I guess the term "remake" is something of an ill-fit. After all Steven Spielberg's new West Side Story, which inspired this piece, is less a "remake" of the 1961 film than simply another adaptation of the stage musical that the 1961 film is also based on. Semantics.
This distinction highlights one way in which stage shows are privileged above feature films. Stage performances are restaged and reinvented all the time. The stage version of Les Miserables has been effectively "remade" a million different times over its 37-year run across a billion different venues all over the world. Meanwhile, we've only got a single film adaptation of the Les Mis musical.
I know it's heresy to say that maybe Hollywood needs more remakes (I'm one of the rare people who doesn't on principle hate Disney Remakes), but it shouldn't be to say the world needs more musicals. And if Spielberg's new take on the show is a box office win, there's a very real possibility that we'll see Hollywood going back to the bank of established Broadway hits for inspiration. Just earlier this year, Paramount announced plans for such a remake of The King and I. Should this ball gain some momentum, Hollywood would be in no short supply for shows to restage, and I am in no short supply for ideas of where they should start.
1. Oliver!
We owe songs like "Where is Love," "As Long as He Needs Me," and "Who Will Buy" to the 1960 musical by Lional Bart, itself an adaptation of Oliver Twist, the novel by Charles Dickens. The 1968 film adaptation was famously the last musical best picture winner before Chicago in 2002. The story follows orphan Oliver as he searches for home in the desolate streets of 1830 England.
A part of me is actually kind of surprised that we haven't seen a remake of this already. After Tom Hooper's experiment with Les Miserables, I'd have thought that this would be a natural next step. Like Les Miserables, Oliver! touches on issues of poverty and suffering. The show lends itself to hyper-realistic crafting that isn't a natural fit for most musical movies and offers a chance to further probe the intersection between our capacity for raw emotion and the genre's capacity for elevated storytelling.
2. South Pacific (1958)
Based on the 1949 Broadway show by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the 1958 film features songs like "Some Enchanted Evening," "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," and "Bali Ha'i." The story follows the romantic pursuits of workers at an American military post stationed in the Pacific Islands during World War II. I'm pushing for a modern remake of this title because two things really date the 1958 film.
First, the technicolor overdose. Does this section's lead image look a little too ... yellow to you? The entire film isn't rendered in such intense color, but frequently throughout the film, usually in tandem with some high-volume emotion, the screen will suddenly be flooded with blue or purple. The attempt to add some extra emotion to the scene almost always comes off as distracting and desperate. I get the impulse to get the most out of a high-volume romantic moment using some grand display of filmmaking, but the flashing color just betrays a lack of confidence in not just the story, performers, and music, but also the lush beach backdrop that naturally lends itself to the illustriousness of musical storytelling. More than anything, it's this paradisical setting that really makes the case for another film adaptation. I really just want to see people singing on the beach.
Second, the complicated racial politics of the film. Point in this movie's favor: this is one of the first films to feature characters confronting their own internalized racism. One of the story's tensions comes from Nellie, our leading lady, realizing she has trouble accepting that her suitor has mixed-race children from his first wife. This is also one of the few films of the era to prominently feature actors of color, and the native islanders are themselves depicted as a benevolent community, but it's in these depictions that the film trips over itself a little.
Despite the best intentions of the writers, the Polynesian community comes off a little othered. They're portrayed as friendly, yes, but with very little depth. They almost play like they are just here as decoration, entertainment for the white characters. This is particularly noticeable with the film's most central native character, Bloody Mary. "You is saxy," she tells the handsome American Lt. Cable upon first meeting him.
South Pacific is emblematic of racial conversations during the mid-20th century. The text itself is explicitly anti-racist, but through its ignorance it still perpetuates demeaning racial stereotypes. A more mature perspective would go a long way.
3. Guys and Dolls
The 1955 film was based on the 1950 stage show with music by Frank Loesser. The adaptation includes numbers like "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" directly from the Broadway show while also adding several new numbers like "The Eyes of a Woman in Love."
