More Movie Musicals !!

A Brief History 

A movie musical or a musical film is a motion picture that integrates musical numbers into the plot. This is usually considered an American genre; however, films from India, Japan, Italy, France, Great Britain, and Germany have contributed to the development of this genre. 

The 1930s through 1950s are considered the first classical sound era or First Musical Era. This time is considered the Golden Age of Musical Film. At this time, the genre was at its peak popularity in the Western world. 

These early musicals weren’t the musicals we know and love today. The music simply served as a soundtrack or sound effect. The actors weren’t singing along. It was more so getting bonked on the head and hearing boing boing boing. 

The Jazz Singer was released in 1927 by Warner Brothers. This is considered the first musical and first talkie, although it was just a small amount of dialogue. This was the first feature-length film to have an actor lip-syncing to synchronized music. 

The following year, Warner Brothers also released The Singing Fool. After this, production companies scrambled to install new sound equipment and hired Broadway composers to write musical numbers for the big screen. 

Even non-musical films included musical sequences. For example, the first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, included a musical sequence in a nightclub. 

MGM Studios advertised the 1929 movie The Broadway Melody as the first “All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing” feature film. The movie follows two singing sisters and a man that gets in between them. It was a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1929. 

Studios saw the success of movie musicals and they started to create extravagant movie versions of Broadway hits. For example, Warner Brothers produced a movie version of the operetta The Desert Song in 1929. A large percentage of the film was shot in Technicolor. After this was released, the studio released the first all-color, all-talking musical feature titled On with the Show. 

The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature titled Gold Diggers of Broadway. This film broke all box office records and remained the highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939 when a certain diva walked down the yellow brick road. 

Hollywood released more than 100 musicals in 1930. They continued to be released throughout the decade and many of them were directed by Busby Berkeley, a former Broadway dance director who used his experience as a soldier during World War I to choreograph dance numbers. 

He used his experience with drill precision to stage elaborate dance sequences. Bringing serving to a whole new level. Some of his films include Footlight Parade and Forty-second Street, both released in 1933. 

Berkeley wasn’t the only one drawing attention to movie musicals during the Golden Age. Singing and dancing duos became the stars of the show. For example, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed together in movies like Top Hat, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance. 

When musicals first became popular, the musical numbers in the movie simply served as dance breaks to break up a scene. The actors weren’t singing songs to further the plot or reveal something about the character. Unless it was a Broadway stage-to-screen adaptation. 

During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit at MGM headed by Arthur Freed solidified the movement of furthering the plot through song and dance. These are songs that reveal a character’s intentions or feelings or literally explain exactly what’s happening in the movie. They are not just singing and dancing, they are continuing the plot through show tunes. 

Products of this MGM unit include Meet Me in St. Louis, Easter Parade, On the Town, An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon, and Gigi. The studio also distributed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High Society, and Guys and Dolls. 

Outside of MGM, other studios released iconic films such as Oklahoma!, The King and I, Carousel, South Pacific, White Christmas, Funny Face, Calamity Jane, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and A Star Is Born. 

Because it was the Golden Age of Musical Film, musical stars became household names including Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Donald O'Connor, Cyd Charisse, Mickey Rooney, Vera-Ellen, Jane Powell, Howard Keel, and Kathryn Grayson. 

Director Otto Preminger made Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess, both starring Dorothy Dandridge, who is considered the first African American A-list film star.

Although the Golden Age may have ended in the 1950s, the movie-musical genre continued to thrive throughout the 1960s. These are just some of the critically acclaimed and successful movies from the 1960s: West Side Story, The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Jungle Book, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Oliver!, and Funny Girl. 

Many musical films of the ‘50s and ‘60s were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful Broadway and stage productions. However, Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book are two of the most successful musicals of all time and these were created specifically for film. 

