It's funny that I have never considered The Blues Brothers to be a musical but of course it is. It's one of my favorite movies and I enjoy the songs but they only work because it's the old legendary black soul singers performing them; I don't think they would work with a no-name cast. Meanwhile one doesn't specifically need Carol Lawrence* to perform "I Feel Pretty" or "One Hand, One Heart" to enjoy WSS.
*Still alive at 92 while Natalie Wood died at 43, although it turns out Wood did not perform her own singing in the movie version of WSS. Also, there is an old joke where the punchline is "I guess Wood doesn't float"
in fairness some of the songs are covered by the Blues Brothers themselves which is a bunch of amazing studio/tour musicians plus the amateur vocals of two comedians.
There was a movie that was a bunch of non-Beatles singing Beatles songs. All were inferior to the Beatle's own studio performance except one. I think it was "Mr. Kite"? I liked it better so I looked up to see who the actor was and it was, in fact, Bono.
Yes, the Blues Brothers backing band was one of the greatest collections of session artists ever assembled; the whole conceit of the band wouldn't have worked without them.
In Across the Universe (2007) Bono performed Across the Universe.
Lots of straight guys, such as JFK, enjoy musicals. Right after Jack's assassination, Jackie named his era after a Broadway musical he particularly enjoyed: Camelot.
I read the books (there are three, as I recall), but I won't bother watching the movie. The decision on the lead's demographics is not true to the book, similar to The Dark Tower, which failed miserably. When will they cast a white guy in the lead of a movie version of Uncle Tom's Cabin?
I’ve never seen the show, but Wicked clearly has a number of excellent songs with melodic complexity that complements the dramatic themes. It stands in contrast to some other box office hits like Lion King with its AI-generated music or Hamilton with its predictable politically-correct chanting. I challenge anyone to hum their favorite melody from these hits.
"Disney’s recent live-action Snow White and Wicked consider it politically inappropriate to depict little people. " I guess "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story" got it wrong with the song "Let Me Hold You Little Man":
You shout for me to put you down
But I'm marching today for your cause
I'm banging the drum
Your big day will come
When they remake The Wizard of Oz
"Think of Sarah Jessica Parker in 1991’s L.A. Story."
She was very attractive in that film, as was the city of LA. Neither has aged well. At least in Parker's case it's the normal course of life, while in LA's it's self-destruction.
Neither actress looks attractive. While black don't crack, the black actress clearly has the heavier features and I'm guessing (because I have no intention of seeing this) the voice of a middle aged woman.
If they were insisting on the diversity card, it would make more sense to cast a mulatto or quadroon black young lady as the good witch and put the white actress in the green airbrush makeup with some red lipstick. The solid green over-emphasizes the lips and nose, and of course the red lipstick would have looked clownish.
It actually looks like they deliberately mucked up the makeup job on Ariana to avoid the uncomfortable contrast.
Of course, it's really just an insoluble problem because the Wizard of Oz is fundamentally white American culture, written around the Yankee and Midwestern American characters Frank Baum grew up around. But we have made the policy choice that there is no such thing as white American culture.
Right. The blonde looks anorexic and vaguely Hispanic. Ariana Grande isn't bad, but the role of the Funny Blonde is the big leagues: Marilyn Monroe, Carole Lombard, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, etc.
Totally agree that they picked two unattractive women for these roles. The black lady would be more suited for some character in the Marvel universe as part of an alien race, and Ariana Grande looks anorexic as opposed to girlish. Not sure what machinations led to their casting.
Great article. I am worried the entire thing will function as an advert for Ozempic for the (predominantly) young and female audience. Some are saying the two leads are struggling with “competitive anorexia.” Not an expert (and have yet to see the film) but if you watch them in interviews together something doesn’t feel right.
As far as I can tell, the movie seems to be doing a very good job of pleasing its target audience: anyone who liked the musical at some point in the past 20 years (which, between Broadway and touring production and cast album sales, is a lot of people). Everyone in my family (we all saw the original Broadway cast in 2004) liked the movie. If you were dragged to Wicked (the play) and didn't like it, I can't imagine you'll enjoy the movie. But the movie's creative team deserve at least some credit for not screwing it up. After all, you could do a perfectly good job of making a movie musical and then screw it up by miscasting one of the leads (like making Russell Crowe Javert in Les Mis).
By far my least favorite aspect of the movie was Ariana Grande's hair. Change the famous line about her being "blonde," and you could've gotten away with her hair being a prettier, more natural shade. But ultimately, I think both she and Erivo gave very good performances, in the only two roles that really matter in this movie.
Also, I read the novel many years ago, and as I recall, it's explained that the upper-class Munchkins tended to be a more normal height, presumably due to marrying other relatively tall Munchkins.
