theTHEATREaddict here with some TV related scoop.
Gossip, rivalry, young Hollywood, jealousy, short skirts, tension, love lost…no this is not something by way of Perez Hilton but the New York Times!
The NYT published a great story this weekend on the start of rehearsals for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2. Titled “Back To School” reporter Jacques Steinberg reveals some details about the upcoming film and perhaps some of the cracks beginning to form. Gossip aside it is a fascinating insight into the phenomenon known as HSM. From the story, the crystallization of the idea:
“It’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ meets ‘Grease’ ” is how Bill Borden, the movie’s executive producer, pitched the original idea to Gary Marsh, a senior Disney Channel executive who, as luck would have it, was searching for just such a project.
“Instead of warring families,” Mr. Marsh, the president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, recalled Mr. Borden saying, “you have warring social factions. I got it immediately.”
It always goes back to the classics.
Zac Efron confirms that he will sing all the vocals, but with technology he states, “Once it’s edited, the people in this cast sound like Mariah Carey. There’s skill involved,” he allowed, though “with computers these days, you never know what you’re hearing.” On the issue of friendly rivalry between the cast, this smack down from the star of the upcoming Hairspray film, “A lot of them are doing teen music things, and tours, various TV deals and other Disney TV movies and Disney albums. That’s the last thing I want to be doing at the moment. I’m setting my sights a little bit higher,” he added. “I don’t have an album coming out.” Looks like this really is the start of something new. 