A "remake" of this film has actually been in discussion at TriStar since the early 2010s, but it's been a few years since we've heard any new word on the production, and I really hope it comes through one way or another. The musical takes on a classic beauty and the beast love story in which a gambler takes on a bet that he can't take a lovely missionary on a romantic excursion to Havanna. In order to woo said missionary, he has to pretend to be an honest man. But, go figure, he comes to realize that maybe he actually has the capacity for genuine sincerity.
An underground gambler isn't exactly the most likely candidate to burst out into song in real life, but it's that discrepancy that makes it all the more exciting when you see something like a fully choreographed crap game. It's also this dichotomy of worldviews (cynicism vs altruism) that especially endears me to the film and makes me want to see it brought to life in the modern scene.
I don't know how this film would top Marlon Brando salsa dancing, but what have we got to lose?
4. How to Suceed in Business Without Really Trying
You might remember this musical as Daniel Radcliffe's little project while he was between Harry Potter films. I myself was introduced to the stage show when my high school performed this for their annual musical, and I've had fondness for the title ever since.
The 1967 film was adapted from the 1961 stage musical by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name. It includes songs like "Coffee Break," "Rosemary," "Been a Long Day," and "Brotherhood of Men."
The musical follows a window cleaner who trips into success with the help of a book. This mostly just consists of him playing into the arrogance of his colleagues and coworkers, like pretending to be from the same university as his boss. The recurring punchline is that any fool can climb the pyramid of success if he just knows the right things to say. Success is less a meritocracy than a game that someone wins if they know how to bend the rules in their favor.
While music is the window into very high-volume and profound emotions, it can also work really well as farce or social commentary. "How to Succeed" leans into this curve while not coming off quite as cynical as a musical like "Chicago." And musicals lampooning the absurdity of corporate culture are always in season.
5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical mega-hit famously follows a naive young soprano, Christine Daae, performing in a Paris while under the tutelage of the geniusly gifted yet dangerously mysterious Phantom who haunts the opera house. In addition to the show's iconic title number, the musical gifted us songs such as "Music of the Night," "All I Ask of You," and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."
The 2004 film adaptation has accrued mixed reactions, especially from the musical community, but I'll say up and front that I am not a hater of this film. It was one of my first exposures to live-action musicals and a sort of backdoor to the world of Broadway, and for that I could never hate it. I'm not in the camp that thinks the 2004 film is some blight upon the musical genre, but I am in the camp that thinks there is still a better Phantom of the Opera movie to be made.
Broadway-caliber performers are generally the preference in musical storytelling, but the vocal limitations of Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler are especially glaring given the characters they are playing. These aren't just any characters. They are angels of music. (Interesting note: the lead roles were originally offered to Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, but both had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. One of the great what-ifs of history.)
Mostly, I just think that the film is emblematic of the identity crisis that movie musicals went through in the early 21st century. The 2004 movie feels caught between the opulence of its source material and the timidity Hollywood felt around musicals around this time. It's this awkward tension that gives us things like characters speaking lines that were clearly meant to be sung or the Phantom's Underworld lair looking like a flooded garage. Just give us the Baz Lurhman-esque musical mardi gras we all deserve.
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In promotion for the upcoming West Side Story, actor Brian d'Arcy James recently gave this perspective:
“... I’ve spent a lot of time in the theater, where revivals are a main thread of what we do, particularly musicals. Any chance to reimagine or inject new life into something people already know is a little less sacrosanct in the theater. So that kind of thinking spills into this scenario. Then when you add in the idea that it’s Steven Spielberg and [writer] Tony Kushner, then you really don’t have to think twice.”
The great thing about music is that the same song can sound good sung by a wide variety of voices. Different performers and directors know how to elicit different colors and sensations from the same songbook, and it's a shame we don't see Hollywood try its hand at musical revivals more often. It's not a slight against any of these musicals, or the films they inspired, to suggest that these soundtracks would benefit from another round. The world always needs more music.
--The Professor
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