Robesonian
Musicals are back
August 30, 1991
More and more today, stars feel a song (and dance) coming on, Hollywood’s trying to reel in the MTV generation with a new wave of escapist fare.
Liza Minnelli sings and dances her way through a roaring grand finale in this month’s Steppin’ Out, a sweet drama about tap-dancing misfits. John Travolta rocks ‘n’ rolls his way down the halls of a boys’ academy in October’s Shout! Even Ann Margret, who hasn’t sung on screen in 16 years, does a rousing number in Disney’s Neivsies, the real-life tale of
newsboys on strike in 1899 New York.
Those upcoming features and more – like Bette Midler in the World War II drama For the Boys and Dolly Parton as a radio-show host in Straight Talk – are evidence that Hollywood
is putting music back into the movies.
Except for Neivsies, it’s not that burst-into-song-at-every-turn cinema that conjures up images of Debbie Reynolds. Most of today’s musicals really are ordinary movies with music as a bonus, like last year’s Postcards From the Edge. Hollywood is convinced that ’90s audiences will enjoy some singing and scattered production numbers.
Thanks to MTV, “there’s a whole new generation more receptive to seeing people sing and dance,” says Shout! choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday. Among other reasons: “Escapist”
entertainment is in, and musicals fit well into a market hot for family fare. “It wouldn’t have worked a few years ago, when audiences might have reacted to this material as ‘too corny,’ ” says one 20th Century-Fox executive. Yet, in 1991, a Disney classic like 101 Dalmatians can make as much money as a Terminator 2. Says Cinergi Films’ Bob Misiorowski: “If you can come up with a good family film that kids and parents enjoy, it’s a
good road to pursue, business-wise.”
Musicals can be hard to launch, though. They cost millions more than non-musicals, what with extra rehearsals, choreography and recording. Traditionally, they aren’t huge hits  (the last big musical hit was Grease in ’78), nor are they Oscar winners (the last one nominated was All That Jazz in ’79; the last to win was Oliver in ’68).
But taste is cyclical. Musicals, like
westerns, come and go. There certainly are enough brewing to keep the
trend going awhile, including versions
of such Broadway hits as Miss Saigon,
The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misirables, Cats and Evita. Among directors who have plans for musicals: John
Landis, James Brooks and Rob Reiner.
Says producer Craig Zadan, “If (all)
these musicals get made and are successful, we’ll see nothing but musicals.”