THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Given the flamboyant and grandiose nature of P.T. Barnum's circus, it makes perfect sense that The Greatest Showman, about his life and creation, is a musical.  And with impressive musical numbers, fine acting, and a compelling story, it works very well.

Phineas Barnum had a rough childhood as a dreamer and the poor son of a tailor -- and that didn't make his romantic interest in the upper-class Charity any easier.  As an adult, Phineas (Hugh Jackman) and Charity (Michelle Williams) got married and had two little girls.  While they are poor and Phineas has trouble holding down a job, Phineas wants to give her and his family something more,

With a bit of fraud, Phineas opens up a shop of oddities, hoping to attract customers to seeing the unusual.  On his daughter's advice he changes the museum to a live show, advertising for the unusual and outcasts of society.  He gets quite a lot, from Tom Thumb and the singing bearded lady to acrobatic brother and sister Anne and W.D. Wheeler (Zendaya, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).  The show proves to be a popular hit, and now P.T. Barnum buys his family a huge mansion while acting as the host for the performances.  But the show generates controversy, from both the upper class (and a newspaper critic who thinks it's all trickery) and the lower class (who resent the so-called "freaks").

Barnum brings in playwright Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to expand the circus' appeal to the upper classes.  He's interested in Anne, though she's concerned about how they could be together when society frowns on mixed-race couples.  Meanwhile Barnum gets distracted from his circus by Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), an European opera singer who appeals to Barnum as a genuine talent (and possible threat to his marriage).  And the other issues haven't vanished either...

There is so much to enjoy about The Greatest Showman.  The musical numbers are catchy, visually stunning, and engaging, and they fit in perfectly with the story.  Hugh Jackman plays Barnum perfectly, as a grandiose promoter and dreamer who's fine bucking society but who gets tripped up by actual success.  Zac Efron and Zendaya provide both a romantic subplot and a look at the racism of the time, and the rest of the cast is terrific.  The Greatest Showman embodies the best of the musical spectacle.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

LA LA LAND

When a movie opens with folks in a California traffic jam getting out of their cars to perform a big song and dance number, you know you're in for a treat.  La La Land is a big nostalgic love letter to the movies and music of yesteryear -- as well as the challenges of today.

Mia (Emma Stone) is a barista on a film studio lot with dreams of becoming a big actor -- and a lot of failed auditions behind her.  Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz pianist with dreams of opening his own jazz club -- but he's stuck doing music gigs beneath him, like Christmas standards and '80s covers.  They don't exactly have a meet cute -- he blares his horn at her in the traffic jam; she flips him off -- but they keep running into each other, and soon they're hanging out and falling in love.

Their lives are literally punctuated by musical numbers breaking out, whether Mia's preparing to go out, the two stars dance-sparring and tap dancing on a park bench, or literally dancing on air under the stars.  But as their lives get more complex and they work on making their dreams come true -- Mia preparing to put on a one-woman show, Sebastian joining Keith (John Legend) for a most crowd-pleasing and synthesizer-based form of jazz -- their schedules keep them apart and their relationship starts to become strained...

La La Land is a glorious celebration of the movies and music of yesteryear.  Fans of classic musicals will recognize the numerous homages to musical numbers in film; in addition, Sebastian's almost obsessive pure love of jazz is reflected in La La Land's soundtrack.  Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are terrific, whether as reluctant lovers or striking out on their own.  And the movie is wonderful, from the spontaneous musical numbers to the drama of the two stars trying to make it work between them while pursuing their separate dreams.  La La Land truly brings the magic of the movies and music to life.

Overall grade: A+
Reviewed by James Lynch

ROCK OF AGES

The 1980s are back -- sort of -- in the new movie musical Rock of Ages. This film, adapted from the Broadway play, is a series of stories based on the most popular hits of the 1980s -- all revolving around the fictional Bourbon Room club and concert venue in Hollywood, in 1987.

The first story is about young lovers. Sherrie (Julianne Hough) is an aspiring singer off the bus from Okahoma who's in love with the music and clubs of Hollywood. When her suitcase is stolen, she's "rescued" by Drew (Diego Boneta), a wannabe singer and bartender at the Bourbon Room. He gets her a job there, they start dating, and he gets his big musical break. But can young love survive the pressures of fame and fortune?

