The Art of Movie Musicals: The Good, The Bad, and The So-Bad-It’s-Good

Despite being one of the most influential genres in film history, movie musicals are often looked down upon for the way characters burst into song and dance, followed by their oftentimes simple and playful plots. Jeanine Basinger says in her book “The Movie Musical!” that, “A movie musical is built around the ideas that songs and dances can be used to tell a story, or used in part to tell a story, or used to tell part of a story. Musicals are defined not just by singing songs or doing a little dancing, but by the concept of music” (Basinger 19,20). When they are done correctly, movie musicals can be a brilliant form of escapism and a creative way of storytelling. But how does one correctly create a movie musical? The term “correctly” is used here to describe a film that appeases both audiences and critics through the way it adapts a stage musical into a film fit for the silver screen. A successful stage-to-screen adaptation needs to consider factors such as the timing of its release and transforming the screenplay to appeal to movie audiences while keeping the energy of the live musical. When a movie musical is released, it often falls into one of the following categories: good, bad, and so-bad-it's-good. A good movie musical is successful in the way it is adapted and leaves critics, film lovers, and musical lovers alike leaving the movie theatre feeling happy and satisfied with what they have seen. The 2002 film adaptation of Bob Fosse’s Broadway classic Chicago is a perfect example of this. A bad movie musical has the polar opposite effect on audiences, as proven by the infamous 2019 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. The final category, so-bad-it’s-good, is a staple of the genre. Though it may not appeal to wide audiences or receive negative reviews from critics, films in this category often develop a passionate fanbase due to the dedication and spirit of the adaptation, with the structural flaws almost adding to its charm. An example of this is Mamma Mia!, the 2008 adaptation of the beloved ABBA jukebox musical. Analyzing a film from each of these categories is essential to fully understand what differentiates the categories. 

Directed by former Broadway dancer and choreographer Rob Marshall, Chicago was praised by audiences and critics during its 2002 release. The movie tells the story of the women on Murderess’ Row at the Cook County Jail in 1920’s Chicago after aspiring performer Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) kills a man. While she is serving time, her and famous nightclub performer Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) fight for the attention of skillful lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) with hopes he can help them obtain their innocence. In the 1975 original stage version of the musical, the story is told in the normal musical way through characters breaking into song throughout. For the film, screenwriter Bill Condon made the ingenious move to have the musical numbers portrayed taking place in Roxie’s imagination. A huge part of her character is her desire for a life in the spotlight, so this justification of the musical numbers serves as a way to further show this side of the character while also allowing film audiences who have a distaste for musicals not have to suspend their disbelief too much. 

Another factor that makes this film stand out is its casting, an aspect that often makes or breaks a movie of this genre. Though it is usually looked down upon by the theater community when celebrities with little to no stage experience are casted in movie musicals, all of the performances given by the Chicago cast were stellar. Catherine Zeta-Jones’ portrayal of Velma Kelly earned her an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress, along with nominations for Renee Zellweger for Lead Actress, Queen Latifah for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Matron “Mama” Morton, and John C. Reilly for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Amos Hart. This cast left audiences pleasantly surprised, delivering unexpectedly great vocal performances specifically from Zeta-Jones, Reilly, and Latifah. What Zellweger and Gere lacked in vocals, they made up for in charisma and one hundred percent commitment to their characters. Catherine Zeta-Jones at the time was known by American audiences for her film acting, however most people were unaware that she not only studied musical theater throughout her life, but also has a background performing in West End musicals. Though the entire cast delivered with their performances, Zeta-Jones is clearly the standout with her triple threat performing skills of singing, dancing, and acting all perfectly on display. John C. Reilly was known before this film’s release for more serious roles, so his light hearted and sympathetic acting and singing performance as Roxie’s naive husband was a shocking twist and a success. Queen Latifah was known to the public for her rap career, so her powerhouse vocal performance of the song “When You’re Good To Mama” showed off her musical versatility. The timing of the release of Chicago also helped accumulate the praise it received. Released only four years after the infamous OJ Simpson trial, the film about the glorification of a murder trial was very culturally relevant and familiar to the target audience. Emily Sullock explains in her theses “Chicago: A Movie Musical Mockery of Media’s Razzle Dazzle Image of Murder”, “With a new generation of audiences more accustomed to creating celebrities out of murderers, i.e. the O.J. Simpson case, the cynicism of the show was more easily accepted” (Sulock 3). The dazzling musical numbers of Chicago play into the overall gritty theme of the story in the way that they distract audiences from its commentary on yellow journalism, the true colors of the people in the public eye, and the short, ingenuine attention span of media consumers. Elvis Mitchell’s New York Time review of the film from 2002  says, “It’s rare to find a picture as exuberant, as shallow -- and as exuberant about its shallowness -- as the director Rob Marshall's film adaptation of the Broadway musical ''Chicago.'' It's the raw expenditure of energy and the canniness of the staging that should pull audiences in and keep them rooted,” (Mitchell). The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, something that had not been achieved by a movie musical since Oliver! won back in 1969.

