Jim On Film
Page 2 of 3

The Myth
For many years, it has been the myth that contemporary audiences are too sophisticated to find a musical entertaining. With that, many producers shied away from the thought.

First of all, any audience who buys some of the stories in movies today, like The Terminator, Speed, Minority Report, or The Lord of the Rings, can buy musicals. It is no more of a stretch to have someone singing their deepest emotions than it is to have a talking tree carrying two hobbits.

Secondly, if audiences really couldn’t buy the concept of a musical, then musicals on television wouldn’t be so popular. Mrs. Santa Claus, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and Annie earned such high ratings because they were done well. In fact, since their success, studios have thrown around many other ideas for television musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun and Mame.

Thirdly, ask any student actor which productions find the larger audience, the musicals or the plays. Ask any Broadway producer, which productions find the larger audience, musicals or plays. The answer is almost always musicals.

In addition to this, many television shows have created special musical episodes which have proven popular. On top of this, musical sequences are slowly finding their way back into live-action films, such as those in My Best Friend’s Wedding and A Walk to Remember.

When done well, musicals are very popular, both the traditional and the non-traditional. If Disney can find a way to fix some of the problems that have plagued film musicals in the past (such as characters singing into the camera as if a stage audience is present) and find the right talent, they can make musicals successful again. With a targeted family audience, there is so much for them to gain.

The Reasons
Just as with their animated musicals, Disney would stand to gain a lot from live-action theatrical musicals. First of all, just as television musicals have proven, there is a large audience out there who would be interested in a musical that was done right. Secondly, in addition to the theatrical viewing and the home viewing profits, Disney could have a hot soundtrack on the charts with songs that could be used profitably in theme parks, on television, in publishing, and for licensing to other performers. Additionally, if done well, a musical can live on to be major profit-earners for decades to come. The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris, and a host of other films have all proven to be popular even now, many, many years after their initial release.

The key to all of this is doing it well. The key to doing it well is heading East.

The Stars
Musicals are meant to be sung. That means that they need stars in them who know how to sing the music, not just stars who can sing or can learn how to sing, but stars who sing. Nowadays, the best of the best in musical storytelling are East.

(c) Disney

Currently, most negative comments about Chicago are that Richard Gere and Renée Zellweger are not strong singers (Catherine Zeta-Jones is a stage veteran) and that Queen Latifah does not have a voice strong enough for the material. The average Broadway understudy has a voice that can blow away any pop talent, and the average Broadway performer has enough movement experience (if not training) to be able to pull off most dance steps. In the end, this would make the expensive process of making a musical considerably cheaper. The average Broadway show has four weeks of rehearsal . . . some reports claimed that Chicago had five months.

Of the three recent television musicals from Disney, one of the strong criticisms of Gepetto was its reliance on television stars (Drew Carey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) instead of pulling more from Broadway as it had for Annie and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Even in Disney history, two of the strongest assets for Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks have been their Broadway leads--Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury--while Babes in Toyland and Pete’s Dragon generally get called on for their casting of Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, and Helen Reddy in lead roles.

If cast well, audiences will look beyond the lack of a name in order to see a film, and the nameless star can become a superstar overnight as Julie Andrews did. And in reality, for Disney, often the best name above the title is Disney.