse Club had done during the 1990s, when Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake numbered among its alumni. Zac Efron portrayed Troy Bolton, the basketball team captain who uncovers a love for vocal performance, in the films, while Vanessa Hudgens took the role of new arrival Gabrielle Montez; Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel appeared as brother-and-sister duo Sharpay and Ryan Evans, the school's leading musical theater talents; Corbin Bleu played Chad; and Monique Coleman embodied Taylor. Early in 2006 the initial High School Musical premiered on the Disney Channel, rapidly emerging as a major success through elevated television viewership and robust album and single performance on the charts. Capitalizing on the momentum, Disney encouraged several of the fresh stars to issue solo projects, among them Vanessa Hudgens' V and Ashley Tisdale's Headstrong. The craze further generated High School Musical: The Concert. Summer 2007 brought High School Musical 2, whose motion picture and accompanying soundtrack ranked among that year's most pervasive pop culture phenomena. A third High School Musical installment and its soundtrack appeared in 2008, after which the 2009 compilation High School Musical: The Collection arrived.