A Musical Resurgence

My parents raised me right. I'll go right ahead and say it that I think every child should be raised with an appreciation of music. I consider myself very lucky to have been raised by two parents who were quite musical themselves. Both of my parents were in the marching band at their high schools and in college, which is how they met. They also have been active members of their church choir for the last twenty years. They love music, and they have a special place in their hearts for musicals, a sentiment they passed on to me. I remember going on road trips when I was little and we would listen to classic Broadway shows like Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, or Sunset Boulevard. Sometimes we would even listen to operas, although I didn't appreciate those as much at the time. My father is partial to Carmen and Die Fledermaus. Suffice it to say, my parents raised a good gay son who dreams of life as a musical...Although maybe that's a little too gay. Some of my favorite movies are musical classics: My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Singin' in the Rain, and An American in Paris. I grew up on these movies. And I remember as a child that the only current musicals out at the time were Disney films mostly. Sure, there was the rare exception like Grease, but for the most part, musicals were non-existent. But one man and one movie changed all of that.

The return of the musical genre into mainstream media (and popularity) can arguably be attributed to Moulin Rouge. Baz Luhrman's musical epic took an entirely new spin on what was considered by the masses to be an outdated construct. But Luhrman's fusion of Top 40 music into the soundtrack made the movie relevant and incredibly successful. Made for $50 million - certainly chump change by today's standards - Moulin Rouge! earned $180 million worldwide. More musicals soon followed, starting with Rob Marshall's adaptation of the Broadway play Chicago followed the next year, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. In the seven years since, musicals have risen in popularity, driven mostly by Broadway adaptations like Rent, Hairspray, The Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia! Clearly Hollywood has found a recipe for success, and film versions of more hit shows - Wicked, In the Heights - are currently in the works. A man such as me, who longs to be center stage, could not be more thrilled at this resurgence. Alas, I will never be in a musical because lead roles go to tenors and I'm about as bass as you can get. The whole reason I got to thinking about this though is that I watched two new musical programs today.

This afternoon I came home from class and avoided starting my Media Economics midterm by breaking open my latest arrival from Netflix. I had been eagerly awaiting Were the World Mine in my mailbox ever since I first saw the trailer for the film last year. For those of you unfamiliar, Were the World Mine is a loose musical interpretation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The film tells the story of Timothy, an angst-ridden gay man at an all-male private high school. He is constantly ridiculed by his classmates for his orientation and longs only to fit in and feel the love of another person. All of the boys are forced to participate in the school play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Timothy lands the lead role opposite his crush Jonathon. This being a gay-themed movie, all of the men are of course gorgeous, but Timothy's attraction to Jonathon is centered on the fact that Jonathon is the only person in his class that doesn't make fun of him. In rehearsing his lines, Timothy discovers a recipe for a love potion within Shakespeare's text (it sounds ridiculous, I know, but give it a chance!). He uses this potion to turn everyone in the town gay so they can know how he feels every day. The film is an interesting commentary on the internal struggles of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders and the external forces that do not understand them. Visually and musically, the film is reminiscent of Velvet Goldmine. I immediately downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes and have been listening to it nonstop since. What I loved so much about Were the World Mine was the coupling of this social issue with a quite unexpected, and much underplayed, love story.

After completing one question of my Media Economics exam, I rewarded myself by finally watching the pilot episode of Glee. What a musical day it has been for me! If you have not watched Glee yet, stop reading and go to Fox.com right now and get to it! It's so nice to see something from Ryan Murphy, the creator of Nip/Tuck, that isn't gratuitously sexual and repulsive. Glee is about a high school Glee club, an assortment of misfits and one jock who just want to be special. Glee is set to premier this fall, but Fox decided to preview the pilot episode early to build hype. And, boy, did it work. The pilot drew an average of 10 million viewers, and the climactic cast ensemble version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" has been downloaded by over 177,000 people within its first week on iTunes. Fox has issued the standard order of a 13 episode run for the first season, with an option to renew midway. I have a feeling they know their sitting on a hit though. The fact that a musical has broken into television, and on one of the Big 4 no less, solidifies it for me: musicals are cool again.