The Movie Musical

So I was watching Singin' In The Rain on PBS this afternoon, starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. I began to wonder what ever happened to the movie musical, which happened to be oh so popular back around that time period. It also makes for good watching too. Thinking about it, the last real movie musical was probably Blaues Brothers 2000. Things like Chicago or The Producers don't count because they were simply movie adaptations of stage plays, although I suppose that The Producers is a movie adaptation of a stage adaptation of a movie. But even so, musical movies have fallen out of fashion as well. Even with the Walt Disney Company, which really hasn't had a musical animated feature probably since the days of the Lion King. I suppose this can be attributed to at least two things: one being the lack of good source material, and two being the lack of well rounded star talent. I suppose the major reason surrounding all of this is that people just aren't interested in them anymore, that they'd rather see some formulaic action or comedy movie.

Since the majority of the 'classic' musicals were made into movies several decades ago, there hasn't been much of a need to make any of them ever again. That being said, writers also stopped creating original movie musicals in the style of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly films. So the well has run dry, and it really isn't much of a surprise that there aren't any more in the works. Although that particularly surprises me when it comes to Disney, or Pixar or Dreamworks. The plan these days seems to be more to take some preexisting story or some variation thereof, add in a catchy theme sung by some pop princess of the day and add in some other odds and ends pieces by various notable artists to fill out the soundtrack and get it flying off of shelves. But where are the days of Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story? But I digress.

The other thing I have noticed, and this one more than the aforementioned and elaborated reason annoys me. There is a definite lack of starpower capable of pulling of such a feat as Kelly and Astaire once did. Which is funny, because the industry papers and what not will tout the hot young stars as triple or quadruple threats because they can act, sing, dance, and chew gum or something else. But in actuality these appear to be very superficial assessments. I think what has killed this once vanguard of American cinema, and it seemed very unique to American cinema, although I suppose there are a plethora of Bollywood pictures that would argue otherwise, is the specialization and separation of the entertainment industry. Things have divided themselves into at least two separate categories, film and stage. It's always a coup when there is crossover from film to stage, at least in a dramatic sense. But there are very few who have the ability to make the crossover from film to musical stage. Off the top of my head, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Christina Applegate, that's all I can come up with. But within this subdivision, roles are subdivided so you have dancers and singers and actors, but rarely one who combines all three to a level of capability. The late Gregory Hines comes to mind.

Bring back the days of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Hell, bring back the days of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.