Growing up, I used to think that musical movies were rather silly. Why would these people break into song and dance all of a sudden? Wouldn't it be easier to just say what they mean? I remember never finishing The Sound of Music the numerous times it was shown on the children's slot on television, much less the numerous Hindi movies shown on the same channels, many of them with running times of over four hours.
I'm not quite sure how I developed this myopic view of the genre, but in the end my aloofness towards it thawed when I was in university. I got involved in theatre, and was shown the musical Chicago. I instantly loved it, despite my initial hesitance towards musical movies. A big reason behind my being able to enjoy it was thanks to its ability to suspend my disbelief, by having the characters either sing and dance 'in their head', or actually perform on stage.
Thanks to the Rob Marshall-helmed musical, I eventually learnt to appreciate more conventional musicals, as well as musical films in general. Over the years, I've enjoyed West Side Story, the Producers, Les Mis, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, Grease! Rocky Horror Picture Show and many more (funnily enough, I've never finished watching The Sound of Music) I've also gone to watch the Puteri Gunung Ledang show, as well as the touring productions of Chicago and Jersey Boys.
Last year, with the pandemic confining my wife and I to our home, we spent our time watching movies. One day I decided to rewatch Chicago (she'd never watch it). To my surprise, that rewatch has ended up changing my opinion of the musical.
Now I'm not saying I no longer enjoy it, I still do. But rewatching it having grown to appreciate the genre, Chicago now seems as if it was ashamed of its primary method of story-telling. The same tactic employed to make it's catchy numbers more believable to philistines like me; to have them sung 'in their head' now seems like a method that was employed by its makers because they agreed yes, it doesn't make sense for these people to suddenly break into song and dance.
I remember thinking to myself when one of the first songs in the movie came on, 'Funny Honey' I think it was, just how much better the song would have been instead had Roxie Hart sung it in the middle of the police interrogation of his hapless husband. Alas, this nagging feeling remained with me until the final credits.
I suppose I should be happy that this method never turned into a trend, and that most American musicals that came out post-Chicago have been conventional musicals.
I'm now waiting for the new West Side Story. At first I had thought that the remake was rather superfluous, considering that the original movie was perfect to me. And Spielberg? A musical? But then the trailer came out and I ended up loving the energy bursting through. Maybe I'd underestimated it after all.
My VERDICT: Despite the slight change in my opinion towards it, Chicago still gets a solid 8/10 from me due to the strength of the performances. And I don't think there's another musical out there with a song roster as catchy as Chicago's.