Finally, as far as the comment about union stagehands goes, my sister worked in various jobs in the theater industry for quite a few years, and the most absurd thing I learned was how much Broadway box office employees were making. Even about a decade ago they were making almost $100k a year.
In (I'm now reminded) 2003, a couple who are friends of ours and live in Concord, MA invited us for early-evening drinks at their suite at the Waldorf Astoria here in NYC. Sounded like fun, and he's a big wine-lover so we thought we'd bring along a very nice bottle we'd gotten as a wedding present the year before--the kind of thing I'd never shell out for myself.
So we arrive at the Waldorf (to paraphrase Wallace Stevens https://lyricstranslate.com/en/wallace-stevens-arrival-waldorf-lyrics.html) and knock on their door to discover like fifteen people somewhat weirdly sitting in a circle and celebrating (as we were soon to discover) the opening of a Broadway show many of them were about to attend, based on a novel by one of the gay guys in the room. This I gather was Gregory Maguire, a friend of the host couple's from up in Concord; reasonably enough I guess, he was gleefully soaking in the attention and obviously psyched for the impending debut of Wicked.
This was not at all what we'd anticipated, and my wife and I undelightedly drank something other than the fancy wine we'd brought while being pretty titanically bored and (in my case at least) annoyed by the monolithic conversation, veering from Broadway-infused excitement to the predictably uniformly prog politics of everyone there: not my jam, nor my wife's.
We fled at the first reasonable moment feeling gypped in more ways than one. But hey: belated congratulations to Mr. Maguire on hatching a dynamite franchise.
This line is comedy gold: “The Stonewall Riot that conventionally marks the beginning of the Gay Lib era was just hours after Judy Garland’s funeral, when emotions were running high”.
Seriously, imagine a culture centered around facilities where you take drugs and pitch and catch with strangers all night. They literally fucked themselves to death and demanded decades of medical research be devoted to their preventable chronic wasting disease.
Steve you were in rare form today, calling cheugy Hamilton fans “rich obama voters” was so catty and cutting (also “face made for cheap seats”!) You made me smile, I hope you have a joyous thanksgiving
I wouldn't call "rich Obama voters" catty, but rather apt and succinct. How many Hamilton fans don't hit both those marks? I'd bet low-single digits percentage.
Anyway, I came here to likewise compliment the "face made for cheap seats" shot.
I've been trying to dial back my directness--which is often just mean--for awhile now, and who better to practice on than Erivo? Her [redacted] visage is everywhere these days, and always causes an involuntary groan of disgust from me. When anyone nearby asks what's wrong, I'd try soften my natural inclination to harsh insults with "she's not terribly easy on the eyes." However, I may now resort to Steve's euphemism. Thanks Steve!
> the essence of witchiness is a face that looks attractive when young but isn’t likely to age well: Think of Sarah Jessica Parker in 1991’s L.A. Story or Madonna in 1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan.
SJP was 33-38 during the original run of Sex and the City but even then I thought HBO was putting us on when they cast her as the leader of the clowder. As for Madonna it is no lie that Roseanne has aged more gracefully than she has
So, in the land of Oz, are there differences in violent crime rate between the white and green citizens? What is difference in grades and graduation rates at the witch academicy between whites and greens? How about between the normally sized and the faux-midgets (since they are the stand-in Asians)?
And, after looking at the facial features of the two witches who are supposedly sisters, I would be questioning the parentage narrative that they have been given. I would suppose that the green father had a quickie with the mother and then disappeared back to the Ozland equivalent of Wakanda. So, the rich Obama voters will likely love this one, too.
yeah, you'd think even the intended audience for the message would get that it isn't the skin color that inspires racism; it's just an obvious marker that intensifies it.
So I guess this movie is all about how it is unfair that green skin is less attractive than white?
I commend you Steve on distinguishing dwarves from midgets. Ever since we lost our precious midget reserves to genetically engineered human growth hormone back in the 80s, people have come to use the terms interchangeably.
Dinklage is a very talented actor and also a hypocrite. He advocated against using dwarfs in the Snow White remake while he continues to book an endless stream of high paying roles.
I feel like Memory got a lot of air play in the early 80s, though I can't remember if the rock stations ever played it. And of course Jay-Z introduced a whole new generation to It's a Hard Knock Life!
Where is our Gilbert & Sullivan?
> I'm a straight male who likes musicals
Yeah, like a three-dollar bill
Junior high school persiflage.
I have now compared your masculinity to that of JFK's. Satisfied?
hahahhaha!
