The Time ‘High School Musical’—and Beyoncé!—Infiltrated The Oscars

For a long time, my Oscars origin story was a bit fuzzy. It used to hurt my brain trying to recall which nominated film or performance sucked me into Hollywood’s toxic but exhilarating pageant machine. Maybe it was seeing Elliot Page nominated for his performance in Juno. (I had no idea a film with quotes plastered all over Facebook could receive such attention.) Or maybe it was one of my hometown heroes, Mo’Nique, winning Best Supporting Actress for Precious. (I could write an entire book on the wild cultural moment that was Precious. Based on the novel Push. By Sapphire!)

That said, I have a lot of scattered memories from 2006 to 2010 when I would casually catch glimpses of the awards show or Access Hollywood’s coverage of it. Still, I was never excited enough about the individual nominees to sit my jittery ass in front of my TV and watch Hollywood pat themselves on the back for three whole hours.

Then it hit me while I was reminiscing over Beyoncé’s fascinating history with the broadcast last year. It wasn’t a nominee that eventually made me want to tune into the Oscars every year. It was a musical performance with a bunch of stragglers who had no real business being at the show—minus that year’s host, Hugh Jackman.

The year was 2009. The recession was coming to an end. Slumdog Millionaire was the movie on everyone’s lips. And the “Single Ladies” dance was still ravaging the nation. The Academy Awards were still not appointment television to me yet, as my main source of entertainment was Disney Channel. However, flipping through the four channels on my TV that fateful Sunday night, I was shocked to see these two seemingly polar-opposite worlds collide.

It was the 81st Academy Awards. And I managed to catch the show right when it had started. Hugh Jackman kicked off the ceremony with an high-energy opening number featuring Anne Hathaway’s immaculate vocal cords, which is maybe why I continued to watch it. At some point in the ceremony, I heard the announcer say something about a movie-musical tribute—an odd choice given that no movie musicals (unless you count the musical sequence at the end of Slumdog Millionaire) were nominated that year. I assumed it would feature songs from Chicago, Moulin Rouge!, and Dreamgirls. I never thought such a prestigious tribute on the biggest night in Hollywood would feature my movie-musical: the Emmy-winning classic High School Musical.

A lot of stuff happens in this long-ass performance before my then-imaginary boyfriend Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens joined Jackman on the Kodak Theatre stage. The main stuff is Beyoncé, who appears in a red, glittery leotard and tailcoat to assist Jackson in a rendition of “Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails” from Top Hat.

I was a big Beyoncé fan at the time, especially during her Sasha Fierce era. However, her presence in this forum, especially post-Dreamgirls, wasn’t particularly surprising. I wasn’t as ferally excited to see her as a bunch of Disney-manufactured teeny-boppers who seemed like they had snuck in.

Regardless, Beyoncé and Jackman knocked out a number of showtunes, including “Big Spender” from Sweet Charity and “All That Jazz” from Chicago. Then comes a moment that is absolutely hysterical in retrospect: Efron and Hudgens, along with Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper, suddenly appear at the top of a giant flight of stairs, wearing tops hats and tuxedos and belting out the lyrics to “Lady Marmalade.”

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There are a million suited-up dancers onstage with them, but it took me about a milli-second to recognize Hudgens’ nasally soprano. I can’t really describe how I felt at that moment other than “seen.” The High School Musical franchise had consumed my life for the past three years, to the point where I can still recite all the lyrics to any song from any soundtrack.

The movie trilogy had also just ended the year prior. I was already so proud that High School Musical 3 had gotten bumped to a theatrical release. Seeing Efron and Hudgens perform the film’s song “Last Chance” on such a large stage proved what I had always believed: High School Musical wasn’t just some cute television movie for kids. It was a blockbuster Hollywood franchise.

Looking back at this moment, I truly can’t imagine anything this earnest ever occurring on the Oscars stage again.(Although, we did get a very real physical altercation just last year.) Over the past few years, the organizers have seemed to hate their own awards show and its history as a fun, campy event. Regardless, this memory is enough to keep me fed for Oscar ceremonies to come.

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