If you thought High School Musical: The Musical: The Series — where a group of kids at the “real life” East High put on a production of High School Musical — was super meta in its first season, the first trailer for the second season is already breaking my mind.
Not only are the kids going to put on a production of Beauty and the Beast (which further cements the idea that Disney as a corporation and studio exists in this world) — they are also competing for something called the Alan Menken Award, a fictional prize for high school theater named after composer Alan Menken (the dude behind many popular Disney scores including Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, which rival high school North High, yet another school featured in the original High School Musical movie trilogy, is putting on).
It gets even more meta. It appears that Nini (Olivia Rodrigo), who was offered a position at a prestigious performing arts school, has taken that opportunity, leaving her friends — and her boyfriend Ricky (Joshua Bassett) behind at East High. While they swear this long distance thing can work out, a scheming blonde girl is making moves on Ricky. Is this literally Rodrigo’s “ Driver’s License” (supposedly about Joshua Bassett hooking up with a “blonde girl” and breaking things off) to life?!
My head is spinning.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series debuted with Disney Plus’ launch in November 2019. It returns for weekly episodes on Disney Plus on May 14.
