I Dare You to Watch These Movies and Still Tell Me You Hate Musicals
By: Lindsay Brown
Tags: Lifestyle, Entertainment, Musicals, Life, Movies

I Dare You to Watch These Movies and Still Tell Me You Hate Musicals

4 musicals that will change the way you think about movies.

Photo by Liam McGarry on Unsplash

I found a movie the other day on Netflix called The Prom. I hadn’t heard any reviews, but it had some pretty great actors and actresses in it, such as Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and James Corden, so I decided to give it a shot.

One of my favourite things in the world is when I begin a movie and then five minutes in, unbeknownst to me, they start singing. I know it sounds like I’m being sarcastic because people typically hate musicals in general, but not me.

As I watched this movie, out of nowhere, Meryl was singing and whirling, complete, with choreographed dancers in a damn background. I was basically in broadway heaven. My toes started involuntarily tapping on the floor, and a light and fluffy feeling expanded through my chest. I immediately knew that this was going to be a great movie.

I love musicals. I’m not even ashamed of it. There’s something about the idea that in the magical universe where every musical takes place, the normality, or downright casualness of stopping everything and signing your woes to the world, happens at least a handful of times throughout the day. If only real life could work that way!

As the cast of The Prom sung about the injustice of bigotry in this small Illinois town in which they live, their ear to ear smiles and big voices uplifted me the same way I am heartened by the way my dog nuzzles my forehead when she wants more attention from me.

Whenever I find myself in the brilliant grips of a good musical, I am transported into the brightly, sequin-clad scene and pretend that I am right along there with my favourites and sing and dance on my living room carpet while my children look on in horror.

If you are one of those people who don’t enjoy musicals, I challenge you to watch the following movies on this list and still try to tell me that “no musicals are good.”

Rent (2005 film)

I first watched Rent while living in a small bachelor apartment across from the community college I attended in 2006. At the time, I was only doing upgrading at the college and a Theatre Studies course.

Instead of studying and working hard at my school work, I’d rush home every day, bust out my Rent soundtrack and sing out my balcony window until the bitchy old broad in 217 would scream at me to shut the hell up. Then, I’d sing louder.

I didn’t get a lot accomplished in school that year. Still, I did learn invaluable lessons in the ways of surviving as an impoverished artist in Lower Manhattan’s East Village and how to achieve a captivating rendition of La Vie Boheme without gasping for air.

Cabaret (1972 film)

I recently tried singing some of my favourite songs from Cabaret's 1972 film adaptation, where the great Liza Minelli plays Sally Bowles to my children. As soon as I hit “Life is a Cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret,” they fell to the floor while holding their ears and screaming for me to stop.

I’m actually pretty good at singing Liza songs because I’ve been doing it my entire life. Plus, I have that deep-set smoker’s voice that really suits my cause well.

But those little brats didn’t appreciate my talent at all! They were all like, what kind of music is this?! Who would even listen to something that weird?

Ingrates.

Maybe 10 and 12-year-olds wouldn’t like this one. Still, with the plethora of weird and wonderful characters, catchy songs and a riveting storyline based around sex, deception and the precarious Kit Kat Klub, it’s hard to refuse the awesomeness of this story.

Chicago (2002 film)

I could listen to Chicago's soundtrack on repeat all day. Actually, I have done exactly that on multiple occasions.

A story about a women’s cell block where multiple women have been accused of killing their lovers, and a fierce competitive rivalry between two accomplished performers in prison breaks out? Yes, please!

If Cabaret is too old and stogy for you, then I highly recommend Chicago. Here we are still incorporating the excitement of the jazz era but have some pretty modern themes as well.

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975 film)

RHPS is my all-time favourite musical ever written. My youngest memory with this masterpiece is sitting in my best friend Ashley’s living room when we are a mere 7 years old and anxiously waiting for Janet, Ashley’s mom, to get off the phone with my mom to see if I was allowed to watch this risque movie.

Some of you are probably gasping right now thinking of a seven-year-old watching Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I must remind you that this was the 90s, and we covered our eyes on the sex-scene, so it was fine.

This movie changed my life. I had never seen such flair in cinematics before. Dr. Frankenfuter became my idol and Rocky the love interest of my life. As I got older, I maintained my obsession with Rocky Horror, and much to my disappointment, it was usually only Ashley who shared in my enthusiasm. Anyone I tried to show the movie to immediately turned their nose up to it as soon as the iconic singing lips hit the screen, “Ugh, a musical?” they’d say, rolling their eyes to show me how disgusted they were in the prospect.

Not me, though. I believe RHPS set me on this obsessive track to strive to live in a more musical-like world. If only we all had the vocal cords of angels and could maintain a huge shit-eating grin on our face while we sang-narrated the happenings throughout our day.

I, for one, think this would be a much happier and healthy world if we all appreciated the musicals in our life a little bit more.