The ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Cast Members Reveal Which Songs They Auditioned With
Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat. In order to portray the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series characters, some of the actors sang during the audition process, just like a real high school musical audition.
The ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ cast members shared which songs they auditioned with
These theater nerds, despite a fire and some backstage drama, put on a production of High School Musical during season 1 of this mockumentary. The cast returned for season 2 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, with sights set on another legendary performance.
In order to appear in this series, some cast members sang during their audition, later revealing their song choice during an interview with Hollywire.
“I came in with a song by Jessie J just to kind of show off my voice,” Julia Lester, who portrays Ashlyn in the series, said. “And then as the audition process went on, we kind of found a more Ashlyn sort-of sounding song so I ended up singing ‘Gravity’ by Sara Bareilles.”
“I came in with my guitar and sang ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran,” Matt Cornett said, saying he originally wanted to perform a country song but decided it didn’t fit the vibe of the series and the character.
“For my audition, I started off singing Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love’ and then they wanted to hear if I could like belt-belt so then I sang ‘Almost There’ from Princess and the Frog,” Dara Reneé, who acts as Kourtney, said.
Which songs did Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo audition with?
Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo portray Ricky and Nini respectively in this series, writing several songs for their characters. In addition to their individual auditions, these performers did a chemistry test together, performing one song by Bruno Mars.
“I went in and did the sides, and sang ‘Price Tag’ by Jessie J,” Rodrigo said during an interview with Playbill. “And they had me sing a song with Joshua, to test our chemistry, and we just love each other so much. So it was electric from that first audition.”
“‘Count on Me’ [by Bruno Mars] ended up being the song that — once I got the role — they had Olivia [Rodrigo] and a bunch of girls come in and sing and read for the role of Nini,” Bassett said one of the audition songs.
Not every ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ actor sang for their audition
During the same Hollywire interview, Larry Saperstein, who portrays Big Red in the series, shared that he didn’t have to sing during his initial audition. For the final chemistry read, though, Disney discovered that this actor was a tap dancer and added that storyline to his character.
New episodes of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series debut on Disney’s streaming platform, Disney+.
