# Why aren't TV/Movie musicals made anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852 "2008-07-01T02:40:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/1 "2008-07-01T02:40:33Z")
Why aren’t musicals made for TV or the movie theaters made anymore? Some of my favorite productions are musicals. From _The Sound of Music_ to _The Pirate_, there’s something about a movie where the actors can combine traditional acting with singing and dancing that really makes me smile. Some of those old actors had voices that could make your heart melt (especially \<3 Judy Garland). My WAG is that there’s no money in it. People aren’t interested. That’s a shame ☹ ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/2 "2008-07-01T02:49:31Z")
You mean, like _Mama Mia_? Or _Enchanted_? Or _Hairspray_? Or _Sweeney Todd_? Or _Chicago_? Or _Across the Universe_? Or _Rent_? Or\* Moulin Rouge!\*? Or _Once_? Jeez, I dunno…why? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/3 "2008-07-01T03:11:49Z")
Add _Phantom of the Opera_ to that list. And certain episodes of _The Simpsons_ and _Futurama_ ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/4 "2008-07-01T03:13:29Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] You mean, like _Mama Mia_? Or _Enchanted_? Or _Hairspray_? Or _Sweeney Todd_? Or _Chicago_? Or _Across the Universe_? Or _Rent_? Or\* Moulin Rouge!\*? Or _Once_? [/QUOTE] I had forgotten all about those- for some reason, I was only thinking [of the ones with](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_School_Musical) [the word “Disney’s”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_School_Musical_2) [in front of](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Rock) [the title](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_School_Musical_3:_Senior_Year). Apparently, kids eat musicals up. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/5 "2008-07-01T03:14:14Z")
And _High School Musical._ ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/6 "2008-07-01T03:16:43Z")
Shrek the Musical, “Bringing the Ugly Back”, according to the side of the bus I saw today. _twitch_ The Producers. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/7 "2008-07-01T03:17:28Z")
There’s actually been a revival in movie musicals (and TV musicals, though that’s ebbed) in the past decade or so. However, musicals will never go back to the way they were up until the 1970s. They’re considered unrealistic,\* but the bigger problem is the fragmentation of music. Not many people like the “musical” type music, and writing in other genres always alienates the audience (for instance, I have no interest in sitting through two hours of Abba songs, though I love musicals). It’s hard to write a decent original score, too. In the theater, you can keep rewriting and see how the preview audience responds, but you need to get it right the first time for a film. That’s one reason why movie musicals these days are either adaptations of Broadway shows, or they use existing songs (sometimes, they do both). But, ultimately, they are out of fashion with the main moviegoing audience, the largest segment of which is teenage boys. \*Though, evidently, movies about giant green mutant monsters caused by nuclear radiation or animated robots are extremely realistic. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/8 "2008-07-01T03:18:18Z")
[Dr. Horrible](http://www.drhorrible.com/) ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/9 "2008-07-01T03:19:14Z")
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate] And _High School Musical._ [/QUOTE] a-_HEM_ (points up to own post) > [@lizardling](#): > > Shrek the Musical, “Bringing the Ugly Back”, according to the side of the bus I saw today. _twitch_ That would be another category entirely- musicals based on movies or TV shows…which is probably another trend Disney started with _The Lion King_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/10 "2008-07-01T03:25:30Z")
They’re very expensive and very risky. _Hairspray_, _Chicago_, and _Moulin Rouge_ were all hits, but _Rent_ and _The Producers_ (in spite of huge Broadway success) were both flops. I think that’s why you don’t see more of them. My understanding is the next _High School Musical_ (3?) is going to be theatrically released. Had Disney had any idea of the success 1 & 2 would generate I’m sure they would have been.\* In what may be good news, the trend of making movies into stage musicals may be coming to an end for similar reasons. _Young Frankenstein_ is a success but not as smash as previous ventures, _Cry Baby_ has already closed, _The Wedding Singer_ didn’t last long, and _Gone With the Wind_ recently crashed and burned like the Atlanta railroad warehouses in London, so maybe they’ll go back to the “born as a musical” drawing boards. (I tried to watch those on TV at some point- had a student ask me today if some character or other in it was gay [I’ve no idea the character but I’m assuming Zac Efron’s]- but I just couldn’t get into them at all- I guess it’s the age thing [I can watch a musical about teenagers but only if said teenagers were born before the 1960s].) ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/11 "2008-07-01T03:30:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] had a student ask me today if some character or other in it was gay [I’ve no idea the character but I’m assuming Zac Efron’s [/QUOTE] Seeing as the character has a relationship with a female in the films, probably not. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/12 "2008-07-01T03:34:42Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] a-_HEM_ (points up to own post) [/QUOTE] Simulposted. Great minds, and all that. Also, the \*Buffy \*episode, “Once More With Feeling.” ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/13 "2008-07-01T03:45:10Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] However, musicals will never go back to the way they were up until the 1970s. They’re considered unrealistic,\* but the bigger problem is the fragmentation of music. Not many people like the “musical” type music, and writing in other genres always alienates the audience (for instance, I have no interest in sitting through two hours of Abba songs, though I love musicals). [/QUOTE] I was thinking along the same lines. Irving Berlin/Rodgers and Hammerstein/George Gershwin-style theatrical music was considered one form of popular music in the 1950s, and its appeal then was cross-generational. Despite the responses to the OP, there really aren’t that many film musicials compared to the 1950s. Same thing with Westerns, synchronized swimming/diving spectaculars, I wonder if homophobia plays a part in the lack of musicals in the theater. In the United States at least, one stereotype of gay men is they they universally like flamboyant old-school musical theater. As unappealing as the idea of seeing a chick flick is among many men, imagine how many might feel about the idea of seeing a musicial. ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/14 "2008-07-01T03:49:31Z")
I liked Evita, but it didn’t pull in the box office it was expected to… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/15 "2008-07-01T04:06:19Z")
[QUOTE=D-bear] I liked Evita, but it didn’t pull in the box office it was expected to… [/QUOTE] Yeah, that was surprising, because it had a HUGE promotion campaign and wasn’t bad at all (even improved a bit on her sleeping her way to the top by showing [through tango] her prostitute [as opposed to courtesan] phase). I know Raul Julia was originally tapped for Juan Peron but became ill/died before the production started, but I thought Pryce was decent; so was Banderas, but I’m not sure why they scrapped Che Guevara as the narrator.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/16 "2008-07-01T12:27:05Z")
1.) Back in the early 1970s they tried to revive the original (not adapted from the stage) movie musical with **Lost Horizon**. It flopped, bug time. I’ve shown this film at my Bad Film Festivals – it’s awful, despite a talented cast and the team of Burt Bachrach and Hal David doing the songs. You do have to wonder what they were thinking. 2.) TV series that are musicals are a BIG undetaking. **Cop Rock** flopped. Back when I was a kid, TV ran the series **That’s Life** , starring Robert Morse. It was ressentially the Musical of the Week, using a combination of new songs and old standards. It only lasted a year, and that’s back when they were still making musicals for the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/17 "2008-07-01T12:32:09Z")
Nitpick: It’s called “Mamma Mia!” and advance word is that it is [fabulous](http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2288325,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/18 "2008-07-01T13:55:00Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Nitpick: It’s called “Mamma Mia!” and advance word is that it is [fabulous](http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2288325,00.html) [/QUOTE] Mmy mmistake! Sorry. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/19 "2008-07-01T14:01:20Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Nitpick: It’s called “Mamma Mia!” and advance word is that it is [fabulous](http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2288325,00.html) [/QUOTE] What’s not to like? Meryl Streep singing ABBA songs in a movie adaptation of a Broadway musical! C’mon! That’s like a gay man’s hat trick. **supervenusfreak** and his sister saw the stage production when it was still in the West End, before it came to Broadway. He, his brother John and I are going to be seeing the movie in the theater (which is a BIG THING for me…I don’t usually do movie theaters. The last film I saw in the theater was the Nathan Lane version of _The Producers_!). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852/20 "2008-07-01T14:09:17Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] However, musicals will never go back to the way they were up until the 1970s. They’re considered unrealistic,\* but the bigger problem is the fragmentation of music. [/QUOTE] That’s an interesting point that I’d never considered. While I’m not a fan of musicals in general, for your “unrealistic” I’d substitute something like “hopelessly corny.” Popular tastes have gotten more ironic, and that doesn’t favor musicals. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-tv-movie-musicals-made-anymore/454852.md?page=2)