Fabulous: A Closer Look at Sharpay Evans

Posted by Maggie August 21st, 2007 at 11:08am In Guilty Pleasures High School Musical Special Events

Get ready for another post in my continuing quest to make this blog all about High School Musical (part 2 of, potentially, hundreds). This is more of a scholarly look, because honestly, I’m seeing a huge gap in the academic community when it comes to made-for-TV Disney movies, and I’m just here to fill the need.

Sharpay Evans (blue dress) is the “villain” of the High School Musical series (technically, though, the villains really keeping our heroes down are better described as “the status quo” and “classicism”). In the first movie, Sharpay tries to keep Troy and Gabriella from auditioning for her precious musical. It was vaguely suggested, as so much was in movie #1, that she also had designs on Troy romantically, but that angle was not nearly as important as the audition plot. In the stage version (which, yes, I have seen, thank you for asking), which features an expanded book, her motivations are much more obviously confused — she spends a lot more time trying to make them into the perfect couple.

Which leads naturally to the second movie, where her motivations are more hopelessly muddled than ever. She wants Troy; she arranges the whole summer so she can spend time with him. But “getting Troy,” to her, means getting Troy to sing with her in the talent show. For Sharpay, it seems at first that romantic relationships are all about winning. She needs that trophy more than she needs Troy. Or is it all the same, really? Does she consider performing with Troy the same as being with him romantically? In a way, it doesn’t matter, because her obsession with Troy means she forces him to sing with her. Forcing him to sing with her also guarantees that she’ll win the trophy, since he won’t be upstaging her by singing with Gabriella.

So far her romantic goals and her trophy-winning goals line up fairly smoothly, if not exactly emotionally consistently. But then the rest of the staff decides to compete in the talent show together, with the help of Sharpay’s scorned brother, Ryan. A single glance at their rehearsal convinces Sharpay that they pose a legitimate threat to her trophy. This is despite the fact she OWNS THE RESORT and could just insist on winning no matter what (it’s obvious she has that power; the grumpy resort manager almost gives her the trophy, despite the fact that she didn’t end up singing in the competition at all). She can’t do it, though, because it’s actually important to her to be the best.

And that’s the key to her personality. She doesn’t just want to win; she has to actually be better than everyone else. She can see that Troy is obviously the most eligible dude at East High, so she must have him — or at least, she has to make sure no one else does. She’s used to being able to buy whatever she wants — as demonstrated in her solo in the second movie, “Fabulous” — but there’s one thing she can’t buy, and it’s not Troy: it’s quality. She recognizes quality, and she doesn’t want to be told she’s the best. She wants to be the best.

She actually can buy Troy. If she’d just stuck to the plan, making Troy sing with her and giving him connections, and not tried to shut down the staff members’ performance, Troy probably would’ve gone through it. It’s only when he sees what she’s done to his friends that he snaps out his reverie and stands up for himself. She caused her own downfall not because she wants Troy or the trophy or because she’s a bitch, but because she has an aesthetic sense of what’s actually good. She can’t settle for less than, because she knows the difference.

If this observation is true, than it makes perfect sense for her to give the trophy to Ryan at the end, not because she’s suddenly realized she’d been taking advantage of him, but because she recognized that what he pulled off is just want she wanted. He actually was the best.

Think about why Sharpay’s versions of Kelsi’s songs are so funny. They’re overproduced, with monstrous special effects, absurd costumes, and elaborate, peppy arrangements. But seriously… so are the rest of the songs in the movie! What’s the real difference? What makes Sharpay’s versions so insipid? I think it’s because they’re too professional, polished. They’re unrealistically “good,” which is what she’s always going for, so they’re impossible to relate to. Much like Sharpay herself.

You just got schooled! College was totally worth it, y’all!

And what about Ryan? Why do we root for him so much? Why is he the obvious real hero of HSM2? What the hell is going on there? That, my friends (or enemies, now, if you’re sick of the whole HSM thing), is a whole other post.