A discussion of Film, TV, and other random subjects
In high school, I took a break from my comic book geekdom and became a musical theater nerd. While I can’t sing, dance, or act in any capacity (I became a writer instead!) I always enjoyed the fun, magical world where people break into song and dance for no apparent reason. I immersed myself in the music of Sondheim, Lloyd Webber, and those French guys who wrote Les Misérables.
While I loved the stage versions of many musicals, I always wondered how they would fare cinematically. Sadly, in the 80s, the music genre was dead and long past buried. That is until “Moulin Rouge!” and “Chicago” ushered in a glorious revival in the early 2000s. And many of my cherished stage musicals got the big-screen treatment, to varying results.
The following reviews are of musicals that started on the stage, comparing the different versions and looking at the terrible precedent of “film actors who can’t sing” (I’m looking at you, Mamma Mia!)
