Musicals
For years I’ve watched movie musicals. Many different musicals. And I can say with almost no exception, I’ve hated them all.
I have never really known why I hate them, but something about the constant singing and dancing in the movies really annoys me. I suppose it breaks my suspension of disbelief or something. It just seems too unrealistic. While I admit it would be sort of cool if people would randomly break into song from time to time and the entire school would join in, it just doesn’t happen in real life.
I’m sure by now you are all thinking that I have no soul, but bear with me.
Here’s the thing. I really hate the movies. I find I always enjoy seeing musicals performed live. I think the three musicals I’ve seen at Uni were really good, and I have enjoyed the handful I’ve seen at the Virginia. I enjoyed the first two musicals I saw at Uni (“Bye Bye Birdie” and “The Pajama Game”) enough to dare to watch the movies. And I have to say that those movies were two of the worst I’ve ever seen.
After being very disappointed two movies in a row, the thought struck me: Musicals really don’t translate well from the stage to the silver screen. In the “Bye Bye Birdie” production at Uni there was a funny scene where the title character, Conrad Birdie, an Elvis-like superstar, arrives in town and everyone is so infatuated by him that everyone in the scene faints. It was funny, and it worked.
But in the movie version, the same scene occurs, except in a large city park. To show everyone fainted there is a very wide shot looking over the entire park and there are hundreds of people lying unconscious — many of whom are no where near Birdie. At this point my suspension of disbelief had been totally killed, and the movie did not get any better.
Unlike a movie, which shows you everything in the scene, plays are much more minimalistic. On set there are only the props needed to make the scene move along, and the scenery which is just enough to set the mood and tell you where you are. Therefore, in a play there is a lot more room for imagination, which works really well for the kind of scene where everyone collapses.
So even though I really enjoyed “Anything Goes,” I don’t think I’ll be renting the movie any time soon.
— Deren Kudeki
Comments
Are you counting Willy Wonka (either the 1971 version or the 2005 version) as a movie musical?
-Ben
Posted by: Ben Hyman | April 25, 2007 7:06 AM
check out the more modern movie musicals. while i’ll admit that “rent” is about 10 gazillion times better on stage, the movie versions of “chicago” and “dreamgirls” actually did the stageshows justice. also, baz luhrmann’s “moulin rouge” (while admittedly a total chick flick) takes into account the unlikeliness of the whole musical thing and runs with it.
Posted by: zoe | April 25, 2007 8:08 AM
Deren, I understand your larger point, but I have to take issue with your assessment of “Bye Bye Birdie.” (I’m speaking of the original 1963 movie version starring Ann-Margret.) If you accept the film at face value, then I would agree that it’s not worth watching, especially compared to the theatrical version. But I’ve always viewed that movie ironically, which is how I think it’s meant to be viewed. Nothing is meant to be taken at face value. Viewed that way, the movie is one of the most deliciously subversive I’ve ever seen, starting with the casting of outré gay Paul Lynde as the superstraight all-American father. (Lynde was in the Broadway version as well, but the safe choice for Hollywood in those days would have been to cast someone else in that role.) Watch it again that way, and see what you think.
BTW, Zoë’s comments are right on target. I enjoyed the film version of “Dreamgirls” and consider “Moulin Rouge” one of the most brilliant productions of the last 15 years or so. Of course, I’m a huge Baz Luhrmann fan, so I’m prejudiced.
Posted by: dporreca | April 25, 2007 9:24 AM
I don’t have any insight as to whether Deren has a soul—-ask me this time next year—-but I agree with him 100%. I totally loved Anything Goes as performed at Uni, but there’s no doubt musicals are kinda dumb and contrived; and when you put them on the screen, it’s like contrived-squared.
I’m in favor of a more realistic genre I call the Fightical. Anytime characters are so overcome by emotion that they feel inclined to sing or dance, they just take it out on whoever’s nearby. Like the leading lady trying to win a man from her rival: stiletto heel to the kneecap. I think that makes her point more effectively than song.
Or the hopeful male lead finally noticed by his crush: “She smiled at me today! I think I’ll go beat up my accountant.”
Anyone who saw Ethel Merman in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World knows there’s a future in this.
Posted by: Ray | April 25, 2007 10:16 AM
Ah, “Moulin Rouge.” That along with Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” are the two musicals that I really enjoyed. Both poke fun at the absurdity of musicals.
I wasn’t aware of any irony in the “Bye Bye Birdie” movie, but I didn’t really look into such things before watching it.
Posted by: Deren Kudeki | April 25, 2007 11:18 AM
For the ultimate in ironic (and surrealistically dark) musicals, rife with self-referential mockery and deliberate, unapologetic jumps out of reality, nothing beats Steve Martin’s very early film Pennies from Heaven. Just thinking about makes me want to go home and watch it for its bitter weirdness. It’s hard to believe he made it only two years after The Jerk.
Posted by: Frere Jean | April 25, 2007 4:06 PM