When asked about the most important Marxist classics, there are a couple of works that come to mind. The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, “Reform or Revolution”, and The State and Revolution. This article makes the case that this list should be expanded by one: High School Musical 2.
The classic film deals with labor alienation, sham bourgeois democracy and perhaps most importantly, how workers suffer greatly under capitalism but can survive when we realize that “We’re all in this Together.”
High School Musical 2 starts in a classroom as the high school kids count down the seconds to summer vacation. When the bell finally rings, the students all break out into a happy, upbeat song (“What time is it”). But that enthusiasm is immediately contrasted with the harsh demands of capitalism.
Our main leads are all juniors in high school, meaning they have to think about how they will sell their labor in the near future. The excitement from earlier is tempered by discussions about where they want to work for the summer and anxieties about not finding a job.
The only two characters immune from this pressure are Sharpay and Ryan as their father owns a country club called Lava Springs. Due to their inherited position in the bourgeoisie, they have no material worries and plan to spend their summer relaxing at the country club. Throughout the film, Sharpay in particular expects to be at the top of the social hierarchy in all situations, and because of her class position, most characters are forced to comply. For instance, when she arrives at the club, she loudly demands to the manager (Fulton)that her car be parked in the shade and Fulton says he will comply with the request even if “we need to plant a tree.”
We then cut to Troy, played by Comrade Zac Efron, who is offered a job at the club by Fulton. Troy, being a good comrade to his fellow workers, manages to get his girlfriend (Gabriella) and the rest of his friends hired as well.
The central struggle of the film is between these two groups, between the owners and the workers. It is impossible for one to witness this struggle and not see it as reminiscent of the wider struggle in society, the great struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat.
At Lava Springs, Sharpay flaunts her material wealth and gleefully orders her workers to serve her (“Fabulous”). She sings a song about being “fabulous” and her definition of “fabulousness” is inherently tied to having material wealth (i.e. being a member of the bourgeoisie).
The capitalist class in general defines moral people as those who have wealth . But since the bourgeoisie inherently are the only ones who can access said wealth, they are the only ones that get to be moral citizens.
Similarly, Sharpay’s definition of fabulousness is so hyper-specific, only she and other members of the capitalist class can fit into it. Thus, fabulousness is used by Sharpay as an idealogical battering ram against class consciousness, creating a false hierarchy to once again place herself on top.
Troy and friends arrive at the club to start work. Sharpay is very excited to see Troy, who she wishes to romantically pursue, but is enraged when seeing that Gabriella and the rest of Troy’s friend group have also been hired. She is particularly infuriated to see Gabriella, who on top of being a romantic rival, defied her in the last movie. Her intense hatred of Gabriella directly mirrors the hatred the bourgeoisie have for the revolutionaries that defy them, even if they aren’t an immediate threat.
While Sharpay cannot fire the group immediately, she soon finds a better strategy, using the exploitation inherent in capitalism to her advantage. She thus orders her petty bourgeoisie puppet Fulton to give the group the most tedious jobs possible.
Thus, as soon as the groups starts working, they immediately find themselves face to face with labor alienation. They find that instead of living their lives to the fullest extent this summer, they will be forced to perform tedious tasks that they have no personal investment in. They begin to despair.
When Gabriella complains to the boss, he tells her the fundamental lie of capitalism: “sometimes, we have to perform tasks, however unpleasant, that are necessary for that all-too-important paycheck to land in our all-too-empty pockets.” However, it’s notable that neither Ryan or Sharpay have to perform “unpleasant” tasks. It’s only the duty of the workers to slave away every day just to survive.
Every working-class person understands exactly what Troy and friends feel at this moment. All of us remember how we felt on our first day of work, when we understood for the first time that we would not do great things but instead would be working meaningless jobs for the rest of our mediocre lives. That our destiny was to be mere cogs in the capitalist machine.
But Troy, the leader of the group, has a solution. They can survive this job if they stand together like they always have (“Work this out”). In this way, Troy understands that the only way for the working class to survive capitalism is through class solidarity.
This solidarity is a major threat to both Sharpay’s personal plans for Troy and the entire system she represents. So she uses a tried-and-true bourgeois strategy to fight class solidarity.
Troy, as a upcoming high school senior, begins to worry about affording college. He like most working class students, is suddenly faced with the reality that he will spend the rest of his life in debt. Sharpay steps into the role of bourgeoisie savior and offers Troy a better job at the club. This new job is at the golf course, where he will be paid better and won’t have to work as hard.
Throughout history, when capitalism has been in crisis in imperialist countries, the ruling class will bribe part of the proletariat into adopting a more conservative political consciousness. We call this group of workers “the middle class.”