At this time, musicals were used as a way to exploit the appeal of popular singers. However, despite starring big stars, movie musicals declined in popularity throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

There have been many successful films during these decades. Cabaret was released in 1972 and the following year, Jesus Christ Superstar was released and well received by everyone except religious groups for obvious reasons. Grease was released in 1978 and was a smash hit. 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was originally released in 1975 but wasn’t popular until midnight screenings began in the ‘80s. 

But still, by the ‘80s, investors were confident in movie musicals. Movie musicals from the ‘80s and ‘90s include: The Apple, Xanadu, The Blues Brothers, Annie, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Victor/Victoria, Footloose, Fast Forward, A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Forbidden Zone, Absolute Beginners, Labyrinth, Evita, and Everyone Says I Love You.

This era also included the Disney Renaissance with an explosion of Disney movie musicals, starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989. I glossed over this before but Disney and its princesses have been singing and dancing in movie musicals since Snow White met the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. 

Other successful animated musicals of this time include Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Prince of Egypt, and Anastasia. 

The 21st Century is considered the New Age for Movie Musicals. The genre has been reborn with new original movie musicals and remakes and adaptions of classics. The genre now includes darker musicals, biopics, epic dramas, and comedy dramas. 

Examples of New Age Musicals include Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Walk the Line, Dreamgirls, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Hairspray, Mamma Mia!, Into the Woods, Les Misérables, The Greatest Showman, Mary Poppins Returns, Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tick, Tick…Boom!, In the Heights, La La Land, and The Color Purple. Just to name a few. 

A specific trend in the New Age of Movie Musicals is the rise of jukebox musicals. Many people hate these, but I really love them. And I’m sure you love a jukebox musical too because some other examples of jukebox musicals are Mamma Mia!, Rock of Ages, Across the Universe, Happy Feet, and Pitch Perfect. 

Some of these are not just jukebox musicals, but also musical biopics. Examples of these include Bohemian Rhapsody about Queen, Rocketman about Elton John, Respect about Aretha Franklin, Elvis about Elvis, and Jersey Boys about the…Jersey Boys. 

Disney musicals also got a makeover during this New Age of Movie Musicals. Disney musicals from this era include Enchanted, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Frozen, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, Into the Woods, Moana, Mary Poppins Returns, Frozen II, and Encanto among many, many others. 

This era also includes the live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid. 

Successful Shows 

La La Land is one of the most well-known original musicals of this New Age Era of Musical Film. The movie received 14 nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, tying the record for most nominations with All About Eve and Titanic, and won the awards for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Production Design. 

Although La La Land may prove this wrong, movie musicals are often caught between two worlds at award shows. They are not live or staged enough to qualify for a Tony, but are not typically respected enough to win big at the Oscars. 

Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes separated their film awards by genre and linked two genres together, naming the award: Best Original Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Although, not all musicals are comedies. But, the title of the awards isn’t too strict, for example, Bohemian Rhapsody won Best Motion Picture - Drama. So… seems like anything goes… 

There have only been ten movie musicals that have won the Best Picture Oscar throughout the history of cinema. The most recent was Chicago, released in 2002. The others include The Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfield, Going My Way, An American in Paris, Gigi, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Oliver! But, awards are not the only indicator of success. 

When adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing musical films are The Sound of Music, with an inflation-adjusted worldwide gross of $2,572,000,000; followed by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with an inflation-adjusted worldwide gross of $1,977,000,000 (both as of 2019).

This is the list of the top 10 highest-grossing musical films, but please note that these are not adjusted for inflation: 

• Lion King live-action remake (2019): $1,656, 943,394

• Frozen II (2019): $1,450,026,933 

• Frozen (2013): $1,397,042,530 

• Beauty and the Beast Live action remake (2017): $1,264,435,322 

• Aladdin live-action remake (2019): $1,050,693,953 

• The original Lion King (1994): $969,587,805 

• The Jungle Book remake (2016): $966,550,600 

• Bohemian Rhapsody (2018): $903,655,259 

• Moana (2016): $634,151,679 

Believe it or not, Wonka is #11 on this list. Another one that made me laugh was Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakqual is #21. Which is listed above A Star is Born starring Lady Gaga. 