I don't dig most of the Broadway stuff and have never seen a musical performed live. My favorites are thus:
1)West Side Story (I have a few used copies of the original Broadway cast album but don't like the movie as much)
2) Singin' in the Rain
3) The Blues Brothers
Please rate my gay
It's funny that I have never considered The Blues Brothers to be a musical but of course it is. It's one of my favorite movies and I enjoy the songs but they only work because it's the old legendary black soul singers performing them; I don't think they would work with a no-name cast. Meanwhile one doesn't specifically need Carol Lawrence* to perform "I Feel Pretty" or "One Hand, One Heart" to enjoy WSS.
*Still alive at 92 while Natalie Wood died at 43, although it turns out Wood did not perform her own singing in the movie version of WSS. Also, there is an old joke where the punchline is "I guess Wood doesn't float"
in fairness some of the songs are covered by the Blues Brothers themselves which is a bunch of amazing studio/tour musicians plus the amateur vocals of two comedians.
There was a movie that was a bunch of non-Beatles singing Beatles songs. All were inferior to the Beatle's own studio performance except one. I think it was "Mr. Kite"? I liked it better so I looked up to see who the actor was and it was, in fact, Bono.
Yes, the Blues Brothers backing band was one of the greatest collections of session artists ever assembled; the whole conceit of the band wouldn't have worked without them.
In Across the Universe (2007) Bono performed Across the Universe.
Lots of straight guys, such as JFK, enjoy musicals. Right after Jack's assassination, Jackie named his era after a Broadway musical he particularly enjoyed: Camelot.
My seventeen year old daughter saw it last night. She said it was way too long.
I read the books (there are three, as I recall), but I won't bother watching the movie. The decision on the lead's demographics is not true to the book, similar to The Dark Tower, which failed miserably. When will they cast a white guy in the lead of a movie version of Uncle Tom's Cabin?
I’ve never seen the show, but Wicked clearly has a number of excellent songs with melodic complexity that complements the dramatic themes. It stands in contrast to some other box office hits like Lion King with its AI-generated music or Hamilton with its predictable politically-correct chanting. I challenge anyone to hum their favorite melody from these hits.
In fairness, Hamilton is rap so technically no melody, right?
"Disney’s recent live-action Snow White and Wicked consider it politically inappropriate to depict little people. " I guess "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story" got it wrong with the song "Let Me Hold You Little Man":
You shout for me to put you down
But I'm marching today for your cause
I'm banging the drum
Your big day will come
When they remake The Wizard of Oz
"Think of Sarah Jessica Parker in 1991’s L.A. Story."
She was very attractive in that film, as was the city of LA. Neither has aged well. At least in Parker's case it's the normal course of life, while in LA's it's self-destruction.
Neither actress looks attractive. While black don't crack, the black actress clearly has the heavier features and I'm guessing (because I have no intention of seeing this) the voice of a middle aged woman.
If they were insisting on the diversity card, it would make more sense to cast a mulatto or quadroon black young lady as the good witch and put the white actress in the green airbrush makeup with some red lipstick. The solid green over-emphasizes the lips and nose, and of course the red lipstick would have looked clownish.
It actually looks like they deliberately mucked up the makeup job on Ariana to avoid the uncomfortable contrast.
Of course, it's really just an insoluble problem because the Wizard of Oz is fundamentally white American culture, written around the Yankee and Midwestern American characters Frank Baum grew up around. But we have made the policy choice that there is no such thing as white American culture.
Right. The blonde looks anorexic and vaguely Hispanic. Ariana Grande isn't bad, but the role of the Funny Blonde is the big leagues: Marilyn Monroe, Carole Lombard, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, etc.
Totally agree that they picked two unattractive women for these roles. The black lady would be more suited for some character in the Marvel universe as part of an alien race, and Ariana Grande looks anorexic as opposed to girlish. Not sure what machinations led to their casting.
Right, Wizard of Oz is extremely American.
Great article. I am worried the entire thing will function as an advert for Ozempic for the (predominantly) young and female audience. Some are saying the two leads are struggling with “competitive anorexia.” Not an expert (and have yet to see the film) but if you watch them in interviews together something doesn’t feel right.
As far as I can tell, the movie seems to be doing a very good job of pleasing its target audience: anyone who liked the musical at some point in the past 20 years (which, between Broadway and touring production and cast album sales, is a lot of people). Everyone in my family (we all saw the original Broadway cast in 2004) liked the movie. If you were dragged to Wicked (the play) and didn't like it, I can't imagine you'll enjoy the movie. But the movie's creative team deserve at least some credit for not screwing it up. After all, you could do a perfectly good job of making a movie musical and then screw it up by miscasting one of the leads (like making Russell Crowe Javert in Les Mis).
