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The High School Musical TV Show Is Returning to a Very Familiar Location

23/10/2019 - 09:50 PM

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2, Monique Coleman, Corbin Bleu, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, (performing 'What Time Is It'), 2007. photo: Fred Hayes /  Disney Channel / Courtesy: Everett Collection

The new High School Musical TV series [1] is, within the fictional universe, set at the real-life East High School — but did you know that's where the series was filmed too? Like the original High School Musical [2] movies, High School Musical [3]: The Musical: The Series filmed at East High School, a real-life high school in Utah. That's just one of many nostalgia trips we can expect in the new musical TV series on Disney+ [4].

While the original trilogy of High School Musical films were set in Albuquerque but filmed in Salt Lake City, the new TV series is both filmed and set in Utah. The real-life East High School, part of the Salt Lake City School District, was confirmed in a Salt Lake Tribune article to be one of the major filming locations for the series [5]. "They're hoping to use some of the original locations because they're so well-loved," Utah Film Commission director Virginia Pearce told the paper.

The school has had to bounce back from a major setback in recent years, though. In July 2017, Seventeen reported that flash floods in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area had severely damaged the school [6]. The damage was estimated to be between $2 million and $3 million at the time. However, the school has clearly recovered well, as all your favourite High School Musical locations are alive and well in the new series. Although you won't be seeing any of the original characters [7] in the new show, it will definitely be revisiting iconic spots like the auditorium, the basketball court, and the cafeteria.

It's not just the setting that's inspiring the new TV series, though. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is a fictional mockumentary [8] about a real-life production of High School Musical at East High — but that's not entirely made-up. While the characters in the show are, of course, fictional and created by the writers, there really was an East High production [9] of the licenced stage version of High School Musical in 2007! That production is the basis for the tongue-in-cheek, heavily meta show, which is set to debut on Disney+ on Nov. 12 after a sneak peek on Nov. 8 [10] on ABC, Freeform, and Disney Channel.


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