Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Don't cry for me Argentina, really, I mean it.

I didn’t get the showtunes gene. I have very little interest in seeing Dreamgirls. OK, I’d like to see Jennifer Hudson’s performance but they probably charge you for the whole movie and not on a per-actor basis.

I can’t get my head around the artificiality of musicals. I’m perfectly happy watching robots and spacecraft zip across the screen but when an actress jumps on a table and starts belting out how she’s going to wash that man right out of her hair I lose interest. There have been a few exceptions, but I think they started with the music and then back-filled the dancing and a little bit of plot. Grease comes to mind but that’s more camp than theater or musical.

I can watch a big broadway show and be wow’ed by the sheer spectacle of it all but somehow it doesn’t move me. I’ll Cover You did manage to peek through and pierce the noisy clutter of Rent but the rest has faded away.

Music should be swelling in the background. I can only of one exception that truly worked. There’s a scene in Magnolia when the characters begin to sing along to Aimee Mann’s soundtrack. It was an odd, jarring moment but somehow appropriate. I liked the moments of reflection with each character pausing and sighing to her melancholy notes. It was unnatural and edgy and surreal enough to cap the movie.

Maybe that’s the issue for me, musicals don’t acknowledge the fact that if you were to sing out loud on a crowded subway platform everyone else would slowly back away from you.

8 comments:

Steve said...

Seriously... I'm taking your card away.

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

I've never seen a show on Broadway (haven't been to NY) ... geez, I've never even seen a show on the Strip for that matter!
But...
I did see the movie musical Moulin Rouge w/
Nicole Kidman and E. McGregor...

NOW THAT WAS SOO GOOD...
I LOVED THAT MOVIE ... My son talked me into watching it....
I wasn't interested at first...

I think I watched it 3 or 4 times now !!!!

Mike said...

Freak!


:-)

Minge said...

Lord above us!

Red Seven said...

I love musicals, but haven't seen a musical made in the 21st century that's of classic status yet. Even tho' there's nothing less gay than an ex-nun, nothing beats The Sound of Music for sheer faggoty bliss. Ironic, but true.

gayborhood gringo said...

I'm so with Steve on this one...hehe

Daddy Cool said...

Beyonce is all played out too and you all know it!!!!

BriteYellowGun said...

I never cared for them much either until I saw some performed live and then I was converted. I think it's the sheer "camp" that I like so much...that bursting into song as though it happens everyday. And in my warped life, it usually does. There's a reason people think I'm funny to sit by at work.