It is conventional wisdom in art criticism that the best comedy and the best musicals are laced with sadness. We speak of art as escape, yet we are typically bored or unmoved by pure farce or purse spectacle. That’s part of what makes The Young Read More …
The first thing to understand about The Muppet Christmas Carol is that it is—as Ethan Warren brilliantly argues in a classic thinkpiece at Bright Wall/Dark Room—the best adaptation of Dickens’ classic short story. The second thing to understand is that the film is a product of a serendipitous Read More …
Go ahead: Say your worst about The Sound of Music. Call it sentimental, schmaltzy, mawkish, treacly. Roll your eyes with Christopher Plummer, who famously derided the material as “The Sound of Mucus.” Nod in agreement with the hostile reviews of leading critics of 1965, like Pauline Read More …
An appreciation of Singin’ in the Rain is almost redundant; the joy of watching this greatest of all classic Hollywood musicals is as self-explanatory as the joy of performance animating the film is self-evident. The onscreen joy is, of course, an illusion: The shoot was famously stressful Read More …
It all begins with the taking of the hand. Take my hand and come with me. Come with me to the park where the music will play. We’ll celebrate together there. We’ll celebrate our community, our music, our heritage, our lives. The film Summer of Soul, Read More …
If you only watch one interfaith, underdog-sports musical in your life, let it be Lagaan. An Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film in 2002, Lagaan provides a gratifying viewing experience for seasoned fans of Bollywood musicals as well as those new to the genre. One cannot Read More …
The “Disney Renaissance” of the late 1980s and early 1990s pushed the boundaries of animation by taking the formulas of Broadway musicals, applying them to fairy tales, and selling the results to grown-ups who might never have considered going to a Disney cartoon. So when Read More …
“Tale as old as time,” Mrs. Potts sings in the titular song from Beauty and the Beast (1991). It’s a statement of Biblical proportion, perhaps playing on “in the beginning was the Word” from the book of John. It’s easy to take this statement as Read More …
There’s no question in my mind that West Side Story deserves its place high on the list of the greatest film musicals of all time, both the 1961 version and the 60th anniversary re-adaptation. Both films are based on the stage musical conceived by the Read More …
For many viewers, especially those born in the second half of the twentieth century, the 1957 Merrie Melody, “What’s Opera, Doc?” remains a key entry point to opera as an art form. A parody of the work of Richard Wagner, foremost his “Ring Cycle,” the Read More …