Review of High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) by Chads. — 27 Oct 2008

The late Miles Davis once said on "The Arsenio Hall Show" that he hears music at basketball games. The renowned trumpeter wasn't referring to the Top 40 ilk that pumps out of arena loudspeakers; the legendary musician, whose "Bitches Brew" signaled the genesis of fusion, was talking about the squeaks that a shoe produces on the hardwood floor.

In "High School Musical 3: Senior Year", Troy Bolton(Zac Efron) "can't stop the music;" he breaks into song even while the big dog on campus leads his team to victory. Is there a better way to portray a closeted athlete? The basketball court, or the stage: What is Troy's "Xanadu"? "A boy.

An honest-to-God straight boy," that's how a counselor describes one of the music campers in Todd Graff's "Camp"; the boy who auditions with The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" on his guitar.

Needless to say, it turns out that the seemingly straight boy is gay too, just like all the other male Stephen Soundheim worshippers. The position that "Camp" undertook, preserves the stereotype about the synonymy of Broadway music and gay men.

Because "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" bears the Disney insignia, a chaste kiss is the only action that Troy gets out of Gabriella Montez(Vanessa Hudgens), but the absence of physical love doesn't account for the musical number("Scream") where Troy goes on a rampage in the empty school.

Just for the record: boys shout, girls scream. When Jonah Hill screams(as in scream like a little girl) after happening upon a corpse in Steve Pink's "Accepted", he asks the other guys to keep his feminine flare-up, a secret.

Is it just a desire to sing and dance that's eating away at Troy? When he gets off the phone with Gabriella(who's away at an early-acceptance program at Stanford), look closely at how Troy positions himself on the bed in the vicinity of his teammate(when the cat's away, the mice will play).

The scenario comes scarily close to what goes down in Todd Solondz's "Storytelling" between Scooby(Mark Webber) and his "special" friend. "Falling Slowly", the achingly gorgeous ballad that Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova perform in John Carney's "Once", makes you believe that these two strangers are falling in love, because the music is real.

The songs aren't show tunes; they're written for real life(for digital video). "Once" has the distinction of being the first truly heterosexual musical. The little indie did something interesting to the musical genre.

Since the folk-based music did such a superior job of conveying tenderness and devotion than its imitative brethren; the love ballad, steeped in the musical theater tradition, has the effect of compromising the validity of a couples' love, with Troy and Gabriella's performance of "Can I Have This Dance?" being just one example, because their sentiments are being transmitted through a musical vein that's largely believed to be appreciated largely by women and gay males.