Rachel Luna/FilmMagic/Getty
Whereas Paramount+ struggles to reboot a few of the best TV reveals from Nickelodeon—iCarly, The Pretty Odd Mother and father, and so on.—Disney+ has not-so-quietly discovered find out how to revive one in every of its best items of 2000’s nostalgia. Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Sequencehas perfected the artwork of the tongue-in-cheek throwback since its Season 1 launch in 2019.
And Season 3, which debuted on Wednesday, is not any completely different. Effectively, it's a little completely different. The present’s largest star, Olivia Rodrigo, has been demoted to a recurring function as she continues to tour her blockbuster album Bitterinternationally. Can Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Sequence stick with it with out her? Furthermore, ought to Olivia Rodrigo stans nonetheless watch the collection, even with out her?
The brief reply is sure. HSM:TM:TS continues to please because it heads to summer time camp this season. It has all the time been an ideal present, even with out Rodrigo within the entrance seat. In reality—and this isn’t a dig in the direction of the popstar in any respect—it may be even higher now that she has a smaller presence. Let me clarify.
Shot in mockumentary format (a masterful choice), the teenager collection follows a flock of dorky theater children who attend East Excessive, the OG Excessive Faculty Musical location. Within the first season, they placed on a college manufacturing of Excessive Faculty Musical, wherein Olivia Rodrigo’s Nini lands the a part of Gabriella. She’s stellar.
So nice, in actual fact, that she transfers to a performing arts college, distancing herself from the remainder of the present. By the collection’ second season, Rodrigo had already taken a smaller half—though “Drivers License” hadn’t hit the mainstream by the point manufacturing started. The singer launched Bitter only a week after Season 2 landed on Disney+.
Then, very quickly, the Olivia Rodrigo wave swept the nation. Followers of the album tuned in for the second season, particularly as a result of Rodrigo penned a few her personal songs for the present. However the actress wasn’t in East Excessive’s manufacturing of Magnificence and the Beast, although she’d have made the proper Belle.
One other Belle rose from the wings: Julia Lester, the collection’ spunky redhead Ashlyn, who starred as an operatic Mrs. Darbus within the first season. Since she took the helm of the second season, Lester has gone on to land her first Broadway function within the star-studded revival of Into the Woods, the place she performs Little Pink.
A part of the enchantment of Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Sequence is the abundance of younger actors who gentle up each episode with their aptitude of innocence and wit. First there was Olivia Rodrigo, then got here Julia Lester, and now, the collection is pushing the characters of Gina (Sofia Wylie) and Kourtney (Dara Reneé) to the forefront in a musical manufacturing of Frozen.
Like Stranger Issues, which simply launched the world to Joseph Quinn, Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Sequence has a knack for locating younger expertise (particularly younger girls of coloration) and providing up alternatives and nice materials for them. Certain, Rodrigo isn’t in Season 3 as a lot, nevertheless it’ll be simply as enjoyable watching her co-stars rise to fame.
Plus, it’s not like Rodrigo is lacking from the brand new season fully. She’s obtained one other arc that’s separate from the principle forged wherein she heads to Hollywood to turn out to be a star. It’s actually not as enjoyable because the summer time camp storyline, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a journey out to California to check out music making. Plus, she drafted just a few new hits for the season. They’re complete bops, after all. She all the time makes the catchiest music, even when it’s for a nerdy highschool theater TV collection on Disney+.
Anne Marie Fox/Disney
The unique Excessive Faculty Musical saga formed a brand new technology of younger celebrities, with Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tidsdale, and Corbin Bleu oscillating in star energy as every new chapter of the present was launched. The character of Excessive Faculty Musical is to, nicely, discover the very best and brightest excessive schoolers to star in musical numbers. It’s a tough activity. However the franchise excels at selling a brand new triple menace yearly.
Talking of these actors, Corbin Bleu (or, “Bluh,” as one of many children hilariously says) does make a grand re-entrance to the present as himself filming a brand new actuality present. It’s such a cheeky, meta addition to the ever-growing franchise. Additionally, each Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens revisited East Excessive prior to now few months, which has led to the hypothesis that they’re making cameos in Season 3.
In the event that they did? That will be SO. FUN. In the event that they didn’t? Who cares! We’ve obtained Corbin Bleu, a little bit of Olivia Rodrigo, and a bumbling forged of Hollywood’s greatest budding actors. The expansive Excessive Faculty Musical Universe will all the time be recent, enjoyable, and pleasant, irrespective of who's on the prime of the forged record.