Scott Schulte

Tourist Trap

Featured in Feature Salt Lake Magazine Dec 2007

East High’s the highlight of High School Musical pilgrimages Scott Schulte Ten year-old Aubrey Brasier arrived at the most inspiring spot in Utah: an ordinary locker in an empty hallway at East High School. Enraptured, she reached out to touch this totem of teeny-bop.

“It’s Troy’s locker!” she shrieked, shivering like only a besotted 14-year-old can.

And Aubrey isn’t the only one. East High School has been filled with growing numbers of tourists snapping pictures, singing songs and dancing in the commons and hallways of the Salt Lake City high school that has become part of the pop culture phenomenon known as High School Musical and High School Musical 2.

For the Brasiers, who were making their way from their Las Vegas home to Connecticut last summer to visit family, the stop at East High was more important than any historical site or anything else Utah has to offer.

“This wasn’t a question,” says Kelley Brasier, Aubrey’s mother, of the visit. “Our daughter knows all about East High School, and it’s all we have heard about since we started planning the trip.”

“I had to see where High School Musical and High School Musical 2 were made!” Aubrey says in the familiar squeal girls use when the words High School Musical are uttered. “I can’t believe I’m really here!” So the Brasiers, like thousands of other fans, danced their way through the halls of East High School.

“We get this all of the time,” says Beth Cornelius, a summer employee at East. “Between 10 and 15 groups of people coming through each day. It’s a lot of fun. And yes, those younger kids get very excited and they sing the songs and giggle and scream. Also, High School Musical has made our school clothing popular. We’ve sold hundreds of T-shirts since the first movie came out, and it’s been getting busy since the sequel came out.”

Welcome to Utah, home of Troy, Gabrielle, Sharpay and the rest of the fictitious Albuquerque Wildcats. The High School Musical franchise, which has raked in more than $1 billion, has become as much a part of Utah as the 2002 Olympics or The Donny & Marie Show.

“Whenever I travel out of state and people find out I’m from Utah, High School Musical is the first thing people bring up,” says Marshall Moore, director of Utah Film Commission. “People get genuinely excited and it’s normally, ‘Oh my gosh, my kids love that movie!’”

And while the world loves the High School Musical movies, Utah is home to more than 75 percent of the cast and crew. “Utah has a great pool of talent,” says HSM producer Don Schain. “The kids here are very talented, and they have that wholesome look that we wanted from the beginning.”

And for those youngsters, dancing and singing into the hearts of the world has been a wonderful experience.

Shawn Carter of Bountiful landed a role as a principal dancer in HSM2. In many scenes you’ll find Carter just behind the movies’ main stars, dancing, singing and having a great time.

“That’s what people see on the screen, and it’s really what was going on during the filming of the movies,” Carter says. “It was a bunch of good kids working hard and having a great time doing it.”

“This has been just a great time,” agrees McCall Clark, a 16 year-old junior at Skyline High School who portrays Emma, a member of the villainous Sharpay’s posse in HSM2. “It has shown the entire world the talent we have here and also the great scenery in Utah. I think the movie does a great job of representing the kids of Utah. We are happy people.”

But were those kids really that happy? According to Moore, it was no act. One Sunday morning, High School Musical choreographer Kenny Ortega, who was also responsible for the 2002 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies, had a group of local extras learning a new dance routine for an afternoon shoot and the group never balked.

“Kenny was really working these kids,” Moore says. “It was intense, and this wasn’t an easy routine but these kids nailed it, and the filming went off without any problems. The kids just had a great time.” Being a part of HSM2 has given Clark and Carter a sense of local pride.

“It is exciting that we have been involved in something that has put Utah in a good light all over the world,” Clark says. “It’s a Disney movie, but it is part of Utah culture.”

After the success of the original High School Musical, Utah film officials had to fight to land the sequel. Sites all over the country were vying for the right to call High School Musical 2 their own.

“The early stages of the process included scouting trips, and we found the location in St. George where the resort scenes were to be shot,” Moore says. “We went with the people from Disney to show them the site. And Kenny [Ortega] and Don [Schain] wanted to film here in Utah for the sequel, and a lot of that has to do with the talent of our dancers and our crews.”

Utah also offered a 10 percent rebate to Disney for any money spent during the filming of High School Musical 2, which certainly helped even the odds. Still, many other states, including New Mexico, which is the “real” setting for the film, offer similar fiscal incentives.

“I know those things were important, but ultimately we have East High and our kids and talent. We have those fresh, young, eager faces that High School Musical portrays,” Moore says. “There were plenty of places where Disney could have filmed this movie, but they chose us and our state.”