Next are the Bourbon Club's owners, Dennis (Alec Baldwin) and Lonny (Russell Brand). This pair are old-school rockers, true believers and colossal music fans. Their club is also almost bankrupt, and they're banking on a big concert (of course) to save the day. Their hopes rest on Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), the most popular rock star in America. But he's also notoriously unreliable -- and managed by the greedy, unscrupulous Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti).

And finally, there's politics. Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones), wife of newly elected mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston), has decided that rock and roll is a danger to the youth of America, so she leads a moral crusade against Stacee Jaxx and the Bournob Club. (She also misses or ignores her husband's affair with his secretary every chance he gets.)

There are also some other supporting characters: Constance Sack (Malin Akerman) as the Rolling Stone reporter who breaks through Stacee's haze of fame; Justice Charlier (Mary J. Blige) as the owner of a strip club; and several cameos, from Eli Roth as a member of a boy band to Debbie Gibson as a rocker.

All of the acting, and the pretty cliches storylines, are all secondary to the music. While I think back on the 1980s as a golden time for alternative music, Rock of Ages goes for the more popular/nostalgic hits, from concert rock like Def Leppard, the Scorpions, and Whitesnake to to pop from Pat Benetar, Jefferson Starship, REO Speedwagon and Journey.

Rock of Ages is clearly aimed at the folks who think of the '80s as big hair and guys with eyeliner. To that end, the movie does capture the feel of that scene. That said, the movie does feel a little forced. Instead of a musical where the songs seem to spring naturally from the characters, Rock of Ages feels like it's just waiting for an excuse for characters to start singing. Some of the mash-ups are good (notably "Any Way You Want It" and "Harden My Heart" at a strip club), and the performers are all terrific singers, but the sudden bursts of music feel a little forced at times. (It also doesn't help that Glee beat this movie to the song for the uplifting big finale.)

The acting in Rock of Ages is as good as the story is chiched. The highlight is Tom Cruise, who captures both the decline from being a star and the passion that brought him to that level. Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta are decent as the young lovers (though I'm amazed as talented a dancer as Hough had few opportunities to dance), but Baldwin and Brand are more amusing as the true believers whose bromance may be a little more. The stories are exactly what we've seen before: the self-righteous crusader with her personal agenda, the wannabe star corrupted by business, and the young couple who connect, misunderstand, split, and find each other again. And the humor of Rock of Ages is mixed: sometimes very funny (notably a boy band, complete with ridiculous name), sometimes pretty painful (such as double entendres about a band whose name includes the word "balls").

Rock of Ages is aimed directly at the folks who are nostalgic for the most popular hits of the 1980s. It has a terrific cast and a good (if idealized) version of the rock scene back then -- but it also has some painful humor and obvious directions for its storylines. It's enjoyable -- to a point.

Overall grade: B-

Reviewed by James Lynch

THE BOOK OF MORMON soundtrack

What do you get if you combine the co-creator of Avenue Q, the creators of South Park, and America's nicest and goofiest home-grown religion? You get The Book of Mormon, an energetic musical that's both irreverent and sweet -- and whose songs are damn funny.

The play has the format of a road trip/fish-out-of-water story. In Salt Lake City, the Mormons are being paired up and sent off to do missionary work. Elder Cunningham is nerdy, nervous, and prone to making things up. Elder Price is handsome, charismatic, and dreams of going to Orlando. But while the other Mormons get great assignments ("Oh, Japan!" "Land of soy sauce!" "And Mothra!") Price isn't happy to find that he and Elder Cunningham are going to Uganda -- where starvation, AIDS, and warlords make life miserable. What are two amazingly polite white missionaries to do?

The Book of Mormon soundtrack is terrific, capturing the story of the play and providing a nice variety of musical styles. The Mormon world is overly clean-cut, from a chorus of doorbell-ringing pitches ("Hello!") to a goal of repressing one's emotions ("Turn It Off") to a rousing anthem of Mormon beliefs ("I Believe") that includes all the goofy ones. Meanwhile, Africa has its own sound: the coping phrase "Hasa Diga Eebowai" (which, when you know the translation, won't replace "Hakuna Matata" as your feel-good phrase), the idealized version of Salt Lake City ("Sal Tlay Ka Siti"), and the pretentious "I Am Africa" ("Like Bono!"). And both sounds, like both sides in the play, come together for the big finale "Tomorrow Is A Latter Day."

