# Why Don't They Make Movie Musicals Anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726 "2002-07-25T07:14:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/41 "2002-07-27T03:55:18Z")
John Woo’s _Face Off_ isn’t a musical? ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2002, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/42 "2002-07-27T07:05:26Z")
I don’t know if this is the reason, and I’ll admit that I didn’t read any of the other responses to the OP, but a while ago, I overheard a conversation between two girl disussing Woody Allen’s movie, “Everybody Says I Love You”, and this is what they had to say: I liked the movie, but every now and again, they just started singing to one another. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/43 "2002-08-06T06:19:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > \*\*I’ve always had the opinion that My Best Friends Wedding was a musical. The people break out in song a lot. > \*\* It’s not quite the same thing, though. Compare **MBFW** to **Grease**. In the former, the characters were **performing** “Save a Little Prayer”. But they could just as easily have been singing “My Girl” or “Stop in the Name of Love”. The purpose of the scene was to show the characters getting loose: the performance was more important than the lyrics. In the latter film, songs were used to give exposition. “Summer Nights” gave Danny’s and Sandy’s perspectives on their romance; “Greased Lightnin’” expressed the guys’ hopes to build the ultimate hot rod. In a true musical, the song lyrics are crucial to the story and the character development. “Summer Nights” could not have been changed to a song from the era, like “Love Letters in the Sand”. That song had a similar theme, but it would not have established the characters as “Summer Nights” did, with Sandy remembering the interlude as chaste and idyllic and Danny claiming to have gotten a heartbeat away from conquest. Anyone remember [I’ll Do Anything](http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0110097), which was originally filmed as a musical, but drew abject howls from test audiences? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/44 "2002-08-06T06:57:34Z")
Call me a theatre snob, but musicals are better when they’re live. And wasn’t _Newsies_ pretty recent? And, Rilch, I would advise against using _Grease_ as an example of… well… ANYTHING. That show was truly horrid in every sense of the word (and the movie is worse). ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/45 "2002-08-06T07:57:03Z")
I’ll second the recommendation of finding filmed stage musicals. _Into the Woods_ is available on dvd and it is about as close to perfect as you can get without being there live. I wore out my _Sweeny Todd_ VHS tape and had to get a second one; the Sweeny Todd in concert dvd is good, but a poor substitute for the fully produced stage play. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that in the golden era of movie musicals, the only place you would find lyrical music in a movie was in musicals. In the 80’s, the music video/montage sequence became fully integrated into nearly all mainstream movies, essentially making every movie into a musical, albeit without the in-character singing, but frequently with dancing choreographed to the background music. Essentially, the traditional musical has been absorbed into mainstream movies. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/46 "2002-08-06T15:33:58Z")
I don’t suppose anyone else has heard of “Dracula: A Chamber Musical” presented by the Stratford Festival a few years back? I’m desperately hoping to run into another human being who’s heard of it and appreciates the sheer hooty looniness of it as much as I. I bring it up here only because of the “musicals on video” tangent. Eve > [@](#): > > Remember back in the mid-90s when Bette Midler did Gypsy on CBS, just like an old-fashioned “event” program? It was great, got all sorts of awards, and Bette said she’d do Mame and Hello Dolly and Call Me Madam . . . and nothing came of it. Cher has recently announced plans for a TV production of _Mame_. ---
**Author:** ![lorentat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@lorentat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorentat)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/47 "2021-01-19T15:00:58Z")
You forgot about Purple Rain, Krush Kroove, Breakin and Dirty Dancing. All great movies ---
**Author:** ![lorentat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@lorentat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorentat)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/48 "2021-01-19T15:13:22Z")
What about movies like Purple Rain, Dirty Dancing, Krush Kroove, Breakin, The Gospel. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/49 "2021-01-19T18:53:02Z")
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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726/50 "2021-01-19T18:54:40Z")
This thread is so old, that I’m just going to close it. If you want to discuss movie musical, please go ahead and start a new thread on it. I’m sure many will join in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-they-make-movie-musicals-anymore/120726.md?page=2)