Movie musicals-a dying breed?

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But movies like Dreamgirls, Ray and Walk the Line, they aren't Musicals with a capital M. They're dramas that feature characters who are singers and make music, where all the music happens on stage and such.
Well you're right about Ray and Walk the Line but Dreamgirls? C'mon Holden what about "Steppin to the bad side"? Yes the girls sang it on stage but Jamie Foxx used it to illustrate a point by breaking into song on the street. Plus there's Effie's heartfelt "And I am Telling You I'm Not Going" on a stage yes, but not a performance, simply an outer expression of inner feeling, a musiconversation if you will.
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The trend at the moment does seem to be for making films into musical stage shows rather than making new musical films (like Dirty Dancing). Although Sweeney Todd last year might indicate a musical film revival. I wouldn't be surprised to see a film of Wicked out soon, since it is so popular on stage, and of course Mama Mia is out soon.

I'm not sure the old-fashioned musical films of old will ever make a comeback...or that they should. After all, we have soundtracks now, with popular songs, why do we need the main characters breaking into song to give us all round entertainment? But I do like the 'twisted' or 'postmodern' musicals that have sprung up over the last decade or so...stuff like Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare as a 1930's musical pastiche, genius, and very funny), Moulin Rouge with its anachronistic songs, brilliant; The musical Buffy episode, where they are all aware that they are breaking into song and that it's not normal; Dancer in the Dark on the dark side; and The Nightmare Before Christmas, more like a traditional musical, but with singing skeletons...

The Phantom of the Opera was a bit of a missed opportunity, I thought, I didn't hate it like a lot of people, but it should have been brilliant and it wasn't.



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In honor of my favorite genre, I will sing all of my dialogue for the rest of the weekend.
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