By far my least favorite aspect of the movie was Ariana Grande's hair. Change the famous line about her being "blonde," and you could've gotten away with her hair being a prettier, more natural shade. But ultimately, I think both she and Erivo gave very good performances, in the only two roles that really matter in this movie.
Also, I read the novel many years ago, and as I recall, it's explained that the upper-class Munchkins tended to be a more normal height, presumably due to marrying other relatively tall Munchkins.
Finally, as far as the comment about union stagehands goes, my sister worked in various jobs in the theater industry for quite a few years, and the most absurd thing I learned was how much Broadway box office employees were making. Even about a decade ago they were making almost $100k a year.
In (I'm now reminded) 2003, a couple who are friends of ours and live in Concord, MA invited us for early-evening drinks at their suite at the Waldorf Astoria here in NYC. Sounded like fun, and he's a big wine-lover so we thought we'd bring along a very nice bottle we'd gotten as a wedding present the year before--the kind of thing I'd never shell out for myself.
So we arrive at the Waldorf (to paraphrase Wallace Stevens https://lyricstranslate.com/en/wallace-stevens-arrival-waldorf-lyrics.html) and knock on their door to discover like fifteen people somewhat weirdly sitting in a circle and celebrating (as we were soon to discover) the opening of a Broadway show many of them were about to attend, based on a novel by one of the gay guys in the room. This I gather was Gregory Maguire, a friend of the host couple's from up in Concord; reasonably enough I guess, he was gleefully soaking in the attention and obviously psyched for the impending debut of Wicked.
This was not at all what we'd anticipated, and my wife and I undelightedly drank something other than the fancy wine we'd brought while being pretty titanically bored and (in my case at least) annoyed by the monolithic conversation, veering from Broadway-infused excitement to the predictably uniformly prog politics of everyone there: not my jam, nor my wife's.
We fled at the first reasonable moment feeling gypped in more ways than one. But hey: belated congratulations to Mr. Maguire on hatching a dynamite franchise.
This line is comedy gold: “The Stonewall Riot that conventionally marks the beginning of the Gay Lib era was just hours after Judy Garland’s funeral, when emotions were running high”.
WHO CAN FORGET THAT DAY...!
Seriously, imagine a culture centered around facilities where you take drugs and pitch and catch with strangers all night. They literally fucked themselves to death and demanded decades of medical research be devoted to their preventable chronic wasting disease.
Steve you were in rare form today, calling cheugy Hamilton fans “rich obama voters” was so catty and cutting (also “face made for cheap seats”!) You made me smile, I hope you have a joyous thanksgiving
I wouldn't call "rich Obama voters" catty, but rather apt and succinct. How many Hamilton fans don't hit both those marks? I'd bet low-single digits percentage.
Anyway, I came here to likewise compliment the "face made for cheap seats" shot.
I've been trying to dial back my directness--which is often just mean--for awhile now, and who better to practice on than Erivo? Her [redacted] visage is everywhere these days, and always causes an involuntary groan of disgust from me. When anyone nearby asks what's wrong, I'd try soften my natural inclination to harsh insults with "she's not terribly easy on the eyes." However, I may now resort to Steve's euphemism. Thanks Steve!
> the essence of witchiness is a face that looks attractive when young but isn’t likely to age well: Think of Sarah Jessica Parker in 1991’s L.A. Story or Madonna in 1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan.
SJP was 33-38 during the original run of Sex and the City but even then I thought HBO was putting us on when they cast her as the leader of the clowder. As for Madonna it is no lie that Roseanne has aged more gracefully than she has
So, in the land of Oz, are there differences in violent crime rate between the white and green citizens? What is difference in grades and graduation rates at the witch academicy between whites and greens? How about between the normally sized and the faux-midgets (since they are the stand-in Asians)?
And, after looking at the facial features of the two witches who are supposedly sisters, I would be questioning the parentage narrative that they have been given. I would suppose that the green father had a quickie with the mother and then disappeared back to the Ozland equivalent of Wakanda. So, the rich Obama voters will likely love this one, too.
yeah, you'd think even the intended audience for the message would get that it isn't the skin color that inspires racism; it's just an obvious marker that intensifies it.
So I guess this movie is all about how it is unfair that green skin is less attractive than white?
I commend you Steve on distinguishing dwarves from midgets. Ever since we lost our precious midget reserves to genetically engineered human growth hormone back in the 80s, people have come to use the terms interchangeably.
Drives me battier than "Begs the Question".
Dinklage is a very talented actor and also a hypocrite. He advocated against using dwarfs in the Snow White remake while he continues to book an endless stream of high paying roles.
I feel like Memory got a lot of air play in the early 80s, though I can't remember if the rock stations ever played it. And of course Jay-Z introduced a whole new generation to It's a Hard Knock Life!