WATCH: High School Musical Reunion Sing Along

The cast of High School Musical reunited to sing “We’re All In This Together” for the The Disney Family Singalong on ABC, which included original stars including Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale.

Deadline spoke with High School Musical director Kenny Ortega who said he was immediately on board to participate in the special when ABC and Bob Iger asked him to do so.

“I wanted to find something I can do to participate and it was so great to be given the call and invited by ABC to join,” Ortega told Deadline. “It gave me a purpose to get up every morning. I feel really good that we have an opportunity to do something like this — it’s good medicine.”

The “We’re All In This Together” Performance Took Place Via Streaming

VideoVideo related to watch: high school musical reunion sing along2020-04-16T20:58:21-04:00

Zac Efron was not able to be in the performance due to the patchy wi-fi where he is quarantining, but he did share a message of hope to fans, saying he hoped everyone was staying safe and healthy.

The cast came together prior to the performance to talk about the power of the song “We’re All In This Together.” Then, the cast began singing in their own homes, and they were joined by the cast of the new High School Musical The Musical The Series and other Disney performers including Dove Cameron and Raven Symone.

They were also joined by TikTok star Charlie D’Amelio who danced to part of the song and much of the original cast.

Fans enjoyed seeing the cast reunite even if they were missing some of the original members and weren’t together physically, with some people on Twitter saying the performance made them cry.

The Song Relays a Message of Hope

During this time of social distancing, Ashley Tisdale has been sharing content including videos of herself singing and dancing to High School Musical original songs. On March 16, she uploaded a video of herself dancing to “We’re All in This Together” with the caption, “We’re All in This Together” on March 16 with the caption “If you need to workout while on #selfquarantine try this … hopefully this will brighten your day a little!”

Ortega credits Tisdale with starting the trend of medical professionals and others posting videos of themselves singing “We’re All In This Together.”

“I think Ashley started this whole movement with her home video,” he said. “I can’t imagine that Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, who wrote this song, had any idea that it would have the legs and perhaps mean more now than when we first did it.”

Ortega continued, saying that the artists have a lot of young people who look up to them and seeing them in their “living rooms and in their sweatpants hanging out with their families” helps people know there’s truth behind the song.

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