Movie musicals made something of a comeback last year with "West Side Story," "Tick, Tick ... Boom!" and "Cyrano" all being released and then being nominated for Oscars earlier this month.
"Cyrano" opens this Friday in San Diego cinemas with "West Side Story" currently streaming on Disney+ and "Tick Tick Boom" available on Netflix.
Because I am aware that I am a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to modern musicals, I asked Moviewallas' podcaster Yazdi Pithavala to join me on Midday Movies to discuss the recent crop of musicals from 2021.
Pithavala grew up in India where musicals rule the box office and as he said, "Film musicals are in my blood."
I grew up watching a lot of musicals because my dad loved movies. So I developed a love for old Hollywood musicals, especially ones starring Gene Kelley such as "Singin’ in the Rain" and "An American in Paris." But as the studio system faded I found fewer musicals to enjoy as they felt more formulaic, less innovative, and generally bloated.
But there were exceptions. I appreciate the work of Bob Fosse and rock musicals like "A Hard Day’s Night" and "Jesus Christ Superstar." But it is a tough genre for modern audiences to embrace because it really requires them to take a leap of faith and buy into people just breaking into song. I think that is more difficult than making them buy into monsters or fantastical worlds.
Listen to the podcast to hear Pithavala and I disagree on these three new releases. My reviews are below.
'Cyrano'
"Cyrano" is an adaptation of Erica Schmidt's stage musical that was based on Edmond Rostand’s play "Cyrano De Bergerac."
In the play, the charismatic and poetic title character believes he is too ugly to win the love of the beautiful Roxanne so he helps the handsome Christian to woo her.
In the film, "Cyrano" the title character is played by Peter Dinklage (Schmidt's husband) so instead of facial disfigurement, Cyrano is a dwarf.
I love Edmond Rostand’s play "Cyrano De Bergerac" but I found the musical hugely disappointing in capturing the spirit of the original. And what makes it all the more infuriating is that Dinklage is actually a perfect Cyrano.
The change of making Cyrano a dwarf rather than a man with a big nose is a clever switch. But the musical leaves the best of Rostand’s play behind and tries to replace his wonderful poetry with trite songs.
I miss the verbal flourishes as Cyrano composes a sonnet during a duel and finishes off his opponent just as he delivers the rhymed couplet. Adding to the aggravation for me is that Dinklage delivers his lines with the panache the character deserves but then is forced to sing and has a decidedly mediocre singing voice.
Director Joe Wright has a nice romantic visual flair, especially in designing the musical numbers, but there is just too little of the play and the character that I grew up loving that make it into the film.
Plus, it opens with a focus on Roxanne and an attempt to add some sort of misplaced female empowerment edge that does not fit the story. Roxanne is a shallow woman who falls in love with Christian's beauty and can’t see Cyrano’s soul until it is too late.
'West Side Story'
So the good things about Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" are Ariana DeBose as Anita, the breathtaking opening shots of the rumble, the fact that no one was forced to darken their skin, and that people of color got to play people of color. It was also nice that Rita Moreno got a role and got a producing credit.
The bad things are a far longer list but at the top are that Spielberg directed it and the leads are exceptionally bland. I have to confess that I am not a huge fan of the original either. It too had miscast leads that seriously hurt the movie but in its favor, it did have Moreno as Anita and Russ Tamblyn as Riff, and some absolutely spectacular dancing on the streets of New York.
I also found some of the narrative changes in the remake to be questionable. Why make Tony serve time in prison? Why have Anita and Maria work as maids instead of in a dress shop? Why tone down the bigotry of the cop whose lack of respect and compassion for the kids proves to be the common ground the two gangs could share?
I suppose the filmmakers worried that audiences would mistake the bigotry of the cop for the point of view of the filmmakers and wanted to avoid any controversy. But his bigotry gives context to the anger and violence of the kids, and on a certain level made the original film more critical of the conditions leading to gang violence and offered more compassion for the very different reasons fueling the anger in the kids.
The remake also removes scenes of the escalating gang rivalry (depicted in a montage in the opening of the original film) and weakens the scene of the gangs setting the rules for the rumble (the cop no longer interrupts it and we lose a telling interaction between the cop and Doc, a character that has been replaced by the new character created for Moreno).
Spielberg gives the film occasional moments but nothing to convince me that he knows much about musicals or New York City. I know the remake rights some Hollywood wrongs in how it depicts Puerto Ricans but Spielberg has not created a film whose artistry impresses me. I thought Lin-Manuel Miranda (who comes from theater roots) did a much better job of creating vibrant modern movie musicals with both his "Tick, Tick ... Boom!" and "In the Heights" last year. I doubt I'll ever watch this "West Side Story" remake again... unless it's just a clip of DeBose.
'Tick, Tick ... Boom!'
Another musical set in New York City is "Tick, Tick ... Boom!" It is based on Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical play about trying to produce his first stage musical and is directed by "Hamilton’s" Lin-Manuel Miranda and stars Andrew Garfield. Larson created the Tony Award-winning "Rent."
As I mentioned, Miranda comes from theater yet he did a much better job of making a cinematic musical than Spielberg did. In this and "In the Heights," he displayed a genuinely innovative sense of filming musical numbers. He made them feel wonderfully cinematic in terms of production design, shot choices and editing, creating numbers that could not be duplicated on the stage.
Garfield's Larson does feel a little like a "Glee" character on steroids and sometimes got annoying but all in all, I enjoyed the film, and the music was strong, unlike in "Cyrano." "Tick, Tick ... Boom!" also pays tribute to the Broadway musical that Larson loved by packing the film with cameos that you need a guide to identify them all.
I noted people like Bernadette Peters, Bebe Neuwirth, and Chita Rivera but found this helpful Broadway link to identify the rest. Miranda, since he comes from theater, seemed to have had the right connections to lure all these legends to appear in the film.
Beth Accomando's Tope Ten Musicals
"Singin’ in the Rain" (1952)
"A Hard Day’s Night" (1964)
"An American in Paris"
"Jesus Christ Superstar"
"Cabaret" (1972)
"Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964)
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"
"Wizard of Oz" (1939)
"Once"
"Moulin Rouge"
"Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933)
Yazdi Pithavala's Top Ten Musicals
“Singing In The Rain” (1952) Amazon Prime, Apple TV
“The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg” (1964) HBOMax; Amazon Prime, Apple TV
“Jab We Met” (2007) Netflix
“Madhumati” (1958) YouTube
“Moulin Rouge” (2001) Hulu, Amazon Prime
“Om Shanti Om” (2007) Netflix
“The Sound Of Music” (1965) DisneyPlus
“The Jungle Book” (1967) Amazon Prime
“Dil Dhadakne Do” (2015) Netflix
“South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut” (1998) Amazon Prime
