Now that the "new movie musicals" fad has crashed and burned...
Now that the "new movie musicals" fad has crashed and burned...
Now that the "new movie musicals" fad has crashed and burned...#0
Posted: 1/21/06 at 1:41pmin spite of the false hopes inspired by the carefully orchestrated success of "Chicago," two very popular Broadway musicals could barely bring people to the multi-plexes. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody, somewhere is editing all the songs out of the Dreamgirls script.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#1
Posted: 1/21/06 at 1:49pmI've been hoping that somewhere an exec will soon go "Beyoncé? Eddie Murphy? Jamie Foxx? What the hell where we thinking? Pull the plug!"
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#2
Posted: 1/21/06 at 1:51pma lot of people in my town are obsessed with RENT now, it's sorta annoying in a way, but I'm glad they went to see it 6 times (more then I've even seen it). It's probably just cause I live in NY, but I think that both movies were pretty good, even if they weren't 'hits' at the box office.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#3
Posted: 1/21/06 at 1:55pmI wasn't commenting on the quality. I happily paid my money to see both RENT and The Producers in the theater. I'm just talking about the dreaded way success is measured in this culture: at the box office. And since they didn't do well, I do wonder if somebody is whittling the Dreamgirls soundtrack down to three songs?
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#4
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:01pmDreamgirls has more mainstream stars though. Most people who weren't familar with Rent or theatre didn't know who anybody in it was. Although The Producers had well known names in it, so who knows.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#5
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:04pmThat's what I'm saying. No matter which angle the bottom-line oriented producers of Dreamgirls analyze what worked and didn't work with RENT and The Producers, it must be making them pretty nervous as work gets underway on Dreamgirls.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#6
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:08pm
To be honest - I hope they DO cut some of the music from Dreamgirls. When I saw the production at the Prince Theater (my first time seeing the show ever) I couldn't believe how many songs are "performance" songs that do nothing to advance plot.
Just my luck, though, they'll go ahead and cut stuff like When I First Saw You or Family (I'm not too worried about And I'm Telling You...there's no way in hell that's going - sorry about the pun)
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#7
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:11pm
My hunch is that they'll only go with performance songs in the movie, since, apparently moviegoers now need a gimmick or a "reason" for characters to burst into song. They'll make every number that survives to the screen something being performed or recorded by the characters. I'm picturing Effie being so pissed off when she gets dumped that she writes "And I am Telling You..." in response and she gets so emotional while recording the last few lines that a man comes in with a dolly to wheel her out because her studio time's up.
(With a tip of the hat to Screamgirls, Forbidden Broadway.)
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#8
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:46pm
Aside from movie and recording stars... Dreamgirls has more of a mainstream plot. It's going to appeal to a much wider audience, because everyone who sees it has a basic connection to commercial music and (even indirectly) the music business... if nothing else at least from a consumer's perspective. I think it's safe to say just about everyone's bought a record and listened to music on the radio.
Condon knew what he was doing when he campaigned so heavily to make this picture. He said it's one of the few Broadway musicals that he knew INSTANTLY would make a good film. He's right.
I'm still "bettin' my money on the bobtail nag."
(no Beyonce cracks, please)
I predict Dreamgirls will be a winner.
But I think the wacky thing here is when studios and the media believe that because a musical wins Best Picture and is a big fat box office hit, then "musicals are back!!!"
No... it just means that that one was good. It's not the beginning or end of an era.
If you make a really good movie that has wide audience appeal, you'll have a hit. Doesn't matter if it's a western, or a musical, or a horror film, or a tragedy, etc.
Easier said than done, though.
(Hey, how 'bout a western-musical-horror-tragedy film?)
*queues up enthusiastically for that one*
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#9
Posted: 1/21/06 at 2:58pm
But I think the wacky thing here is when studios and the media believe that because a musical wins Best Picture and is a big fat box office hit, then "musicals are back!!!"
Oh, it wasn't just the media. Once the Weinstein's willed Chicago to box office success, people around here were acting like we were about to enter The New Golden Age of Movie Musicals. I remember thinking, "Oh, the poor kids, they're gonna be so disappointed."
I have a hard time believing the sung-through stuff will make it into Condon's screenplay.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#10
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:03pmA lot of the people going to see movie musicals apparently don't even know they are musicals. I heard many people complaining about Rent and saying "there was too much singing in the movie!"
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#11
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:06pm
I think everyone has reason to be concerned... yet DREAMGIRLS has little in common with either RENT or PRODUCERS. DG will star a stunning, successful, and much liked pop diva, a proven box office commodity and Oscar winner in Foxx, and have a catchy transcends-b'way title. As a friend in advertising told me, never underestimate the power of a solid title--they can make or break, and must communicate the tone of a film and the entertainment value. What does THE PRODUCERS say, anyway? Old white men? RENT means -- poor folk? The phrase DREAMGIRLS spells show-biz/sexual fantasy, glamour, pretty women in a romantic glitzy milieu.