In 1981, Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber created a strange new musical based on the poetry of T.S. Eliot that ended up taking home the award for Best Musical at the Tony Awards that year. This musical was Cats, a polarizing opera known for its over-the-top theatricality, mesmerizing costumes and choreography, and unusual plot. The basic plot of the musical revolves around a group of cats known as the “Jellicles” as they introduce themselves one by one. One cat, Grizabella, is no longer a Jellicle cat and is ignored by the tribe but desperately wants to return. The cats have to make their annual selection of who in the tribe gets to ascend to a new life. There is a popular YouTuber who goes by the name of Sideways that breaks down the plot of the musical and explains where the movie goes wrong in his video essay entitled “Why the Music in Cats (2019) is Worse than you Thought”. In it, he explains that the only character with any importance to the overall plot of the show is Grizabella, a cat who is not a Jellicle but longs to return to the tribe. Portrayed by Jennifer Hudson in the 2019 adaptation, Grizabella’s defining moment in the show is when she sings “Memories”, arguably the most iconic moment of the show. Sideways explains that every other aspect of the show is just a way to lead up to the performance of “Memories”, a song so powerful it single handedly drives the minimal plot of the musical. 

One of the biggest problems with the way Cats was adapted for the big screen was the way they used the character Victoria, who is just a minor character in the stage version that was converted into a lead role for the film. This was done with the idea of giving the audience a character to connect with and see the world through to make the film easier to understand, but this decision ended up doing the opposite of its intentions. Victoria is played by Francesca Hayward in the film and delivers one of the better performances in the movie, but her character being turned into the lead role takes all the attention away from the musical’s one intended protagonist (Grizabella) and in doing so, takes away from only plot and character arc of the musical. Grizabella’s storyline revolves around her desperation to regain the affection of the Jellicle cats, which is why the climax of the song “Memories” sees her character emotionally pleading the words “Touch me!”. After her moving performance, the other cats finally accept her once again, allowing her to be both physically and figuratively touched by the tribe. Grizabella is then selected to ascend to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn. With this understanding of the musical, it is clear that the creative team did not understand the use of the character Grizabella. In the film, she is often depicted running away from Victoria and even being touched by the cats before her performance of “Memories”. This lack of character evaluation and understanding shows how little thought was put into this screen adaptation from an analytical standpoint.

Since the plot of Cats is so minimal, the real appeal of the show comes from the extravagance of its musical numbers. Tom Hooper’s version unfortunately dropped the ball on this factor as well. If the name Tom Hooper sounds familiar, it could be because he was the director of the critically acclaimed 2012 film adaptation of Les Miserable. He received a lot of attention for this due to his determination to portray realism and the energy of live theater by having the performers deliver live vocals for the film. Hooper kept this energy of unconventional sound techniques for his direction of Cats. According to the sound engineer of the film, Hooper had the cast of Cats do some parts of songs live and some parts prerecorded, making every song sound slightly off and roughly put together. Simon Hayes, who worked with Hooper on Les Mis, explains in the article “Mixing Live Singing Vocals on CATS Part 2”, “As conversations continued, we developed a system that allowed us to seamlessly switch between live musicians, pre-recorded multitrack stems, and material recorded live, on set, during previous takes. This allowed us to instantly adapt to the performance in front of the camera and facilitate requests from actors and production” (Hayes). This disorganized and sporadic approach resulted in some of the songs’ tempos being incohesive, parts of the dance numbers being out of time with the music, and the performers often seeming to have a difficult time getting through the numbers. When discussing what makes a musical go wrong, Basinger explains, “If the music is wrong or bad, the movie will fail.” (Basinger 20). There are lots of aspects of Cats that deserve genuine critiquing, but the most obvious flaw of the film is its terrible use of CGI to create human-cat hybrids that are so visually displeasing that most people were scared off from the trailer alone. This CGI was not only detrimental to the reputation of the film, but it was also expensive and time consuming. Moviegoers who saw the film on its opening night may have noticed that the film’s effects were actually incomplete and eventually had to be edited and redistributed. Cats is the result of a creative team that lacks a full understanding of and respect for the source material. Audiences can pick up on when a film is made for a passion for the musical artform and when it is made as an attempted cash grab or Oscar bait. In the end, the budget of Cats according to Box Office Mojo was about $95 million and it only earned about $73 million from its worldwide release, making it one of the biggest box office flops of 2019.

