In 1997, satirist and creator of Brass Eye, Chris Morris, wrote a skit in which Peter Sutcliffe, a serial killer, stars in a musical of his life. Complete with “singing police chases” and the criminal atoning for his crimes in the final act, the sequence was cut from the original broadcast due to its controversial nature. While it certainly remains unsavoury, a show like this hitting the West End stages is no longer unfathomable. In recent years, it seems as if every popular event, film, and series has been turned into a musical – even musicals are being turned into musicals, with Disney announcing a stage adaptation of The Greatest Showman at the D23 Expo fan convention earlier this year.
Perhaps the biggest issue with musical-ifying popular films is forcing characters who would never sing to belt out a tune. Take Phil Conners, played by Bill Murray in 1993’s Groundhog Day – a man who scoffs at love interest Rita’s degree in French poetry and has a pretty bleak view of the world. His character would refuse to watch a musical let alone star in one. The poor bloke can’t even be bothered to film a 30 second news bulletin – how, Tim Minchin, are we expected to believe that he would literally make a whole song and dance over his predicament?
In the High School Musical franchise, the audience sees Chad and his basketball buddies express outrage for team captain Troy’s desire to star in the school play – in the form of singing and dancing in the cafeteria. And Corbin Bleu doesn’t even learn from his hypocrisy – belting out “I don’t dance” while simultaneously performing a routine in the second instalment that even Abby Lee Miller would applaud. Unless this character has serious issues regarding self-deprecation, the irony of musicals, in a musical about hating musicals, is abundant.
But is the genre becoming oversaturated? Surely, there are enough original movie-musicals without the need for adaptations of classic comedies and television programmes. And if La La Land proved anything, it’s that singers can act far better than actors can sing. Good job, John Legend.
One perk of theatrical adaptations, however, is that they give classically trained musical theatre performers a chance to tangentially star in their favourite programmes. Until now, these talented thespians have been sentenced to solely be admired by theatre fanatics with more signatures on their programmes than Year 11 leavers shirt. But now, with cult classics like Back to the Future hitting the West End, those three years at drama school will finally yield the respect these triple threats deserve.
2024 is certainly a great year for fans of musicals. Back in the noughties, Zillenials had to turn to Eastenders rather than West End-ers to watch C-listers sing. Even Pudsey would have covered his other eye at the sight of Phil Mitchell and company covering Queen’s greatest hits. The 2011 murder of I Want to Break Free was more harrowing than Lucy Beale’s.
Yet the present day adapting of movies for the stage undoubtedly puts pressure on Broadway and the West End. The Greatest Showman had a staggering $84 million budget and starred Hugh Jackman. How can the theatre possibly compete? You’re more likely to see Zendaya in the audience of a show (as she was during a recent performance of Romeo and Juliet in London) than flying across the stage on a trapeze.
But it is important to remember that a big budget does not a good film make. Look at the 2004 film, Closer, adapted from Patrick Marber’s play of the same name. For fellow philistines, it’s the one that inspired Panic! At The Disco’s song titles and stars Natalie Portman cosplaying Stephanie from Lazytown in a pink bobbed wig. Despite its 7.2 rating on IMDB, I would controversially argue that it does not work as a film. At all. In an era where pre-teens are capable of remembering each and every member of the Madrigal family, four characters on the big screen seems too few. I’m sure it would be great as a play; the small cast would add to the intimate nature of the theatre, and it would be sacrilegious to look at your phone during the slow bits. But when streaming the movie, I resorted to reading Brendon Urie’s Wikipedia page for entertainment. The lines between movies and musicals have certainly been blurred, but are in danger of disappearing completely. Hopefully we won’t be seeing adaptations of Crime Watch and This Morning hitting off-off-off West End stages in 2025.