Post by jo on Jun 19, 2012 10:04:55 GMT -5
An ardent fan of musicals writes a blog --
www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/movies/dear-tom-hooper-please-save-the-movie-musical/
Dear Tom Hooper, please save the movie musical
by clembastow on Jun 19 2012, 12:00PM
As someone who grew up listening almost exclusively to the cast recordings of musicals (film and Broadway varieties), you would think that the healthy return of the musical (on TV and film) would be something I'd celebrate, right?
I mean, I was a kid who wrote Grade 6 essays about my assured future on the Great White Way, and also penned what I can now understand to be fanfic about my favourite Broadway performers.
When my schoolmates talked about Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210, I was making tapes of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins and trying to impress my peers by telling them "It's got swearing in it!".
(You will be amazed to hear I had approximately 1.5 friends by the end of my primary school career.)
So, musicals are back. Cause for 10-year-old Clem to celebrate, right?
Well, ye, but mostly no, and here's why: the Glee-ification of musicals continues apace.
Firstly, the trailer for Rock Of Ages:
Now, I have no problem with the jukebox musical itself - I saw Rock Of Ages on its Melbourne leg and I enjoyed it immensely (probably because when I turned 17, hair metal replaced musical theatre in my heart of hearts).
BUT. This may be a musical, but it's also about rock'n'roll. We could argue eternally about the fact that hair metal was more or less pop music with bigger guitars, but that's beside the point: vocalists like David Coverdale and the rest of them still had some grunt behind their vaguely feminine tenors. The stage production was cognisant of that.
Rock Of Ages, the movie, on the other hand, sounds like an advertisement for AutoTune.
I put this down to the precedent set by Glee, where extremely talented vocal performers have all the personality stripped from their voices in favour of an anodyne, relentlessly smooth sound. It's not surprising given that the same sound has typified most pop music for the last five years or so, but why does it have to get its claws into musicals?
On to the next one - the newly released trailer for Pitch Perfect, starring Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson:
While this seems to be a musical only by default (it doesn't look, at least from the trailer, as though the songs will serve much of a narrative purpose), it's still a movie with people singing in it. And whaddya know? Despite allegedly being an a cappellla group who "make music with [their] mouths", said music seems to be emerging from their throats perfectly AutoTuned. The magic of cinema!
This leads into why - despite never having been a particularly big fan of the musical itself - I am so excited about Tom Hooper's adaptation of Les Miserables:
Hear something different, dear reader? That's LIVE SINGING, MOFOS!
Yes, Hooper has heard my prayer (he has a direct line to my bedroom, it's a bit creepy really but what are you going to do), and has insisted that his cast record their songs live on the soundstage.
Hugh Jackman told Vanity Fair: “I am right now doing a movie musical of Les Miz, where every day we record every take live, so basically the feeling of an opening night on Broadway is happening every day of my life right now. ’Cause I know when I wake up that what I’m going to sing that day I will never sing again. There’s no fixing it after, there’s no pre-recording it before, so yeah, trust me, I’m getting all the adrenaline I need right now.”
The rest of the cast have spoken widely about Hooper's approach (Eddie Redmayne is still, after being cast in and shooting a musical, unsure he can actually sing); indeed, filming has just been delayed because Sacha Baron Cohen lost his voice.
My dream (a ho ho Les Miz reference ahoy, geddit) is that Hooper's production will set a new precedent for the movie musical, as modern ears learn to listen to a vocal track that hasn't been AutoTuned to within an inch of its life, and maybe even revel in the beauty of an orchestral accompaniment at full tilt.
I guess come Christmas we'll see if I'll get my wish.
Links to movies mentioned inside the article.
Jo
www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/movies/dear-tom-hooper-please-save-the-movie-musical/
Dear Tom Hooper, please save the movie musical
by clembastow on Jun 19 2012, 12:00PM
As someone who grew up listening almost exclusively to the cast recordings of musicals (film and Broadway varieties), you would think that the healthy return of the musical (on TV and film) would be something I'd celebrate, right?
I mean, I was a kid who wrote Grade 6 essays about my assured future on the Great White Way, and also penned what I can now understand to be fanfic about my favourite Broadway performers.
When my schoolmates talked about Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210, I was making tapes of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins and trying to impress my peers by telling them "It's got swearing in it!".
(You will be amazed to hear I had approximately 1.5 friends by the end of my primary school career.)
So, musicals are back. Cause for 10-year-old Clem to celebrate, right?
Well, ye, but mostly no, and here's why: the Glee-ification of musicals continues apace.
Firstly, the trailer for Rock Of Ages:
Now, I have no problem with the jukebox musical itself - I saw Rock Of Ages on its Melbourne leg and I enjoyed it immensely (probably because when I turned 17, hair metal replaced musical theatre in my heart of hearts).
BUT. This may be a musical, but it's also about rock'n'roll. We could argue eternally about the fact that hair metal was more or less pop music with bigger guitars, but that's beside the point: vocalists like David Coverdale and the rest of them still had some grunt behind their vaguely feminine tenors. The stage production was cognisant of that.
Rock Of Ages, the movie, on the other hand, sounds like an advertisement for AutoTune.
I put this down to the precedent set by Glee, where extremely talented vocal performers have all the personality stripped from their voices in favour of an anodyne, relentlessly smooth sound. It's not surprising given that the same sound has typified most pop music for the last five years or so, but why does it have to get its claws into musicals?
On to the next one - the newly released trailer for Pitch Perfect, starring Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson:
While this seems to be a musical only by default (it doesn't look, at least from the trailer, as though the songs will serve much of a narrative purpose), it's still a movie with people singing in it. And whaddya know? Despite allegedly being an a cappellla group who "make music with [their] mouths", said music seems to be emerging from their throats perfectly AutoTuned. The magic of cinema!
This leads into why - despite never having been a particularly big fan of the musical itself - I am so excited about Tom Hooper's adaptation of Les Miserables:
Hear something different, dear reader? That's LIVE SINGING, MOFOS!
Yes, Hooper has heard my prayer (he has a direct line to my bedroom, it's a bit creepy really but what are you going to do), and has insisted that his cast record their songs live on the soundstage.
Hugh Jackman told Vanity Fair: “I am right now doing a movie musical of Les Miz, where every day we record every take live, so basically the feeling of an opening night on Broadway is happening every day of my life right now. ’Cause I know when I wake up that what I’m going to sing that day I will never sing again. There’s no fixing it after, there’s no pre-recording it before, so yeah, trust me, I’m getting all the adrenaline I need right now.”
The rest of the cast have spoken widely about Hooper's approach (Eddie Redmayne is still, after being cast in and shooting a musical, unsure he can actually sing); indeed, filming has just been delayed because Sacha Baron Cohen lost his voice.
My dream (a ho ho Les Miz reference ahoy, geddit) is that Hooper's production will set a new precedent for the movie musical, as modern ears learn to listen to a vocal track that hasn't been AutoTuned to within an inch of its life, and maybe even revel in the beauty of an orchestral accompaniment at full tilt.
I guess come Christmas we'll see if I'll get my wish.
Links to movies mentioned inside the article.
Jo