Mamma Mia! started off as a West End production in 1999, only to be brought to Broadway in 2001. It is a jukebox musical that uses the songs of Swedish group ABBA to tell the story of a girl trying to figure out who her father is. The absolutely absurdity of the plot and its format tells the audience everything it needs to know about the type of show they are in for. The musical is pure escapism, and the 2008 film adaptation emulates this energy perfectly. Powerhouse Merly Streep stars in the film as Donna Sheridan, the owner of a cheap hotel in Greece where she lives with her daughter Sophie, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried. Twenty year-old Sophie is getting married to her boyfriend Sky (Dominic Cooper), but her naivety gets the best of her when she invites three men mentioned in her mother’s old diary to her wedding who could potentially be her father. Basinger goes on to say in her assessment of the music in musicals that, “If the plot is wrong, it can work if it’s buoyed up by the music” (Basinger 20). The show and the film are both over-the-top, cheesy, and never take themselves too seriously, which is why they both resonate so well with audiences. One way that the movie emulated this fun and free spirited energy was the fun environment that went on behind the scenes. In the Mamma Mia! Special Feature showing the making of the film, producer Gary Goetzman says, “I think the freedom and liberation you’re feeling in these actors is really their ouzos ration everyday… it kind of loosens it up a little for them and, you know, breakfast, a couple shots, just to get them going in the morning. I think that's really where all the liberation and freedom and energy comes from,” followed by clips of the cast and crew drinking onset. Though film critics do not have the kindest words to say about Phyllida Lloyd’s stage-to-screen adaptation, the movie was a box office success thanks to Meryl Streep’s stellar performance. The only problem shared by both critics and audiences regarding the film was the casting of Pierce Brosnan as Donna’s love interest Sam, as his singing negatively stands out from the rest of the cast. However, standout performances by Colin Firth as Harry, Christine Baranski as Tanya, and Julie Walters as Rosie definitely help distract from Brosnan’s rough vocals. The film’s self awareness and one dimensional, ABBA filled story is what differentiates it from both Chicago and Cats. It is not trying to make an artistic statement or be perceived as some big Summer blockbuster. Mamma Mia! is simply a lighthearted movie with the sole intention of making the audience have a good time, a goal that is shared with its live musical counterpart. 

Movie musicals have been an extremely influential part of the history of the sound era of film. Adapting a Broadway musical into a movie is a lot more than just a venue change. It is very challenging finding the perfect balance between stage and screen, and it takes a creative and passionate team to achieve this. In order to create a successful, respected adaptation, remaining faithful to the source material is an essential quality shared by both good and so-bad-it’s-good movie musicals. Audiences can sense when the directors and actors are actually passionate about the projects they work on and it truly affects their perception of the film. It is this passion and dedication that replicates the seemingly unattainable electric energy that comes from live theater, so it is necessary to emulate this when creating a stage-to-screen movie musical.

Works Cited

Basinger, Jeanine. The Movie Musical! First Edition, Knopf, 5 April 2019.

“Cats - Box Office Mojo.” Box Office Mojo, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt5697572/?ref_=bo_se_r_1. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.

GleePotter8468. “On Location in Greece || Mamma Mia! Special Features.” YouTube, 18 Feb. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaY_OA_AwOk.

Hayes, Simon. “Mixing Live Singing Vocals on CATS Part 2.” IATSE Local 695 – Production Sound, Video Engineers & Studio Projectionists, https://www.local695.com/magazine/cats-part-2/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.

Hooper, Tom. Cats. Universal Pictures, 2019.

Lloyd, Phyllida. Mamma Mia! Universal Pictures, 2008.

Marshall, Rob. Chicago. Mirimax, 2002.

Mitchell, Elvis. “FILM REVIEW; ‘Chicago,’ Bare Legs And All, Makes It To Film - The New York Times.” The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, 27 Dec. 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/27/movies/film-review-chicago-bare-legs-and-all-makes-it-to-film.html.

Sideways. “Why the Music in Cats (2019) Is Worse than You Thought.” YouTube, 1 Jan. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3aK-EK5V2k.

Sulock, Emily. “Chicago: A Movie Musical Mockery of the Media’s Razzle Dazzle Image of Murder.” Pell Scholars and Senior Theses, Salve Regina University, 8 2012, https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1083&context=pell_theses