Evergreen love for musicals

Hollywood musicals have their own charm. They ruled the roost until the 70s and after a lull for about two decades; at the dawn of new millennium, they made a comeback with vengeance. The fact that as many as 23 musicals were made in past decade states that the love for musicals has never ceased

All those who have watched Emma Watson starrer ‘Beauty and the Beast’ can’t get over the ballroom dance scene with Watson’s Belle and Dan Stevens’ Beast, and much of the magic has to do with fantastic vocals of John Legend and Ariana Grande. The duo sang the revitalised song originally sung by actress Angela Lansbury and also recorded by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson for the 1991 animated film with the same name.

The movie, which hit the screens this Friday, has been receiving good reviews with critics and moviegoers praising the musical, which has close to 19 tracks. Hollywood’s love for musicals is legendary, even though they do not make them often. However, in the past few years, the scenario changed a bit thanks to TV shows embracing musicals.

Musicals ruled the roost in the early stages of talkies and they were a rage until the 70s. The reluctance of studios to finance musicals started in the late 70s and early 80s. The cause for it still remains an enigma, as John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John starrer ‘Grease’ (1978), which was released in the same period was a stellar success and it still tops the lifetime gross collections of musicals.

The dawn of the new millennium saw a ray of hope with ‘Moulin Rouge’ (2001). Starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor - the Baz Luhrmann directorial raked in awards and rewards. In the later years with stars like Johnny Depp (‘Sweeny Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ (2007)) and Meryl Streep (‘Mamma Mia’ (2008)) acting in musicals, the winds began to change course.

It has been always said that the all major awards have soft spot for musicals. Moviegoers across the world crave for musicals and some have even become top grosser; yet directors have found it difficult to find financiers for them.

The perception of musicals as a riskier project changed in recent times and much has to do with the commercial and critical success of recent musicals like ‘Les Miserables’ (2012) and the Oscar nominated ‘La La Land’ (2016). Damien Chazelle, while accepting best screenplay award for ‘La La Land’ at Golden Globes, thanked his producers for “not blanching at what must have seemed like an utterly insane proposition.”

Hollywood musicals date back to 1927. The first singing voice was Al Jolson. He gave up Broadway career to play leading role in ‘The Jazz Singer’, a silent film with several sequences of songs. Upon release, the movie was a sensation among cine goers, changing the face of the film industry. Bizarrely, not many theatres were wired for sound at that time and ‘The Jazz Singer’ was shown as a silent film. Jolson’s next ‘The Singing Fool’ (1928) set the box office on fire with record collections.

In 1929, MGM’s ‘The Broadway Melody’ won Oscar, first for a musical. Despite some notable failures, musicals made steady progress during the 1930s. Successful Broadway shows continued to provide material for the filmmakers during the 1940s.

The 50s opened on a high note with Irving Berlin's Broadway hit, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. The advent of rock and roll had revolutionised tastes in popular music, heralding the end of the golden era of the musicals but the decade also had a classic in form of ‘An American in Paris’ (1951), which won six Oscars. The audience were won by charisma and athleticism of choreographer and star Gene Kelly. In the finale a 17-minute stunner, he woos Leslie Caron along the Seine. It was such a memorable sequence that Damien Chazelle admitted that he pillaged the finale for his movie ‘La La Land’.

The 60s perhaps gave best musicals although fewer such films were made. Shakespeare’s classic ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was adapted into a setting in New York for ‘West Side Story’ (1961), which won an unprecedented 10 Oscars. It gave musical masterpieces of all time like, “Maria”, “America”, “Tonight” and others.

‘My Fair Lady’ (1964), saw a stupendous performance by Rex Harrison as Harry Higgins, who reforms Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Dolittle. Hepburn’s performance in “I could have danced all night” is to be played and watched in the loop.

‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) is perhaps the most recognised, appreciated Hollywood musical across the world. Directed by Robert Wise, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, the movie is adapted from 1959 Broadway musical of the same name composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

Although critical response to the film was widely mixed, it was a major commercial success, becoming the number one box office movie after four weeks, and the highest-grossing film of 1965. The film was just as popular throughout the world, breaking previous box-office records in 29 countries.

‘Oliver’ (1968) the adaptation of Charles Dickens ‘Oliver Twist’ is the fourth musical in the decade to win Oscar for best picture.

In the past decade, 23 musicals were made by major studios and only three were undeniable flops – ‘Nine’ (2009), ‘Rock of Ages’ (2012) and ‘Across the Universe’ (2007). Anna Kendrick and Meryl Streep in ‘Into the Woods’ (2014) brought in $213 million for Disney, two years later, ‘Les Miserables’ with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway grossed $442 million for Universal. ‘Chicago’, the last musical to win the best picture at the Oscars, made $307 million.

Almost every major Disney animated film is technically an original musical, and the studio’s recent output has been extremely popular and profitable: ‘Moana’ (2016), ‘Frozen’ (2013), ‘The Princess and the Frog’ (2009) and ‘Tangled’ (2010). All these films featured works by major Broadway composers (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bobby Lopez, Randy Newman and Alan Menken) and made killings both at the box office and on iTunes.

However, the real surprise has been the comeback of original musicals in the unlikely medium of television. Unlike the often self-serious tone of many recent film musicals, television has embraced the poppy, and even sometimes a campy side of the musical. Shows like ‘Nashville’ or ‘Empire’ take place behind the scenes in their respective music industries (country music in the case of Nashville and hip-hop for Empire), much like the golden age movie musicals that were often set behind the scenes of a Broadway show.

Other shows, such as ‘Smash’ and ‘Glee’, go even further in their embrace of musical theatre tropes by straying into the surreal and fantastic when a character is in the midst of a song.

Future for musicals looks bright both on the small screen and the large screen with a nice line up of movies and TV shows. ‘All Eyez on Me’, which will be releasing in April is a pure biographical drama dedicated to the renowned rapper Tupac Shakur. It would be interesting to watch Demetrius Shipp as Tupac.

Music maestros Demi Lovato, Wilmer Valderrama, Sia Furler, Ashley Tisdale, Gem, and Avril Lavigne will come together for Disney’s animated film ‘Charmed’. It is rumoured that the movie is a combination of three stories, Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and will be hitting the screens in August.

Jennifer Lopez is coming up with a movie made for TV, titled ‘Bye Bye Birdie Live’, which will be hitting the small screens in December. Going by the trend, it looks like Hollywood is going to sing its way to success in the coming years, much to the delight of the movie goers, who seem to never have stopped loving musicals, especially if they are peppered with enough romance.