Ashley Tisdale's niece, Mikayla, recently portrayed Sharpay Evans in a stage production of High School Musical, and the actress has opened up about how she was – and wasn't – willing to help her niece prepare ahead of the show.

Tisdale, who originally played Sharpay in the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie, took her daughter Jupiter, 4, to see her niece's performance earlier this month. Now, she's sharing how she felt about not being asked for advice before the show.

"I thought my niece would ask me for like, you know, any type of advice. Nope. She did it on her own," Tisdale tells PEOPLE. "She was like, 'I'm gonna do this my own way,' and I was surprised by all of it, the outfits, everything."

Tisdale's sister, Jennifer, had even asked to borrow some of the original Sharpay costumes for Mikayla, but Tisdale was hesitant to lend them out. "My sister was like, 'Can we borrow the Bop to the Top dress?' And I'm like, 'No, you cannot do that.' It's, like, an iconic dress," she explains.

Despite not seeking advice, Mikayla's costume looked eerily similar to the one Tisdale wore during the film's "What I've Been Looking For" scene, according to her Instagram Stories. Tisdale praises her sister for recreating the look.

Following the performance, Tisdale has been open on social media about Jupiter's newfound High School Musical obsession. "When she's seen the movie in the past, like, she never really cared about it, but I think seeing my niece in the play, play me, has just changed her, so she had to watch all three movies," she said on TikTok. "She will not stop listening to the music."

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Read more about Ashley Tisdale and her niece's High School Musical experience on PEOPLE.