Broadway, Babies! 

Hollywood has figured out that it’s much less risky to adapt a stage production or remake a movie that has a built-in fan base. Which is why we see more musical adaptations and remakes than new ideas. 

This isn’t a new concept. For example, The Wizard of Oz released in 1939 is a movie adaptation of a 1903 Broadway musical. 

The original story comes from L. Frank Baum’s children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which was published in 1900. In the summer of 1901, Baum, illustrator W. W. Denslow, and composer Paul Tietjens started producing The Wizard of Oz on stage. Baum wrote an operetta-style libretto that was quite faithful to the original book, Tietjens began writing music to Baum’s lyrics, and Denslow began to create designs and network with his theater friends to find a producer.

The proposal eventually made its way to Fred Hamlin, producer of the Grand Opera House in Chicago. Legend has it that Hamlin took a chance on the show because it had “wizard” in the title and his family made its fortune from Hamlin’s Wizard Oil — a cure-all medical tonic. Hamlin showed the material to up-and-coming stage director Julian Mitchell.

But, Mitchell wasn’t interested in Baum and Tietjens’s operetta. He had his own vision of their show. He wanted extravagance! So, they rewrote it and it turned into a fun, catchy show we all know and love. 

The Wizard of Oz opened on June 16, 1902, at the Grand Opera House in Chicago. It was a huge summer hit. After playing for twelve weeks, it set out on a tour of the upper Midwest, then returned to Chicago. 

On January 21, 1903, The Wizard of Oz opened on Broadway at the brand-new Majestic Theatre on Columbus Circle. The audience couldn’t get enough. They came back for seconds and thirds. They brought their kids. Everyone bought the sheet music, the phonograph records, the player-piano rolls, and the original novel!

I think we’re all aware, but I need to point out that the new Wicked musical is also based on the Broadway show that was loosely based on a novel. If you haven’t read the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, you should. It is so weird. 

Anyway, typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Which is the best part of a movie musical. Everything is so extravagant and weird! 

I want to list some Broadway shows that turned into amazing movie musicals. I’ve already mentioned a lot of these and I’m aware there are more that I’m missing, but if you are obsessed with the movie versions, you may not know these were stage shows before being on the big screen. 

These include Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, Chicago, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Dreamgirls, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Annie, Hairspray, Rent, Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, and Into the Woods to slay the house, to slay the boots! 

Special Shoutouts 

There is one final section of the movie musical genre I need to discuss. That is Disney Channel Original Movie Musicals. Even if you claim to hate musicals, I know you rocked out to a Disney Channel Original Movie Musical. You were raised on it, just admit it. 

I can’t talk about Disney Channel Original Movie Musicals without talking about the king of choreo himself, Kenny Ortega. 

Kenny Ortega made his directorial debut in 1992 with the best Disney Channel Original Movie Musical to ever exist: Newsies starring a young, hot, hunky, multi-talented Christian Bale. He went on to direct and choreograph High School Musical and The Cheetah Girls 2 in 2006. Then the king directed and choreographed High School Musical 2 and High School Musical 3: Senior Year. 

He also directed and choreographed the three Descendants movies. 

Some other iconic Disney Channel Original Movie Musicals include the Cheetah Girls and Camp Rock franchises, both Teen Beach Movies, Lemonade Mouth, and Let It Shine. Other movies like Lizzie McGuire, the Hannah Montana Movie, and Stuck in the Suburbs have music or songs associated with or created specifically for the movie, but those are considered songs for the soundtrack rather than a movie musical. 

But we all know this is what Lizzie’s dreams are made of. 

We Want More!  

Movie musicals are surprisingly good if you keep in mind that they are meant to be weird. In other words, suspension of disbelief is needed to enjoy a movie musical. Also, you have to stop comparing it to the original source material. I am so sorry that you didn’t get the praise you deserve Mean Girls Movie Musical! 

I want more fun movie musicals, especially those that create such an entertaining atmosphere like Wicked has done. Bring back fun, whimsical movie musicals!