Parody is easy, and mockery too, but The Book of Mormon soundtrack manages to walk the line between making fun of the Mormons and not overlooking their silliness. There's plenty of crude humor ("I can't believe Jesus called me a dick!" "Let's be really fucking polite to everyone!"), but also lots of silliness, from the near-campy "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" to a baptism presented just like a deflowering. We even get two versions of the Mormon history: the official one ("All-American Prophet") and the one with Elder Cunningham's embellishments ("Joseph Smith American Moses") that includes the starship Enterprise and a magical fuck frog. It all works very well, showing both a wicked sense of humor and a love for catchy Broadway tunes.

The Book of Mormon won the Tony for best new comedy, and The Book of Mormon soundtrack is a great reflection of the humor, heart, and twisted laughs of the play. It's a delight.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

NINE

Nine, the movie based on the play Nine based on Fellini's movie 8 1/2, is supposed to be about inspiration, fame, and the art of making art. That's somewhat easy to miss with all the bumping and grinding.

Writer-director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an Italian legend, recognized by everyone and often called "Maestro." He's also a wreck: His last two movies were flops, he's set to start filming his ninth movie -- Italia -- in ten days despite not having written a word, and he has panic attacks and writer's block.

Then there are the women. Contini is surrounded by beautiful women, a temptation he often succumbs to. There's his long-suffering wife Luisa (Marillon Cotillard), his married mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), and the beautiful fashion reporter Stephanie (Kate Hudson, taking a role from romantic comedies to sing and dance here). Flashbacks also show Contini's mother (Sophia Loren) and the prostitute Saraghina (Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas). The only non-model-beauty is costume designer Lilli (Judy Dench) -- and even she gets a cabaret number.

The musical numbers in Nine are woven into the action, usually as Contini reflects on his past or fantasized about his present. These musical numbers are almost all burlesque -- plenty of corsets, lingerie, and the aforementioned bumping and grinding -- but they're more arousing than rousing. The songs are entertaining at the time but forogtten soon after.

There's not much to the story either. Daniel Day-Lewis downplays Contini, showing us little of the talent that made him such a legend and repeats his wastrel ways over and over. Most of the actresses are there as singing and dancing eye candy; the notable exception is Cotillard, who brings depth and dignity to the wife who knows about her husband's lies and finds it harder and harder to ignore them.

Director Rob Marshall seems to settle for the glamour of women rather than reveal anything about the artist (or, for that matter, Italy). This makes Nine feel superficial, with some nice visuals but not a whole lot more.

Overall grade: C-
Reviewed by James Lynch

REEFER MADNESS: THE MOVIE MUSICAL

What happens when an unintentional comedy is remade as a deliberate comedy? Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical takes on the 1930s anti-marijuana Reefer Madness by adding musical numbers and upping the stereotypes of the original.

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical opens in a black-and-white classroom in 1936. A lecturer (Alan Cumming, who plays several roles in the movie) is showing parents and teachers his film depicting the perils of marijuana: "Creeping like a communist, it's knocking at your doors/turning all our children into hooligans and whores!" His lecture -- and movie -- is full of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and hyperbole (like the "fact" that marijuana is more addictive than heroin) -- and he treats any questioning or disbelief as a sign of anti-patriotism and anti-Americanism.
The movie-in-the-movie is about two all-American pure teen sweethearts: Jimmy Harper (Chris Campbell) and Mary Lane (Kristen Bell). These two are in love, rehearsing for Romeo and Juliet (and she just knows it'll have a happy ending!), and getting ready for the big dance. But Jimmy can't dance -- and this leads him down the path of corruption.

Jimmy falls for the snares of slick marijuana dealer Jack Stone (Steven Weber), a slick, brutal man out to addict kids. His den of iniquity includes: Mae Coleman (Ana Gasteyer), an older woman who knows how evil weed and Jack are but can't kick "the stuff"; Sally (Amy Spanger), the beautiful temptress who has a habit of walking into things and endangering her kid; and Ralph (John Kassir), the burned-out weirdo who got hooked on pot in college and wears his varsity sweater all the time.

