The Future of the Movie Musical
Will Rob Marshall's Nine be the Modern Musical's Mid-life Crisis?
Aug 30, 2009
Rob Marshall's film adaptation of the stage musical, Chicago, not only swooped in and claimed the Best Picture Academy Award in 2002, but also single handedly marked a turning point for modern musicals. A pivot that has paved that way for the explosion of musical bio-pics in recent years that are both recognized by the Academy and legitimate certain actors' careers. And with his newest picture, Nine, set to be released on November 25th, the musical game just might change even more.
Chicago's success prompted film adaptations of stage musicals to become the new hot ticket with The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Rent (2005), Dreamgirls (2006), Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Hairpsray (2007), and Mamma Mia (2008) all attempting to replicate the film's success. Except Jennifer Hudson's Academy Award winning performance in Dreamgirls, none of these films flourished critically, although they maintained a decent popularity due to audience familiarity with the original stage productions. But do not forget that prior to Marshall's Chicago was Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film, Moulin Rouge. However, although Moulin Rouge was an original musical conceived in film form, its recycling of popular music means that it technically was not an entirely original musical.
The Issue of Rob Marshall's New Musical, Nine
One would think, with Moulin Rouge a decent success and the recent explosion of the High School Musical franchise, both on television and in theaters, that Rob Marshall would finally tackle and produce original content. Yet his new film is just another Broadway hit turned into a cinema venture. Another re-invention rather than a new invention.
Originally opening on Broadway in the early 1980s, Nine chronicles film director Guido Contini's messy personal and professional lives and the women that populate each. The show went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical and, of course, has been in the works for the camera for some time. And now Marshall has the film, has cast it (har-har) to the nines, and with an ever serious and respected Daniel Day-Lewis as his leading man, Marshall will most certainly attempt to repeat his success.
And this success will be repeated, most probably, with Marshall using similar modern musical tactics he enlisted in Chicago. Either Nine will succeed due to the story's root in showbizness, an industry and world where music and singing is frequent and therefore plausible. Or it will rely on heavily used dream sequences, like Chicago, so that most numbers are identified as not being real within the story. Therefore never asking the audience to believe that a musical world is real.
Can Modern Audiences Believe a Musical is Real?
Since as musicals have developed from vaudeville to Broadway to studio-era films to dance musicals to adaptations, it is quite apparent that a modern audience cannot and will not except singing that is not explained within the plot. Hence the recent success of musical bio-pics, a genre that only illustrates singing within recording studios or performances. And also, the marketing of teen musicals that suggests musicals where the numbers go unexplained are somehow juvenile. However, the question still remains, when will new cinema, and American cinema at that, be ready for a feature original musical?
Nine will surely prove to be significant in the direction modern musicals will take. Either it will push the adaptations even further or maybe be such a hit a new musical will be able to survive through the development stages. Just like the mid-life crisis Lewis' Contini has in the film, Nine may just be the modern musical's mid-life crisis.
