High School Musical: Get in the Picture – Special Sneak Preview!

High School Musical 3 hits theatres this fall and its two predecessors continue to smash records with every repeat airing, so it seems only natural that ABC (owned by Disney – get it?!) would make a reality show about it. Hey, Denise Richards, George Foreman, and even Corey Haim and Corey Feldman have reality shows! Yet with similar reality fare like MTV’s Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods and last year’s Grease: You’re the One That I Want from NBC not quite becoming the hits their creators hoped they’d be, can this be the genre’s breakthrough?

Speaking of breakthroughs, that seems to be the theme on the ABC website, where they promise “breakthroughs, breakdowns, and breakouts!” Clearly, the show is going the American Idol route, starting this Sunday with an East Coast audition round followed by an East Coast semi-final round the following night. The next week the West Coast gets it, and we can be sure that along the way we will see tears, cheers, and plenty of comfort from Ryan Seacrest’s stand-in, Nick Lachey. Not a bad choice, considering most of these shows don’t aim much higher than his brother, Drew, or other former Dancing With the Stars cast-offs.

Will we see the dreams of these auditioners smashed like we do on Idol, or is family-friendly ABC going to spare making fun of its less-than-stellar hopefuls? That remains to be seen, but with 14 repetitive, monotonous featurettes on the website with titles like “Are You Ready?,” “The Search Is On!,” “Follow the Journey!,” “The Dream Becomes Reality,” “Share in the Breakthroughs,” and “Someone’s Life Will Change!,” I have a feeling that this will certainly be American Idol-lite. Oh, and the previews go on to call HSM “the biggest global sensation of the decade.” Just thought I’d leave that out there. Discuss.

The family vibe seems to be a strong advertising theme, with a father proudly proclaiming that he is now inspired by his kid, lots of hugging moms and kids gracing the screen, and the ABC announcer insisting that the family should watch this together.

Producers have been pretty tight-lipped as to what exactly will take place throughout the audition process, leaving me to assume that ABC picked up the show based on the idea rather than its execution, but here’s what we do know: 12 finalists will make the cut and come to California where then, I assume, America or the judges will eliminate the contestants one by one.

The winner not only gets to shoot a music video to be played at the end of HSM 3, they also get an exclusive contract with Walt Disney Records to release the song along with one other single. Geesh, they couldn’t even give them a full record deal?

I’m still fuzzy on the exact details of the premise, however; I originally assumed they’d be looking for people to take over the different characters from the movies, maybe for a stage production or the like, but instead they seem to just be looking for a High School Musical type of kid actor. The next Hannah Montana or Zoey 101 or something. I assume this would level the playing field and make the search more open to casting kids of different ages, ethnicities, and types, but wouldn’t it be fun to just recast the whole thing? Who needs Vanessa Hudgens anyway?

As for the aforementioned HSM stars, ABC promises that they will pop in and out to help with challenges and eliminations throughout the show’s run, but the main decisions will be made by “The Faculty.” No, not the cast from that silly ‘90s movie with Josh Hartnett and Elijah Woods – a group of theatre professionals who will go around the globe (or at least the coasts) scouting out the youngsters.

There are six faculty members, each with their own specific talent. Tiana Brown is a former Christina Aguilera back-up dancer who will judge the kids’ movement, not to be confused with renowned dancer Regina Williams, whose focus is more on choreography. Jennifer Malenke and Chris Prinzo are both die-hard musical theatre buffs, with Chris’s focus more on voice and Jennifer’s on musical direction and piano. Rob Adler, a Los Angeles-based teacher and actor, has a background in Shakespeare and classical acting, while the final Faculty member, Montre Burton, has most of his credits hailing from commercials and television. Together, these six form “The Faculty.”

As far as the contestants go, the website doesn’t leave many clues, but two featurettes focus on two male youngsters, who may go on to be the show’s stars or simply be red herrings. Stan from California is the “jock who is ready to rock,” and is seen trying to woo a sassy girl who shoots him down. Anthony, a slightly overweight Latino from Massachusetts, is advertised as the class clown and seen crying with his mama and leading a group number. The only other clues to possible long-term contestants are a pig-tailed blonde girl who gives typical reality show smack talk (“I’m not here to make friends” and “go big or go home”), a heavy boy who cries a lot and will surely pull on our sympathy vote strings, and said sassy girl who shoots down Stan.

ABC’s final “behind-the-scenes” section features pictures of Lachey and the massive crowd of eager auditioners and anxious parents in Long Beach, where the caption claims that temperatures hit the double-digits (I live near there, and looking at the dates of the auditions, I can vouch that ABC is not exaggerating here!).

So what’s in store for us? All I can hope for is some tween drama that’ll put Miley Cyrus to shame and a David Archuleta or two to inspire me (and make me feel old). And some overbearing stage moms and dads couldn’t hurt. As long as the show doesn’t veer too far into 7th Heaven territory, I think this could be the perfect summer guilty pleasure – like a glass of lemonade with some cheap vodka in it – until the cold winter brings us our American Idol glass of 1787 Chateau d'Yquem. Hey, it’s either this or ‘Til Death reruns, so “Get’cha Head in the Game” this Sunday – and check back Monday for a full recap of everything Zac-tastic!

John Filizzola currently lives in Los Angeles, where he spends way too much time watching, thinking about, and (apparently) writing about reality television. He can be reached at johnnyf82@hotmail.com.

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