Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

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Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:22pm

I feel that we have may have acted too fast on making movie musicals again. I think today's audience is still not use or want to get use to them coming back. I could be wrong.

The only thing that has really succeded in the last 10 years (movie musical wise) is ANNIE for ABC in 1999 and CHICAGO, in 2003. That is all based on viewership and $$$$ at the box office. But we all know that MOULIN ROGUE was what help get this all started. Thanks Baz!

But, on the other hand, RENT, PHANTOM did extremely poor as well as ONCE UPON A MATTRESS did this past Sunday. As the figures show, THE PRODUCERS is not doing too well, but it is making it's mark. And the majority of the bad reviews it is getting, may not help.

So is it ok to say that we may have jumped the gun and the majority of audiences today are still not interested in seeing movie musicals.

PS *Let's see how DREAMGIRLS does, the trailer and teaser look good and so far, seem to attract a nice range of demographics.

Drtheatre

"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" -Stephen Sondheim

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:25pm

The Producers is only in limited release. My understanding is that it's doing okay for the small number of theaters it's in.

Yes, we do need a third vampire musical.--Little Sally, Gypsy of the Year 2005.

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:31pm

Good to hear. I know it is in limited release, but I had people walk out of the theatre I was in, because they did not know it was a musical, they thought they were seeing a remake of the movie classic.

Drtheatre

"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" -Stephen Sondheim

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:32pm

Hell no!!

THE PRODUCERS may not be going well with critics...but when it opens wide I expect it to do very decently at the box office.

I saw a screening last night and everyone loved it. They were laughing THROUGHOUT the credits - something that I have NEVER seen before. They didn't laugh at images, only to the sound of Will Ferrell singing his ballad.

Studios want to make the next successor to CHICAGO. Phantom, Rent, and even Producers hasn't done that. Rent and Producers both happened BECAUSE of CHICAGO. And BECAUSE of CHICAGO, the following are STILL in development:

- ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Julie Taymor's Beatles musical)
- DREAMGIRLS (Bill Condon's next - the man who wrote us CHICAGO will now follow up with another movie musical. Perhaps this is the SUCCESSOR to CHICAGO and studios will greenlight more projects still)
- SWEENEY TODD (They are looking for a director/writer)
- BAT BOY (Script is either done or being completed. Waiting on studio.)
- HAIRSPRAY (Trying to stand on two feet again. But on the way. Next after DREAMGIRLS.)

And more. Http://www.moviemusicals.net/status.html

Making a movie is a gamble. It has to be a blockbuster to make the mega money. Making a movie musical is even more of a gamble. Whether the film is good or not is up to the director/designers/cast. Whether it makes money or not is up to the studios' promotion and how it catches on with the public - a phenomenon no one has figured out yet.

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:49pm

I think ppl are trying to hard to make "megamusicals" movies. Why not just try to make something small and simple. A musical movie doesn't have to be this huge lavish movie. I think RENT would have faired better with an art-house type treatment. I mean the stage show is very "artsy." I think they should try to market these movies as musicals. They did that with Chicago and look what happened. I saw the Producers trailer the other day and it said something like "the biggest play on broadway" it didn't even say musical. Ugh. Its irritating. And no, i don't think we jumped the gun at all. I woudln't expect audiences to appreciate movie musicals in 10yrs anymore than they are today. I just think its a genre that got a bad rep. because of the older movie musicals. Like, when I put in my RENT soundtrack, my friends are like "that's a musical?" I think ppl have this idea of a musical being chorus lines and these big chorus numbers and gay people (no offense). I think RENT could have changed that, but it didn't. Chicago too.

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:52pm

I don't know, I think maybe people are just uncomfortable with people breaking into song within a real setting. like POTO or Rent, both were made pretty realistically, where as Moulin Rouge was not set in a real world in my opinion (I mean come on, the moon was singing!) and obviously Chicago had all the numbers take place in a fantasy sequence. Plus the fact that they keep making very poor choices in directors like Schumacher, or Columbus (even though i liked Rent, i thought it could have been better). So i guess we just have to wait and see.

