"Hollywood Musicals are BIG Again" Really?

For as long as I can remember, the movie musical has struggled to survive. Once the definitive (and most American) movie genre, which incorporated just about every craft and art, the musical started to wither as soon as movies became more realistic and action-driven.

"No one just bursts out and sings" has been the most common complaint, usually voiced by those movie freaks who have no problem suspending disbelief for science fiction, or more recently, CGI-dominated films.

Back in August of 1962, the cover story of LOOK magazine was about - yes - the big comeback of the movie musical. The movie year 1959 produced only Otto Preminger's "Porgy and Bess" and Melvin Frank's "Li'l Abner," neither of which seemed to excite moviegoers.

Matters didn't look good even back then.

A year later, in 1960, there was Walter Lang's embarrassing "Can-Can" and Vincente Minnelli's pleasing "Bells Are Ringing." The Minnelli film wasn't a huge success but you can see how the director sensed that the the movie musical was on its last leg and he experimented accordingly to make it more palatable for audiences. The next time it's on TCM, check out how Minnelli's staging invigorates the "I Met a Girl" number by having star Dean Martin sing it while fighting his way through sidewalk traffic, and how he turns "Mu-Cha-Cha" into a pseudo-musical number by eschewing the song's lyrics and staging the dance as an off-the-cuff improvisation.

Matters were so dire back then that when Joshua Logan brought "Fanny" to the screen in 1961, he reduced the Harold Rome score to background music. But, the same year, there was a turnaround for the musical, albeit a brief one, with the success of Henry Koster's "Flower Drum Song" and Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise's Oscar-winning "West Side Story."

These two hits prompted Hollywood to hanker down and produce José Ferrer's remake of "State Fair," Morton Da Costa's "The Music Man," Mervyn LeRoy's "Gypsy" and Charles Walters' "Jumbo," all in 1962, and George Sidney's "Bye Bye Birdie" in '63 - a group that provided a hook for that LOOK magazine piece, titled "Hollywood Musicals Are BIG Again!"

On the other hand, Billy Wilder's "Irma La Douce," also released in '63, went the "Fanny" route, sans Marguerite Monnot and Alexandré Breffort's fabulous songs (adapted as background/mood music by André Previn).

Flash Forward 57 years - to 2019 - and, suddenly, "Hollywood Musicals Are BIG Again!," with ten - count 'em - ten movie musicals either filmed or slated for filming. Here's a quick run-down of what's promised/threatened:

Completed and standing in the wings ready to perform are Tom Hooper's all-star version of "Cats" and Jon Favreau's live-action "The Lion King."

Those due for filming include Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner's take on "West Side Story" (with Ansel Egort as Tony), Amy Sherman Palladino's remake of "Gypsy" (with Melissa McCarthy rumored to play Madame Rose),  Rob Ashford's "Sunset Boulevard" (with Glenn Close reprising her Broadway triumph), Jon Chu's "In the Heights" (an early Lin Manuel Miranda success) and Ryan Murphy's version of "The Prom."

Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey plan to collaborate on the film version of the Broadway musical version of "The Color Purple" and TriStar has announced a remake of "Guys and Dolls" which, about a decade or so ago, Vin Diesel mentioned that he wanted to do opposite Nicole Kidman. Neither film has a director, writer or anyone else attached. And something called Paramount Players, a sub-division of Paramount Pictures, has announced a prequel to "Grease," titled "Summer Loving," with John August on board to write the script but with no talent mentioned in terms of the film's music.

Meanwhile, there's been a film musical that's been aborning for more than a decade now - one that sounded promising but is probably a hopeless idea by now. A remake of "Damn Yankees" was "in development" back in  2010 when Harvey Weinstein first announced it with what seemed like a surefire cast - Jake Gyllenhaal as the young ballplayer Joe Hardy and Jim Carrey as Mr. Applegate, aka, The Devil. (No one was mentioned for the role of Lola, but Amanda Seyfried seemed the obvious choice at the time.)

As for that new breed of film musical - the "live" TV presentation - which has been driven mostly by NBC, matters don't look good. The network has canceled its planned version of "Hair" (an achingly bad idea, given that the 1979 Milos Forman film, which still feels vibrant, is the definitive version of the material) and its planned version of "Bye Bye Birdie," announced back in 2016 with Jennifer Lopez as the attached star, has been postponed multiple times (not surprising, given JaLo's heavy schedule and priorities.)

It seemed way premature to announce it when NBC did and, if and when it does materialize, Lopez may be too old to play heroine Rosie and may be better suited as the awful mother of the show's hero, Albert Peterson. (Besides, "Birdie" has already been made for TV - and very well - back in 1995, a version that is far superior to the aforementioned '63 Sidney treatment.)

So, are Hollywood musicals really BIG again?  Don't bet the rent money on it, given that the average filmgoer has exhibited zero interest in the genre.

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~Doris Day and Martha Raye in a scene from "Jumbo" as touted by LOOK  magazine
~photography: MGM 1962©