With movie musicals such as Mamma Mia, Hairspray, and the upcoming Wicked movies, excitement around movie musicals has grown, causing more and more people to catch the theater bug. I remember when I was in New York for my high school trip and we were able to go see Phantom of the Opera and at intermission, a lady in the row across from me was watching the movie and commenting on how she couldn’t believe they made her favorite movie a musical. While that brings this thespian so much joy that people find different means of finding theater, there are some ideas I would like to share on how to get staged productions into the mainstream, as well as some of my personal views on movie musicals.
For starters, I believe that we need more pro shots of musicals currently on Broadway, as well as revivals. For example, PBS is set to air Waitress The Musical on November 15 across its platforms, and Amazon has it available to buy. Newsies released a pro-shot first on Netflix a few years ago, and then on Disney+. There are also multiple videos of productions to be found on Youtube. And let’s not forget the Hamilton pro-shot that came out during 2020. Although having some accessibility is great, there is a limited variety of pro shots that are free and easily accessible to the public. I believe that if Broadway performances were filmed and shown in movie theaters, as well as easily accessible, more people could be encouraged to gain an interest in theater and allow those who don’t have the means to see shows live the opportunity to experience it.
I would also like to encourage more adaptations of musicals similar to that of Tick, Tick, BOOM! and RENT. Using the recent Mean Girls remake as an example, the film seemed to suffer in an attempt to appeal to the target audience of teen TikTokers. Despite having cast members who have experience on Broadway and with musical theatre (Renee Rapp, the woman that you are <3), the movie seemed to fall short of the original stage production. Similarly, the Cats musical from 2019 that took the internet by storm with its not-so-great CGI and questionable casting is another example of trying to oversell itself to a new audience. Not to say that either remake was terrible, but there is a difference in quality when comparing these to other movie musicals such as Chicago and Grease. However, there are also some movie musicals that got pretty damn close to the actual thing, with the exception of a few cut songs and scenes. Movies like the 2022 Matilda musical and the 2021 West Side Story stayed as true to the original productions as possible, while also garnering a good deal of media hype.
Like it or not, movie musicals have been a bigger part of our culture than some people realize. Movies such as Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz, even the classic Barbie movies, shaped our childhoods. We grew into our middle school years with original Disney musicals like Teen Beach Movie, Camp Rock, and High School Musical. Even movies such as La La Land have captured the attention and imaginations of millions of people as we fell in love with the Technicolor world presented to us. I strongly believe that every person should have a musical that they can resonate with and connect to on deep levels, so as many as possible should be shared with the world and have music spread across the world.