October
New song and dance? Hollywood embracing musicals, including ‘Glee’ – Yahoo! Canada News
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Mon Sep 7, 12:56 PM
By Nick Patch, The Canadian Press
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TORONTO – In years past, “Glee” – a subversive musical television series about a high-school glee club – might have seemed as much an underdog to succeed as its nerdy, relentlessly upbeat cast of teenage choir-singer characters.
But while previous network musicals such as “Eli Stone,” “Cop Rock” and “Viva Laughlin” failed to find audiences, “Glee” is among a wave of high-profile new musicals that prove Hollywood is starting to sing a different tune.
In fact, Fox was so sure it had a hit in “Glee” that the network offered a rare “sneak preview” of the new show last spring in a coveted timeslot: following the finale of TV’s highest-rated show, “American Idol.” And just in case people forgot about “Glee,” a director’s cut of the pilot aired in a repeat last week.
Of course, Fox isn’t the only studio tossing major marketing muscle behind a new musical. An updated version of “Fame” starring Naturi Naughton will hit theatres on Sept. 25, with big-screen remakes of “Footloose,” “Damn Yankees,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Dirty Dancing” reportedly in development.
So, what has been the impetus for the new dawn of onscreen song and dance?
“I think right now with what’s going on in the economy and the world, people are looking to be entertained, and what’s better than musicals?” said Vancouver’s Nolan Gerard Funk, who starred in Nickelodeon’s musical TV movie “Spectacular!” before stepping onto the stage for the Broadway revival of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
“Personally, as great as an action flick can be, sometimes people want to watch something entertaining without guns.”
For multi-talented performers, the sudden interest in musicals provides a new opportunity to showcase otherwise underutilized dimensions.
“It does so much for me and for what I want to do,” multi-hyphenate actor/singer/comedian Jamie Foxx, who starred in the Oscar-winning 2006 musical drama “Dreamgirls,” told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.
“There’s really not a lot of talent involved in reality TV, it’s sort of just watching people in their natural habitat doing their thing. So now, for a person to be special, he almost has to be able … to sing, act and do it all, so I think it’s a good thing. ”
“I think it’s what’s needed right now.”
And it doesn’t hurt that musicals offer a potential windfall for studios that can market them across a variety of formats.
Disney’s “High School Musical” juggernaut, for instance, was a hit on TV, DVD, CD and in movie theatres, where “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” grossed more than $250 million worldwide (a fourth instalment in the series is due in 2010).
And the New York Times reported in May that “Glee” would release several soundtracks this year, and the producers had already been approached about a “Glee” tour with the cast, a film, a Broadway show and even a “Glee on Ice.”
“Everybody noticed that ‘High School Musical’ did very well, and had a business beyond TV ratings, music CDs and live concerts,” television producer Mark Burnett told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview.
“I’m sure everybody would like to have a piece of that. I’m sure of it. And my daughter loves that stuff, so I’m sure there’s a market for it.”
Of course, many of the new wave of musicals are not intended for children.
Billed as Second City meets “South Park” meets “Sex and the City,” “Nursery School Musical” is a stage musical that lampoons overprotective young parents as they reluctantly relinquish their children on the first day of school.
Advertisements for the production, which returns to Toronto after a run in Houston on Sept. 17, warn parents not to bring their children to the raunchy show.
“(Musical theatre) has become a little bit edgier and sharper … especially in the last few years, with what’s been coming out of Broadway, when you look at stuff like ‘Avenue Q’ and ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ – which ‘Glee’ has borrowed quite freely and generously from,” said “Nursery School Musical” co-creator Racheal McCaig.
As far as the overall musical trend, McCaig points to the success of “American Idol” as a motivating factor.
“When ‘American Idol’ came into the picture, it finally made singing cool again,” she said. “We would not have ‘High School Musical’ without ‘American Idol.’ ”
“Realistically, that huge upswing, and all the rest of those musicals, would not be being made right now if it weren’t for that.”
That includes the recently aired “Degrassi” TV movie, “Paradise City,” which included a tongue-in-cheek spoof of “High School Musical.”
One of the “Degrassi” characters is lucky enough to land a role in a film directed by “Jay and Silent Bob” actor Jason Mewes, called “Mewesical High.” Needless to say, the squeaky-clean Disney production gets a less-than-wholesome makeover.
“Glee” features a similarly sharp satirical edge.
The show focuses on a teacher at a Midwestern high-school who revives the long-defunct glee club in the hopes of inspiring students cast aside from the school’s more fashionable cliques – in particular, an impossibly virtuosic cheerleading squad (“they were on Fox Sports Net last year!” enthuses more than one faculty member).
Yet although the show comes with an acidic bite, viewers are still invited to revel in the characters’ victory as they pull off a seamless climactic performance – not coincidentally, the song is Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” fast becoming an anthem of irony.
“I think with ‘Glee,’ what’s fun about it is … that people are starting to go that route where they want to have a little bit more fun with the idea of musicals and play around with it, especially with this generation that might have grown up with ‘High School Musical’ but might be getting a little bit older now,” said “Paradise City: Degrassi Goes Hollywood” director Stefan Brogren.
“They might still love their musicals but they need a little bit more of an edge to it. (But) when you turn on the TV and you get a little song and dance, it’ll keep you entertained – that’s for sure.”
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