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:54pm

The movie musical genre is just like any other genre of movie. For every one good movie of that genre, there are at least 10 crappy ones. When they were bumping them out in the MGM days, there was a lot bigger chance of getting a few right with so many coming out. In the last 10 years we've had, what, 10 honest-to-God movie musicals? Evita, Moulin Rouge, Phantom, RENT, Chicago, Beyond the Sea, The Producers and the few made-for-TV ones (Annie, Cinderella, Once Upon A Matress, Gepetto, A Christmas Carol, Reefer Madness). Out of all of those they got four, maybe five right. That's a 38% average. If 38% of the big studio action films were good, then we would have a LOT more. It's just taking a while for us to get the studios to be putting movie musicals out in big numbers so that we can get lots of good movie musicals. I think the movie musicals are doing great. And if Dreamgirls does well, that could do a LOT for the movie musical industry.

Eeeeeeyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaannnnnddddd aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiyyyyyyaaaaaammmmmmmm teeeeeeeelllllliiiiiinnngg yyyyooooooouuuuuuuwwwaaaahh...

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:54pm

i think everyone is to damn greedy

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:54pm

Thanks for all the comments,really cool to read what people have to say!!

Keep them coming!

Drtheatre

"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" -Stephen Sondheim

#10

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 3:56pm

You are sooo DEAD ON bjivie2...thanks for that comment it was great!

Drtheatre

"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" -Stephen Sondheim

#11

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 4:09pm

a sweeney todd movie will either be god awful or brilliant... as soon as someone said "sweeney todd movie" i just saw the whole thing in my mind.

they should totally hire me.

haha.

"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed

#12

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 4:15pm

when i went to see the producers and rent several people did walk out of the theatre.

that's the first time i ever saw that happen in all my years of movie-going.

it was jarring.

#13

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 4:32pm

Yes, I've had people walk out of both. Just like I would imagine people walking out of a silent movie, if they brought those back. I mean, even I would probably walk out of a silent movie. Wouldn't you? Honestly, for me, it would depend on the first half hour of the movie.

I can't blame people walking out of RENT. It's content matter is still controversial in today's society. However, for THE PRODUCERS, only two people walked out. I would say it was because either they were extremely homophobic (it occured during the Keep It Gay conga), or possibly because they had some other reason unrelated to their liking the movie.

The musical is a great artform. Music drives the story. I think people can (and have) accept people breaking out into song...but it can't come from nowhere. I think every song has to have a build...a CRYSTAL CLEAR reason why the character HAS to say this in song, rather than words.

#14

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 4:46pm

wait they're making a Sweeny Todd movie ?!

Updated On: 12/20/05 at 04:46 PM

#15

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 4:50pm

I agree with CapnHook. One of the reasons I believe the Rent film didn't do well was because the songs were so poorly introduced, at least most of them. There didn't seem to be a reason for the characters to sing, they would just randomly start singing, few numbers were well-introduced, La Vie Boheme, Out Tonight, Take Me or Leave Me, in my opinion were some of the well-introduced numbers but others seemed to random, there wasn't that emotional outburst that allows characters to break into song. I've seen the movie 6 times and probably 4 out of 6 people have walked out of the theatre by Light My Candle.
I have yet to watch The Producers but people that I know who don't like musicals have asked me about it and told me they want to go see it because the previews are funny. And yes, they did call it a play in one of the previews I saw, which pissed me off.
I am thinking Dreamgirls will be quite successful but only because of its use of modern stars that will attract a large range of age groups. Once Upon A Mattress was just a really bad movie so it doesn't surprise me why it didn't do well. I refuse to believe modern audiences won't accept an old-fashioned musical, I think they would as long as it is well-done and it has the right marketing.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#16

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:10pm

Don't take it too personally if you see someone walk out of RENT or THE PRODUCERS, or anything for that matter. It's not necessarily that there's something "wrong" with the movie. Maybe there's something wrong with those who are walking out. For example, one woman I know of was squirming during some parts of The Producers because she is a homophobe. Is that our problem? A fairly religious man who I was talking to at The Producers on Broadway told me there was too much sex in the show for him. Is that our problem? Or perhaps they're walking out because they're not feeling well. And even though movie musicals hadn't been produced for a long time before CHICAGO, it doesn't mean that younger people aren't familiar with the genre. They grew up watching on television THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, SOUTH PACIFIC, MY FAIR LADY, THE FLOWER DRUM SONG, and on & on. So everyone should by now be used to actors on screen bursting into song just for the simple reason that it's a musical. By the way, I've seen THE PRODUCERS movie twice so far, and both times the audiences were wildly enthusiastic. Very few people left before the end of the credits. I hope it does very well in spite of some negative reviews. There were a lot of great reviews too from respected critics, and hopefully audiences will encourage their friends to see the film.

