"But even though the chronology and the costumes march from doo-wop to disco, everything in “Dreamgirls” sounds more or less the same, as the splashy imperatives of show-tune composing overwhelm everything in their path."
I guess he doesn't understand how a musical's score works. It needs its own identity and sound. How else could we buy the '80s pop sounds in "Les Mis" for example.
I understand what he's saying though, and Dreamgirls is celebrating pop music from a turbulent decade. I actually think the arrangers in the film went much farther with emulating the "sound" than they did on Broadway.
Still... if he doesn't like the tunes, he doesn't like the tunes. He wants the real thing, instead. I don't. I'll just go buy a Supremes album and be done with it, if that's all I want. This is a MUSICAL. People just aren't used to what that means anymore. Can you imagine taking his comments and applying them to "Show Boat" (which covers 40 years of time, not ten)? "All the music sounds the same," etc. "That music in The Light In the Piazza doesn't sound like the early 1960s!"
I also should remind most of the readers here that didn't see the stage show... it was not perfect AT ALL on Broadway. The story lost quite a lot of steam in Act II, until it just kinda... ended. It was never "Show Boat," "Carousel," "Sweeney Todd" or "Gypsy." And it was criticized plenty for it, back in the day, despite the raves for its slick style and particularly for Bennett's staging and Holliday's performance.
I believe this film is at LEAST as good as what I saw on Broadway 25 years ago... and I actually think that in most cases it's better.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
