Hollywood movie musical’s comeback Complete Name List
Hollywood movie musical’s comeback Complete Name List
Old refrain: The movie musical is making a comeback.
New refrain: The movie musical is officially here.
The box-office bonanza reaped by Hairspray and the critical triumph of Sweeney Todd should be evidence a-plenty to persuade any naysayers to change their tune. advertisementÂ
Hollywood certainly is a convert as it continues to plunder the Broadway stage. In the wings is July’s Mamma Mia!, the mother of all jukebox musicals, with Meryl Streep doing ABBA. Chicago director Rob Marshall will be counting on Nine, the musical version of the 1963 Fellini classic 8 with Oscar winner Javier Bardem in the lead. Jersey Boys and Spring Awakening are likely prospects.
“Audiences and studios are no longer afraid of musicals,” says Thomas S. Hischak, a theater professor at State University of New York at Cortland.
Ever since those sinful chanteuses steamed up the screen in 2002’s Chicago, causing the snazzy sensation to become the first musical since 1968’s Oliver! to snag Oscar gold as best picture, fans of Broadway-style song-and-dance routines have been hoping that the revival wasn’t a fluke.
Sour notes followed, including 2005’s The Producers. But after 2006’s Dreamgirls launched Jennifer Hudson’s movie career and crossed the $100 million barrier, it was as if the genre itself were wailing And I’m Telling You (I’m Not Going).
“Today’s audiences are just more attuned to the art form, thanks to such shows as American Idol and Disney’s High School Musical phenom,” Hischak says.
“Someone finally figured out how to make musicals for kids,” says Craig Zadan, a creative force with producing partner Neil Meron behind Chicago and Hairspray. “No one had ever served that audience before.”
Still, Meron concedes, “It’s a difficult genre to sell. There has to be a reason for people to see them.”
In many cases, a chance to watch stars stretch themselves in song, whether John Travolta flouncing about in a fat suit or Beyoncé as an ersatz Diana Ross, is all it takes.
At least there has been progress in one area.
“They used to blame the genre for a flop,” Meron says. “Now they blame the individual movie.”
Hollywood movie musical’s comeback Complete Name List. Editing by Elizabeth Tang
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