Ever since its explosive introduction to the pop culture scene,High School Musicalhas been a cheesy teenage classic – and for good reason. The rom-com musical sparked an era of breaking the status quo, shooting for the stars, and singing your heart out and the characters from this Disney trilogy have become pop culture icons. Troy Bolton was a solid starting point for the career of the versatileZac Efron, and there’s no way any viewer can forget the fabulous vanity of mega-diva Sharpy Evans (Ashley Tisdale). But there’s one character who is often overlooked and underutilized by the trilogy. While Sharpay’s attitude and antics almost make her too fabulous for the story, her twin brother, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), is no less important even though he rarely gets to share the spotlight with the other characters, especially Sharpay.
Ryan spends all three movies trapped in his sister’s shadow and exists purely as her lapdog in the first film, often depicted as doofy and dumb with the inability to even read the “Go drama club!” message that the basketball team presents to them. With Sharpay pretty much running the drama club, the best he can do to satisfy his love of singing and dancing (especially jazz squares) is to remain permanently attached to Sharpay’s side and bend to her every whim.
RELATED:‘High School Musical 2’ Remains the Best of the Trilogy by Fully Embracing Camp
Though Ryan appears to be a shallow henchman type of character in the first film, he has brief moments of agency, which are especially apparent inHigh School Musical 2. When Sharpay kicks him out of her duo in favor of Troy, he has nowhere to turn and no other friends to perform with. Thankfully, Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) invites him to the country club employee baseball game. Though he’s initially teased by Chad (Corbin Bleu), who is bitter because Sharpay stole his best friend away from athletics, Ryan begins to show more of his personality.
As it turns out, Ryan’s love of theater isn’t his only passion: he also played in the Little League World Championships and incorporates his agility from dance into his movements while playing the sport during the"I Don’t Dance"number. For the first time, Ryan shows a healthy amount of confidence, especially when surrounded by people who think very little of him. This shows that, at some level, Ryan is aware that people think of him as a ditzy theater kid and he takes great pride in destroying that perception through the baseball game. When his team loses by just one run, Ryan immediately walks away in defeat; his confidence shattered and is ready for the athletes to go back to treating him like a joke. But it turns out his confidence and determination shone through anyway and he is accepted by them instead. Chad and Ryan seem to be bonding after the game, and it’s clear that Ryan isn’t used to being treated nicely after years of being attached to Sharpay.
This is the first instance in which Ryan shows that he is a competent, confident, and caring person without Sharpay’s influence. And yet, due to his limited screen time, Ryan’s growth and development happen mostly in the background. His relationships with other characters, especially Gabriella, Chad, and Kelsi (Olesya Rulin), improve with each film, and he becomes his own person despite still having a love-hate relationship with his sister. But Ryan isn’t just the theater kid with an athletic history. He specializes in dance choreography; in fact, he’s such a talented choreographer that when he joins the Wildcats to compete against Sharpay in the summer talent show, Sharpay is genuinely shaken. As per usual, she resorts to cheating to ban Ryan’s team from entering the show altogether. Though they eventually reconcile by the end of the summer, Sharpay knows how difficult it would be to compete against Ryan.
Sharpay herself is well-known for her iconically ambitious dreams for her future and it never wavers throughout the three movies. But her love for the razzle-dazzle of show business is a stark contrast to Ryan’s love for the art itself (which is easily noticeable once you realize that he frequently exclaims “Dance!” when he’s overwhelmed, like a goofy catchphrase). While Sharpay loves the attention, Ryan isinlove with the craft. This detail is no clearer than in Sharpay and Ryan’s I-Want song inHigh School Musical 3, fittingly titled, “I Want It All.” Sharpay tries to manipulate Ryan into being her lapdog again by promising him fame once high school is over. At first, he’s extremely skeptical and far more vocal about his awareness of Sharpay’s manipulation than in the first film. One of his lines in the song even calls this out directly: “Sharpay and what’s-his-name.”
But as Sharpay keeps describing what fame would be like, Ryan gets progressively more excited by the prospect of living the rest of his life doing what he loves. While Sharpay practically glows in the imaginary stage lights, Ryan runs around the stage ecstatically. In the Fosse-style routine of the musical number, both Sharpay and Ryan repeat the song title with varying degrees of ambition; while Sharpay’s lines remain pretty much at the same level of passion, Ryan’s sincere excitement grows. This one moment is a subtle but telling clue that Ryan doesn’t just “want it all” like Sharpay does – in some ways, he wants it more.
As the trilogy nears its end, Ryan breaks off from Sharpay completely, becoming entirely his own person just in time for graduation – and his acceptance into Juilliard. Though he doesn’t get as much time dedicated to his growth, Ryan’s character is an important addition to the story as a whole. His interactions and development happen mostly in the background of the main story, but he is actually a far more dynamic character than he’s given credit for. In terms of theHigh School Musicalworld, Ryan shows multidimensionality, confidence, and growth, proving that you don’t need to live in someone else’s shadow to achieve your dreams. In no way should Ryan Evans be overlooked.