#17

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:17pm

Oh yes, Producers got loads of laughs. Because of was an advanced screening, a rep from the promotion polled the audience who loved it, liked it, thought it was ok, didn't like it, or hated it. Everyone loved it, and three people thought it was OK. No one hated it, didn't like it, or like it.

As for RENT, although the "Rent" song was thrilling, and I love the song, it just came from no where. There's the electric guitar intro, then Anthony Rapp starts to sing on the bicycle.

The songs that worked best were One Song Glory, Tango: Maureen, Life Support, Will I, Out Tonight, Over The Moon, La Vie Boheme, Take Me Or Leave Me, Without You, I'll Cover You (Reprise), and Your Eyes.

#18

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:29pm

I wish some of the people behind me during RENT had walked out. Then I could've seen "I'll Cover You" without a bunch of adolescent girls giggling and whispering about how they were both boys. When they started talking full voice during the reprise of "I'll Cover You," it took every ounce of strength for me not to turn around and yell at them. I really hate people sometimes.

"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy

"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.

Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"

#19

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:35pm

Maybe it's not a question of did we act too soon, but did we act too fast? I loved the movies of Phantom, Rent, and the Producers but I couldn't help think that with Phantom and Rent, they should have spent more time on it to make it translate better to the big screen.

#20

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 5:53pm

>>And no, i don't think we jumped the gun at all. I woudln't expect audiences to appreciate movie musicals in 10yrs anymore than they are today. I just think its a genre that got a bad rep. because of the older movie musicals.

Why? I mean, look at "Singing in the Rain." That's one of my favorite movie musicals. Busby Berkley made a bunch of movies just so he could photograph the dancing girls from overhead, to be viewed on a big screen. Aren't movies like these the reason any movie musicals keep getting made today??

"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had the practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." --Alice in Wonderland

#21

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 6:34pm

Despite the performance of "Mattress", I think they should look to Showtime and HBO and produce some of these for television, a la Reefer Madness. It wouldn't work for every show but there are a lot out there the would be more at home in a smaller setting.

#22

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 6:36pm

Words cannot express how much I love and adore Reefer Madness. It is the hot fad amongst my friends right now, and I can't get enough.

#23

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 6:45pm

I'm sure you mean "used" to them and not "use" to them

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story... AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956

#24

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 6:46pm

People all over the world love movies ...

And music...

I think it is just a matter of getting them re-introduced to the genre of movie musicals.

CHICAGO and MOULIN ROUGE were hits, and even EVITA had a fairly good amount of success. What seems to be the common denominator? The films were made with big names in the movie or music business! Maybe that is what would open up this movie genre - having screen actors who can do musicals!

We are viewing the issue from the eyes of typical stage musical fans ( who would want our stage stars to reprise their successful roles onstage) - but that formula may not work most of the time( especially if the stage star has not worked very successfully in the film medium and cannot provide the charisma and presence required for films).

Also, I was just reading a review of THE PRODUCERS by a well-known movie geek site ( AINT IT COOL) and their lead writer speaks of being disappointed with the movie musical, in comparison with the original movie, particularly in terms of the acting of the lead stars (more so with Matthew Broderick). I hope that if SUNSET BOULEVARD, the stage musical, ever makes it to the movies that it won't suffer by comparison as well, as the original movie is a film classic.

But I think there is awareness now among movie fans that the genre is being explored by movie producers.

#25

re: Did we act too soon about movie musicals?

Posted: 12/20/05 at 6:57pm

Do expect major comparisons when the Sunset Boulevard movie comes out. The original movie is so well done, it's magical, and every actor is flawless in their roles. I hope they don't try to emulate the feeling of the original movie because the bar is set up too high. I hope they go a different way.
Unfortunately, I have to agree about the appeal of big stars to a movie musical. People love to see that a movie actor can kick high and belt those notes, and some theatre snobs love to watch the movies just to criticize the idea that Broadway actors were not used in the film. So at the end, everyone goes watch the movie. I think the attention also depends on good directing and a good creative team. Rent suffered from some major directing flaws, I believe this was a film that should have been adapting by someone more familiar with the genre of musicals (Rob Marshall, Baz Luhrman) or with the Bohemian, raw style (Spike Lee, although he's being accused of being homophobic so I don't know about that).

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