4 - The Anti-musical or Generic Affinity: Is there Anything Left to Say?

Summary

Though the film musical has experienced peaks and troughs in its popularity over the years, the stage musical, rather than straightforward drama, appears to be dominating London's West End and New York's Broadway, with hits such as Chicago (John Kander and Fred Ebb, 1975) and Miss Saigon (Claude- Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, 1980) running for years and still managing to bring in audiences. The longevity of these shows and their success is increasingly dependent on international tourists. Going to a performance in the West End or on Broadway is about more than the musical; it is an almost essential part of the city break experience, an experience shared by millions of people every year. There appears to be a joy in the familiar, in the collective experience of well-known stage plays, in the conservative, both generically and financially. Originality is dead, and tourism killed it. It is no surprise that the film industry has sought to replicate the success of the stage. As Ian Sapiro, K. J. Donnelly and Catherine Haworth explore in their chapters for this collection, musical theatre's triumph has led to some of the biggest stage shows being adapted into film musicals, with varying degrees of accomplishment: The Phantom of the Opera (Joel Schumacher, 2004), Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002), Dreamgirls (Bill Condon, 2006) and Into the Woods (Rob Marshall, 2014) are but a few recent examples.

Whilst the stage musical adaptation is, economically, going from strength to strength, cinema audiences still experience the rare treat of an original film musical. For instance, Ryan Bunch discusses Disney's success, epitomised by Frozen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Less, 2013). Other examples include the recent successes Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore, 2012) and Pitch Perfect 2 (Elizabeth Banks, 2015), The Muppets (Jason Bobin, 2011), or the rather less acclaimed Burlesque (Steven Antin, 2010). Indeed, although the musical heyday of classical Hollywood has passed, the film musical, ‘original’ or stage adaptation, is buoyant. Should we be pleased? Should we look to the steady flow of new film musicals, or indeed, the stream of films being turned into stage shows (for instance: Shrek in 2008, Mary Poppins in 2004, and Legally Blonde in 2007) with a sense of pleasing satisfaction ringing the bells of musical originality? My instinct is to pause when asking these questions; to ask myself what it is I want from the contemporary film musical.