Jeff Calhoun was a little miffed — and clearly confused — when he was asked to direct "High School Musical."

He politely retorted, "I think I'm beyond directing high school musicals by now."

Calhoun, it seems, was so busy working on other projects in 2006 — such as the Broadway musical "Grey Gardens" — that the "High School Musical" phenomenon passed him by.

What a phenomenon it was. The Disney Channel's original made-for-cable movie, about friendships and romances at the fictional East High School, caught the imagination of kids and teens across the nation. The first broadcast on Jan. 20, 2006, garnered more than 7.7 million viewers in 5 million households. When the soundtrack album was released, it shot to No. 1. Almost overnight, the movie's stars — Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale — were transformed into teen idols.

But Calhoun, who doesn't have children, was immune to the "High School Musical" hoopla. When Disney executives came calling, looking for someone to direct a touring stage adaptation of the movie, he had absolutely no point of reference.

"I had no idea what it was," said Calhoun. "So they sent me the DVD, and I watched it and immediately realized it was something I would want to do."

Calhoun's version, which premiered in Atlanta in January, opens next week at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

It features all the songs from the movie soundtrack, plus two new tunes. David Simpatico crafted the show's book, adapting Peter Barsocchini's original screenplay.

"High School Musical" is definitely a different kind of project for Calhoun, who started out as a performer before making the transition into choreography. After working with Tommy Tune and then nabbing a 1994 Tony nominatation for choreographing a Broadway revival of "Grease," Calhoun left New York to work with the Los Angeles-based Deaf West Theatre. While there he developed the concept of the "deaf musical," a new kind of show in which hearing and deaf actors sing and use American Sign Language to tell the story.

When he took on "High School Musical," Calhoun said he didn't worry about duplicating the small-screen version.

"I didn't care if the actors looked like those in the original movie," he said. "The characters are what kids identify with."

Still, he wasn't sure the production would pass the test with fans of the movie. Turns out, he didn't have much to worry about.

"When the show began, they cheered and screamed like it was The Beatles," Calhoun said. "I knew we succeeded when they cheered just as loudly at the end."

The fan reaction was echoed in several solid reviews, including one by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune who wrote, "Director Jeff Calhoun delivers a pumped-up, good-time Broadway-style show that delivers excitement and spectacle."

Calhoun remains low-key about the touring musical's success.

"I'm not smart enough to really plan my career," said Calhoun, who's recently been given the green light to direct a deaf version of the musical "Pippin." "I just take what comes and have fun doing it."

— E-mail freelance columnist Jeff Favre at jjfavre@yahoo.com.