Naturally, one puff of marijuana turns the innocent kids into addicts, thieves, murderers, sex addicts, and even cannibals! And what better way to show all this than lavish musical numbers? From the initial G-rated dance at the soda shop (featuring Chris's sister Neve Campbell) to a Vegas-style number with a shirtless Jesus (Robert Torti) to a wild animated sequence, there's music a-plenty here!

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical is a fun one-joke movie, er, movie musical. Not unlike The Colbert Report, the conservative view is delivered so excessively "serious" that it becomes its own joke. The cast here is excellent -- both in comic timing and at singing and dancing -- and the movie is an excellent parody of its unintentionally silly source material. (The dvd also includes the original movie!) So if you want to spend some time in a looney version of the good old days, threatened by the demon weed, then check out Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE TOXIC AVENGER MUSICAL

Broadway has been adapting movies for years now, but who knew Troma Films' '80s cult classic The Toxic Avenger would be turned into a musical? Well, it has -- and The Toxic Avenger Musical sustains the cheesy lowbrow humor of the movie.

The play follows the plot of the movie fairly closely. In the highly polluted town of Tromaville, New Jersey ("if the pollution doesn't get you/the aroma will"), the corrupt mayor is storing toxic waste. Nerdy Mervin Ferd the Third wants to stop her, but her goons dump her in the waste. Melvin is turned into the Toxic Avenger ("Toxie"), a giant green monster who dispenses justice by brutally killing all polluters; Melvin/Toxie also has a crush on Sarah, who is conveniently blind.

As you might imagine, The Toxic Avenger Musical is about as sophisticated as a whoopee cushion -- and this musical revels in that. This musical has songs that include "Hot Toxic Love," "Thank God She's Blind" and "All Men Are Freaks." The enthusiasm the cast brings to The Toxic Avenger Musical balances the relentless lowbrow jokes and lyrics. The end result is amusing, even if it can become wearying at times.

For those who find the music of Broadway stuffy and elitist, this is about as far from that as you can get. (Sorry, Urinetown.) The Toxic Avenger Musical is crude, it's lewd, it's simplistic, and it's very often funny.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

A Pair of Musicals

Straying from the usual here, I'm going to group two reviews into one post. These two films go together under the general theme and disclaimer that while I like music, and I generally enjoy movies, for whatever reason, I just don't like movies that are musicals, and these two films didn't change that opinion by all that much.

Hairspray (2007)

First up is Hairspray. This is the 2007 film remake of a 1988 film, that was also a Broadway play. It features a plot that focuses on Baltimore in 1962, and racial integration on some American Bandstand knockoff show. It features John Travolta, Michelle Pfeifer, and newcomer Nikki Blonsky who was plucked from serving ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery for the part in a real life "rags to riches" tale. While Nikki is well cast, I'm still wondering why we needed to have Travolta dressed in drag to play her mother. The novelty of this quickly wears off, and just didn't make sense to me. The highlight of Hairspray is the rockin' late 50's tunes, and proof that this endurable style of music can transcend generation, and that rock 'n roll is here to stay. Unfortunately, it can only save this saccharin sweet film that bases its theme on acceptance of all, by so much. Too bad the plot was too shallow, as a film like Talk To Me did a much better job of conveying this theme with the depth it deserves.

Overall Grade: C

Once (2006)

The second musical this week is less of a traditional one, the film Once. Instead of the snappy show tunes and the orchestra overture, we have two musicians turned actors, Glen Hansard, and Marketa Irglova, and not exactly well known ones at that. Hansard is the street performer by night with his guitar on the streets of Dublin, and by day he works at his father's vacuum cleaner shop. Irglova is a struggling Czech immigrant who cleans houses to support her daughter and mother. Together, they click, (after she gets her vacuum fixed of course). There is too much of a raw edge to this film that left me with a low budget feeling like we were making a rockumentary at some points. Also, too much of the dialogue gets done in foreign tongues, and with no subtitles that leaves us out of what is going on behind all the chatter. In addition, the plot kind of falls apart as the film concludes leaving us to wonder what this was all about. Still, the songs at least fit into the story better here, and don't feel as artificial as a singing squirrel in the forest that characterizes too many musicals. I'm thinking the bottom line is that this film is worth looking at Once if you're a fan of some simple acoustic folk rock. While the love affair between these two seems destined for the ages at the start, if fizzles faster than a stale pop rock.