For example, after the Russian Revolution, Wilson was terrified that working class whites and working class black people would both see inspiration in the Revolution. So he pioneered a program to increase home ownership in white communities in order to bribe white workers and to drive a material wedge in the proletariat. This proved to be extremely successful.
In the case of the film, as soon as Troy gets a better job working at the golf course, he immediately adopts a much more conservative political consciousness. His newfound position makes him falsely believe, like so many other middle-class people before him, that his interests lie with the bourgeoisie (in this case represented by Sharpay) instead of his fellow workers. He becomes alienated from his former friends and begins to get much closer to Sharpay. He even agrees to perform with her at the club’s upcoming Midsummer night Talent Show.
Troy’s actions cause tension between him and his fellow workers, the latter correctly seeing that he is betraying the class by working with their exploiter. Even Gabriella breaks up with Troy for his recent behavior, not wanting to date a class traitor (“Gotta go my own way”).
However, there is one thing that Sharpay did not think of that gives a critical victory to the workers. That is the defection of her brother Ryan.
Ryan is this film’s Friedrich Engels, a bourgeoisie class traitor who fights for the proletariat instead. Once he sees his sister for who she is, he seeks out Troy’s former friends and tries to convince them to make their own team in the talent show to challenge Sharpay (“I don’t dance”). Though they initially distrust Ryan because of his class position, they eventually agree.
The name of the team they form? The Wildcats.
It is also impossible not to notice the intense queer subtext between Chad (Troy’s best friend) and Ryan.
This victory is short-lived however. As soon as Sharpay finds out about the Wildcat plan, she orders Fulton to ban them from the talent show. The Wildcats have no means of fighting back.
This is reminiscent of sham bourgeoisie democracy and how the capitalists will always change the rules of the game if they are ever threatened. Rosa Luxemburg famously made this observation in “Reform or Revolution” where she argued that capitalist “democracy” serves only the bourgeoisie. We see that time and time again, whenever a Left movement gains too much power, the capitalists abandon all pretense of democracy to fight it.
It is at this point, the workers seem to have lost everything. The owners have seemingly won.
However, when Troy comes to work the next day, he is horrified to learn what Sharpay has done to his fellow workers. He soul searches in an intense solo on the golf course (“Bet on It”). He finally realizes how Sharpay has been bribing him with slightly better work conditions and that his true interest lie with his former comrades. He angrily confronts Sharpay and informs her that he will not perform with her.
It is in this moment Troy finally realizes the truth of capitalism: the working class and the employer class have nothing in common.
Troy approaches Sharpay and agrees to sing with her on one condition: the wildcats are also allowed to perform. Sharpay reluctantly agrees.
However, when the time comes for her to perform, a different song comes on and Sharpay realizes that she has been tricked. Ryan , our bourgeoisie class traitor, switches the song before the performance begins to a song only Troy and Gabriella know. Gabriella surprises Troy and the two sing a duet together and make up.
In this way, Troy and Gabriella use the bourgeois stage to expose the capitalist class itself. Humbled, Sharpay gives the prize to her brother and makes up with the rest of her classmates. The entire cast then sings a song together by the pool (“All for one”).
It is tempting to view this ending as a happy one and as a victory for the workers. After all, Troy and Gabriella are back together, Sharpay has learned her lesson, and there is a massive party complete with a happy dance number. But this is exactly the problem.
There is a tendency amongst progressives and liberals that claims the bourgeoisie just need to learn their lesson, as Sharpay does in the film, and “pay their fair share.” As Marxists, we must reject this analysis entirely. Our grievance with the bourgeoisie is not their supposed moral failings, but their existence as a class in the first place. We don’t want the bourgeoisie to become better people, we want to abolish their class entirely.
In the last film, Sharpay went through the exact same arc (trying to diminish those with lesser social standing than her and eventually learning her lesson in the end). This lesson did not stop her from acting the way she does in this film and as a matter of fact, in the next movie she acts in the exact same way.
Insofar as Sharpay is a member of the bourgeoisie, she will always be the enemy of her working class classmates, which is made extremely clear with how she acts. It thus doesn’t matter how many times she learns her lesson, her material interests are always going to be in direct opposition to the rest of society insofar as capitalism exists. As Marxists, we must understand that no matter how enlightened and charitable a capitalist professes to be, they will always be our enemy.
This is the lesson Troy and his comrades fail to learn over and over again, to their detriment. Though they gain short term victories (in the context of this film, having an all-staff pool party), they always stop short of expropriating Sharpay.
But this status quo cannot last forever. What we find in this film is that revolutionary working class organization (showcased by the Wildcats) has only grown more sophisticated and has proved itself capable of challenging capitalists. A proletarian revolution is inevitable.
They already know that “We’re all in this Together.” It’s only a matter of time before that consciousness becomes “Workers of All Nations Unite!”
