Things that haunt me: the music from High School Musical. (a.k.a. science angle in the musical genre)

Last weekend, my family rented a movie called High School Musical (my kids really loved it), and I tell you, it has infiltrated our very being to the point where... hush a moment... wait...be quiet for a second... do you hear it? Do you hear it?

(Yes, I am embarrassed to show this picture
- thank goodness, I have tenure)

I hear it. I hear the soundtrack in my head - always in my head. Can't - make - it - go - away...

Anyway, no doubt one of the songs in the movie will make my family's year end music list, but here's the thing: The musical itself has a bit of a science angle to it. Actually, a weak one, but hey, the freaking songs are in my head, so the least I can do is get a post out of it. It also led me to wonder whether they were any other science angles to other musicals out there, and so here is an incomplete list of musicals I'm familiar with, and their potential (and sometimes very real) science angle:

High School Musical: (link)
This Disney movie has the pitch: Troy, the popular captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella, the brainy and beautiful member of the academic club, break all the rules of East High society when they secretly audition for the leads in the school's musical. As they reach for the stars and follow their dreams, everyone learns about acceptance, teamwork, and being yourself. (from Amazon.com)

In essense, the lead female character is into science, math and chemistry if I recall correctly - and yes, in the end, that's actually a good thing. That's not so bad for a movie that was seen by millions of people.

Rent (link)
Here, we have HIV as an encompassing theme: Based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, the musical centers on a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Alphabet City in the last days of the Boheminan East Village, under the shadow of AIDS. (From Wiki)

As well, Larson's (the composer) inspiration for Rent's content came from several different sources. Many of the characters and plot elements are drawn directly from Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, the world premiere of which was in 1896--100 years before Rent's premiere.[9] La bohème was also about the lives of poor young artists. Tuberculosis, the plague of Puccini's opera, is replaced by AIDS in Rent; 1800s Paris is replaced by New York's East Village in the late 1980s. (also from Wiki)

The Sound of Music: (link)
O.K. not much science here... or is there? (read: The Von Trapp Children Speak to a Geneticist)

Phantom of the Opera:
Go figure. The lead character is deformed. In the Leroux novel, Erik is described as corpse-like with no nose; sunken eyes and cheeks; yellow, parchment-like skin; and only a few wisps of ink-black hair covering his head. He is often described as "a walking skeleton," and Christine graphically describes his hands as the hands of the dead. (From Wiki)

It's possible that the inspiration for this disfigurement is a genetic disorder known as porphyria cutanea tarda (at least based on discussions from various forums such as this one)

Little Shop of Horrors (link)
The plant, depending on the version you see, is often referred to as a cross between a Venus Flytrap, and a butterwort: both carniverous plants, but neither of which can actually sing.

Anyway...

Musicals aren't really my thing. But if you know of any others, do leave a comment.