It seems that a mermaid and a bookish beauty have revived that long-slumbering monster, the movie musical.
Buoyed by the phenomenal success of its animated features ”The Little Mermaid” and ”Beauty and the Beast,” the folks at Disney Studios have taken a flier on ”Newsies,” Hollywood`s first live-action, wall-to-wall singing and dancing picture written directly for the screen since ”All That Jazz”
(1979) and ”Xanadu” (1980).
”The money is coming back to movie musicals,” says Alan Menken, Oscar-winning composer of ”Mermaid,” ”Beauty” and ”Newsies.”
The turn-of-the-century chronicle of paperboys on strike against publisher Joseph Pulitzer opened to mixed reviews and unenthusiastic box-office. But while the $25 million production may not recoup its investment theatrically, there are indications that ”Newsies” is an early sign of a rebirth in film musicals.
”Sarafina!” the upbeat struggle of a politically active Soweto girl in the days before Nelson Mandela`s release from prison, recently completed filming in South Africa. Adapted from the successful stage show incorporating the mbaqanga rhythms of the townships, the movie stars Miriam Makeba and Whoopi Goldberg.
”Batman” director Tim Burton has announced plans to adapt the lip-smacking ”Sweeney Todd,” Stephen Sondheim`s tale of revenge, cannibalism and commerce in Victorian England.
The late Jim Henson`s company has announced intentions to film Sondheim`s ambitious ”Into the Woods,” about fairy-tale heroes and heroines who did not exactly live happily ever after. And Sondheim is developing an original movie musical for director Rob Reiner.
Meanwhile, on the animation front, Disney is rushing to complete
”Aladdin”-with songs by Menken and the late Howard Ashman-in time for Thanksgiving release.
”We`re working on another animated film, `Pocahontas,` which should be released around holiday time in 1994,” Menken says.
These new projects are the spawn of a glorious tradition that includes Fred Astaire`s graceful flights with Ginger Rogers, Lena Horne`s melodious misbehavior with a bobbing Bill ”Bojangles” Robinson, and the ultra-cool Jets waging a dance of death with the salsa-hot Sharks.
Escalating movie costs, a generation gap in musical tastes and a phenomenon called Elvis all contributed to the eclipse of the song-and-dance film during the late `50s. It proved cheaper and more profitable to make a quickie picture such as the Elvis vehicle ”Jailhouse Rock” (1957) than to choreograph, score and film a spectacle on the order of ”Silk Stockings”
(also 1957).
Besides, Cole Porter musicals were something parents hummed along to. Their children shook, rattled and rolled to a different drummer.
”Rock `n` roll is partially the reason for the decline of the traditional musical,” says Menken, who recently collected two Oscars for
”Beauty and the Beast.”
The rise of rock promoted a cult of personality around singer-songwriters (think Paul Simon, Carole King, Randy Newman, Marvin Gaye) who wrote for their own voices instead of composing musicals for others. With the exception of the Who ”rock opera” ”Tommy” (filmed in 1975) and the Bee Gees disco outing ”Saturday Night Fever” (1977), the pop-rock set didn`t contribute as much to the form of dramatic musicals as their Tin Pan Alley-trained forebears did.
Thus promising musical-comedy talents such as Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross and Tommy Tune did not have the movie careers they might have enjoyed a generation earlier.
Menken, 41, cites his own evolving musical tastes as an example of how prevailing musical idioms may have shaped the ambitions of his generation: ”I grew up wanting to be a serious composer, and then along came the `60s, and I wanted to be a rock star.”
For his age group, Menken believes, ”the need for theatrical music was fulfilled instead by the live concerts of Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.”
Although Hollywood mounted lively film versions of Broadway smashes of
”Bye Bye Birdie” (1963), ”The Sound of Music” (1965) and ”Funny Girl”
(1968), during the `60s and `70s costly musicals such as ”Camelot” (1967)
and ”Lost Horizon” (1973) arrived to the screen embalmed.
These failures-especially when viewed against the runaway success of the Beatles` slapstick ”A Hard Day`s Night” (1964)-did not bode well for the genre.
Menken notes that during the genre`s eclipse, Disney`s kiddie-oriented
”Mary Poppins” (1964) was probably the last movie-musical hit until
”Fame” in 1980.
For the most part, the Hollywood musical had died, revived only in three- minute spurts on MTV. Or in the music-video-inspired ”Flashdance” (1983)
and ”Purple Rain” (1984).
Despite attempts at resuscitating the traditional movie musical with
”New York, New York” (1977), the Village People romp ”Can`t Stop the Music” (1980) and cult favorite ”Pennies From Heaven” (1981), none was successful.
Faring better were musical biographies (without dancing) such as ”Lady Sings the Blues” (1972), ”The Buddy Holly Story” (1978), ”The Rose”
(1979), ”Coal Miner`s Daughter” (1980) and ”La Bamba” (1987). Inexplicably, ”The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982) was a big hit.
New musical idioms of punk and rap inspired the delightful ”Starstruck” (1982) and ”Krush Groove” (1985). In both cases the soundtracks did better than the films. Attempts to capitalize on the success of ”Fame” in the film musicals ”Tap” (1989) and ”Sing” (1989) were dead on arrival at the box office.
While ”Absolute Beginners” (1986), set in 1958 London, was an flop, the `50s spoofs ”Grease” (1978) and ”Hairspray” (1988) enjoyed success.
”But there was a hunger to return to more serious forms,” says Menken, who acknowledges that the ”serious” musicals were being written for stage, most notably by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sondheim, who avoid the rock idiom.
It struck Menken and Ashman that it was possible, as Menken says, ”to write musicals in the old style without exactly spoofing them, but instead commenting on the conventions of the form. That`s why we were able to break through with `Little Shop of Horrors,` ” which was a hit for the team off-Broadway and on screen.
If rock `n` roll contributed to the temporary eclipse of the movie musical, then what does Menken think is responsible for its comeback?
”It has to do with our times,” he says. ”The Baby Boomers are having their own kid boom, and we want to impart to our children the forms we grew up loving. Furthermore, as a culture, we`re experiencing the limits of freedom. We`re returning to classical values and art forms.” (Revivals of b”Gypsy”
and ”The Most Happy Fella” on Broadway have been enormously popular.)
Concludes Menken, who resists the image of the movie musical as a Sleeping Beauty kissed awake by her prince, ”I like to think of it as a form that`s having a renaissance.”