Overall Grade: B-

Reviewed by Jonas

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

If you thought the movie musical needs more gore and gloom, your perfect movie has arrived! Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has leaped from the theater to the big screen, and star Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton work their magic to create another dark tale.

Sweeney Todd begins like a typical revenge story. A flashback shows Benjamin Barker (Depp) living an idyllic life in London with his wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelley) and baby girl Johanna, until the corrupt and degenerate Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) had Parker arrested and deported to get to Lucy. Fifteen years later Barker returns as Sweeney Todd, appearing as a gothic apparition -- pale skin, wild black hair with a white streak, dark circles under his eyes -- and learning that Lucy poisoned herself after Turpin raped her and Johanna (Jayne Wisener) is the ward of Turpin.

Todd goes mad and gets even. He joins forces with a fellow gothic dweller of the slums, the darkly cheerful Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), whose claim to make "the worst pies in London" is hard to dispute. Todd finds his silver-handled razor blades and repoens his barber shop, hoping to get his enemies in the chair for a little slicing and dicing. Todd isn't too picky about his victims, as he puts his belief that everyone deserves to die to practice. Mrs. Lovett is a very happy accomplice, finding a most nauseating means of disposing of the bodies.

There is a subplot where young sailor Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), the young sailor who rescued Todd from the ocean, falls in love with Johanna and wants to rescue and marry her.. There's also the young boy Toby (Ed Sanders) is informally adopted by Mrs. Lovett after his abusive employer, the preening, pompous barner Signor Aldolfo Pirelli (Sascha Baron Cohen), is dispatched by Todd. But the focus of Sweeney Todd is the dark quest of Todd to get his revenge on the evil Judge Turpin -- and more or less anyone else he meets.

The music here is as cheerful as the film is dark. Rather than slow gloomy dirges, Sweeney Todd features grim songs with a quick tempo and frequent dark humor (such as when Todd sings a love song about his daughter while slitting throats). Director Tim Burton gets the most from his excellent cast, resulting in energy and mania through the grizzly proceedings. There are no heroes here -- Todd will kill just about anyone, and the romantics Anthony and Johanna seem naively optimistic against the dark backdrop of London -- but for gallows humor, Sweeney Todd delivers. You won't feel hopeful at the end of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- but you will feel entertained.

Overall grade: A

Reviewed by James Lynch

Dreamgirls (2006)

It’s always difficult to adapt entertainment from one genre to the next. For example, only rarely does a film accurately portray what really goes on in the book. Similarly, a successful Broadway musical, like Dreamgirls, is quite the challenge to adapt to the big screen.

With that said, a star studded cast put forth an outstanding effort to convey the energy of musical theater onto film. This includes Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, Danny Glover and Jennifer Hudson of American Idol runner up "fame." The plot is loosely based on the real life climb to stardom of Diana Ross and the Supremes. Why we need to thinly disguise the real basis of the story, I’m still not quite sure. The play apparently gets done in two acts, the first is the mid 60’s, and the second is the mid 70’s which the film follows as well.

While the musical choreography and vocals were well done, I will admit that at times the plot ran thin. On more than one occasion I felt like I was watching a Motown video more than a film. Rather than have some meaningful dialogue at several points that would clarify where things were going, the screenplay too easily resorted to yet another song. In a live Broadway show it would seem more appropriate, but in the film it feels somewhat overdone.



Still, Dreamgirls is quite entertaining. It is enjoyable to hear how the music progresses during the decade represented in the film. Some historical footage of relevant news is interspersed, and this serves to give the music some context. When you want some Motown tunes, and can’t get tickets for a Broadway show, then Dreamgirls should be a reasonable substitute. Jennifer Hudson’s vocals are excellent, and the audience must continually wonder how she didn’t win on American Idol. Just bear in mind where Dreamgirls came from because as a film on its own, its merely average.

Overall Grade: B