Sounds insultingly simple? Look at FAME, FOOTLOOSE, FLASHDANCE, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. Do they spell more fun that THE PRODUCERS? I have to say, yes.
RENT had a cast of unknowns and PRODUCERS was about comic chemistry between two asexual men over 40, Broderick and Lane, neither in roles associated with their proven appeal (Ferris Bueller, BIRDCAGE and animal voice overs), beyond the Hudson river. Uma and Will? Sorry, not their film, as the advertising perhaps too honestly admitted.
And DREAMGIRLS with have a top 40-ready score. I know, I know, so did RENT. But those Idina-Rosario-Adam fans just aren't in the same league as Beyonce groupies. Call me a hair-splitter, but I believe DREAMGIRLS will come with more CHICAGO-like must-see appeal.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#12
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:07pmThat's partly because they borrowed the same style of marketing strategy as Chicago used at first, you wouldn't necessarily known it was a musical, maybe just a regular movie that takes place in a night club.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#13
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:17pm
I'm pretty worried about the fate of new movie musicals, too, but I'm choosing (in my optimism/delusion) to see Dreamgirls as a last chance rather than something that's already come too late.
David Geffen has been a big mover on this project, right? He is (was?) a big honcho at Dreamworks, and he was one of the producers of the original stage production as well. I'm pretty sure he believes in this story as a musical.
To get to much more flimsy evidence, I saw a few dance steps being executed in that teeny featurette they released. Plus, as others have stated, this project has star power, a director who's actually respected and has some positive experience with Chicago, and...well, on a note of my own personal opinion, a better score and story than either The Phantom of the Opera or Rent.
To draw paralells to another recently ascendant form of genre picture, superhero movies don't look like they're disappearing because of the utter crappiness of The Hulk, The Punisher, Elektra, Daredevil, Fantastic Four...am I forgetting anything? The 4 big franchises, the ones with the most solid material and fan base, are moving forward. In the end, genre pictures are just like any other type of movie- they tend to be better when you have good material and a good creative team. Dreamgirls fulfills that mandate better than any movie musical since Chicago.
Updated On: 1/21/06 at 03:17 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/2/03
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#14
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:35pm
I think DREAMGIRLS could be very successful...as a Sunday night "movie spectacular" during sweeps.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#15
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:37pmEspecially if scheduled opposite something sports-related.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#16
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:48pm
< But I think the wacky thing here is when studios and the media believe that because a musical wins Best Picture and is a big fat box office hit, then "musicals are back!!!" >
Yeah I don't hear Brokeback Mountain sparking the craze that Westerns are back...
Anyway, I hope someone pulls the plug on Hairspray. I just don't think it will work, especailly without some of the original cast.
Updated On: 1/21/06 at 03:48 PM
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#17
Posted: 1/21/06 at 3:51pmIt's not a western. It's not a gay movie.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#18
Posted: 1/21/06 at 4:00pmWell, if they do that, I'm telling them I'm not going!
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/18/04
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#19
Posted: 1/21/06 at 4:21pm
Did you really just write that, PJ? I must say, I'm dissapointed 
.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#21
Posted: 1/22/06 at 2:07pmI honestly don't think that the movie musicals have bombed. Movies are made for the entertainment of society. With the high price of going to the movies many more people wait to see it once it comes out on dvd. I know tons of people who loved the rent movie and just that in itself doesn't make the movie a disaster. Plus look at some of the movie that have come out in the past. There is no way anyone could have thought some of these movies would make big money, but yet these movies are made! Sometimes it is much more than just a financial thing.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#22
Posted: 1/22/06 at 2:27pm
And it was Marshall's concept that all the songs take place in Roxie's head.
I think Dreamgirls has great potential to be a huge hit. I have faith in Condon's talent and vision.
I, too, don't understand why people have trouble with characters breaking out in song. MTV is how old now? People have been watching mini movie musicals for sometime now.
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#23
Posted: 1/22/06 at 2:38pm
Well, I'd argue that a music video is completely different from a musical, particularly since most videos these days have the singers performing their songs straight-forwardly. I can see your point, though.
Seriously, though, I just never worried about it. I remember in college, I heard a professor talking about how in a musical, the character is so overcome with emotion that they only thing they can do to express it is sing. I was always like, "No, he's in a musical. That's why he's singing."
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#24
Posted: 1/22/06 at 2:42pm
I agree with you. But in the context of writing a musical, I agree with your professor. LOL
And, it's those videos that are very movie musical that make it hard for me to understand people. You can believe Michael Jackson as a singing werewolf or smooth criminal, but not a movie musical??
re: Now that the 'new movie musicals' fad has crashed and burned...#25
Posted: 1/22/06 at 2:46pm
I agree with you. But in the context of writing a musical, I agree with your professor.
Fair enough, but how does recitative figure into that? Take a song like "Light My Candle" in Rent. Mimi's so overcome with emotion that she has no choice but to sing the line "Got a light?"
I guess, in my head, I always kind of assumed that people in a musical don't actually realize they're singing, which is why I've never seen any need to justify it.
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