High School Musical 3: Senior YearThose musically gifted High School kids are about to graduate. Take a look at the 20 facts you most probably didn't know about this record breaking franchise...







 

• High School Musical was the most successful premiere ever on the Disney Channel with an audience of 7.7 million hyperventilating American teens.

• Zac Efron, who plays basketball star Troy in HSM, claims he was teased at school for being short (he is now 5ft 8ins) and having a gap in his teeth.

• The soundtrack of High School Musical sold just over 7,000 copies in its first week but rose to be number one on the Billboard chart – twice.

• Choreographer Kenny Ortega worked with Madonna on her Material Girl video and with Michael Jackson on his Dangerous World Tour in 1992.

• HSM: The Concert tour of the USA, Canada and Latin America featured all the original members…except for Efron who was shooting the movie Hairspray!

• Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay Evans) played Kim, a “dorky girl”, in the cult movie Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

• In the movie High School Musical: Senior Year the story follows the seniors as they make their way in the world after leaving East High.

• Vanessa Hudgens, who plays maths whiz Gabriella Montez, starred in the controversial teen drama Thirteen which dealt with underage sex and drugs.

• HSM got into the Guinness Book of Records for “most hits from a soundtrack in the American charts simultaneously.”

• Hudgens starred as Tintin, the adolescent daughter of the caretaker of Tracy Island, in the big screen version of Thunderbirds.

• The DVD High School Musical: Encore Edition scored a sales record when 1.2m copies were sold in the first six days of release.

• High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the first release in British cinemas of any of the HSM films – the others came out on DVD or on TV.

• HSM choreographer Kenny Ortega first achieved fame for co-ordinating the moves in the 1987 classic movie Dirty Dancin’.

• The grandfather of Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay Evans) is famous for inventing the popular American “Ginsu” kitchen knife.

• World Junior Bronze medal figure skater Jordan Brauninger played the role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical: The Ice Tour.

• The poor ratings of the reality show spin-off High School Musical: Get In The Picture have left a question mark over its future.

• A Bollywood version of High School Musical is in production.

• A YouTube clip featured a Chihuahua allegedly singing one of the HSM songs.

• Disney Channel Worldwide president Gary Marsh says HSM means “being able to declare who you are is part of what it means to be a human being.”

• HSM newcomer Jemma McKenzie-Brown hails from Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire.