The Movie Musical has been back over the last few months and it is here to stay. It grew in popularity in the mid-2010s with films like Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods, and La La Land finding their way into mainstream pop culture. Recently, the movie musical has been having a renaissance with huge names like Spielberg’s West Side Story opening this December, and Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights and Tick, Tick, Boom, which was released last month. What is the movie musical doing right and where has it gone wrong in the past?
Hamilton immensely grew in popularity after the Pro-Shot production was released on Disney Plus last year, so naturally, theatre audiences all over the world were thrilled to hear that Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway the same time as Hamilton was getting a film adaptation with a star-studded cast of Kaitlyn Dever, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams, and Ben Platt would be reprising his role as Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen follows the story of a young boy who writes letters to himself as part of homework from his therapist, but the letters come into Connor’s possession, a fellow classmate of his who commits suicide. Connor’s parents believe that Evan was Connor’s best friend and Evan plays along because he has a crush on Connor’s sister. Winning nine Tonys, it was only expected that the film adaptation would be just as good. However, the Dear Evan Hansen film fell flat on its face because of several issues ranging from casting a twenty-eight-year-old Ben Platt as a high schooler to changing up many of the song lyrics from the original and lackluster writing in general.
For a second there, the movie musical and its reputation were hanging by a very thin thread and the Amazon Original Cinderella remake only further tarnished its name. Musicals have it hard as it is, and Camila Cabello’s Cinderella did not bring anything new to the table in terms of both interpretation and music. The market for Cinderella films has already been saturated and James Corden dressed as a rat holding up traffic in Los Angeles as part of a promotion event certainly did not help the already dismal situation. Even musical theatre giants like Idina Menzel and Billy Porter could not save the trainwreck.
Enter Tick..Tick Boom. A biography of Jonathan Larson, the man behind seminal Broadway show and film, Rent – the film that will redeem the musical and bring it back into the mainstage of popular culture. Starring Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, and Judith Light, Tick Tick Boom is the epitome of everything a musical should be. Filled with interesting dialogue, and perfectly melodramatic lyrics, Tick Tick Boom will make you laugh, make you cry, make you dream, and make you want to move to New York City. It follows Jonathan Larson, an ambitious playwright who wants to make it big in musical theatre and his relationships with the people in his life against the backdrop of the deadly AIDS epidemic. Lin Manuel Miranda has proven to be an incredible force to be reckoned with in musical theatre with In The Heights, Hamilton, and several other affiliations with Disney.
Tick Tick Boom is indeed just the beginning of the theatre revival. Why is the musical back in vogue, anyway? After more than a year of sitting indoors in anguish and agony, it is only natural that cinema turns to song and dance to celebrate the possibilities that lie ahead, to celebrate the slow transition back to pre-pandemic life. And there is nothing more exciting and passionate than the raw, visceral power of music. Spielberg’s West Side Story is supposed to come out this December and it is one of the most highly anticipated films of the decade, and we can only hope it will live up to the massive hype. Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, and Ariana DeBose form the cast of the film and Spielberg connoisseurs and theatre enthusiasts wait impatiently at the edge of their seats.