Even if you’re a confirmed cynic, nothing beats the mood-boosting power of a movie musical. There’s something about the sheer escapism of watching real life give way to a perfectly choreographed song and dance sequence that never fails to lift the spirits — and perhaps that’s why recent musical movies, from critical hits like La La Land to all-conquering box office giants like The Greatest Showman, Mamma Mia! and its sequel, have proved so popular.
Filmgoers’ appetite for musical films is so strong that Hollywood can’t stop green-lighting star-studded big screen versions of Broadway and West End stage hits, from a two-part adaptation of Wicked featuring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, to a new version of Matilda The Musical, starring Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull, which is slated to arrive in cinemas towards the end of this year.
For fans of Disney musical movies, there’s plenty of good news too, as the animation giant’s journey through its back catalogue continues apace, with live action remakes planned for classics including Snow White, starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, The Little Mermaid, with singer Halle Bailey in the lead role and additional songs co-written by Alan Menken and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Hercules, directed by Guy Ritchie.
If you just saw West Side Story and fancy your next fix of musicals, why not refresh your memory with a guide to some of the genre’s greatest hits, from golden age classics and campy ‘80s musical movies to crowd-pleasing jukebox musicals and animated favourites?
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
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Downpours have never seemed more appealing than in Singin’ in the Rain, the pinnacle of Hollywood’s golden age of musicals, which spills over with joy and energy in a way that’s not been matched since. Though filmed in the early ‘50s, it harks back to an earlier period in Hollywood history, when ‘talking pictures’ were starting to gain traction with cinemagoers, much to the chagrin of silent film stars, like Gene Kelly’s character Don Lockwood (aka the one swinging around the lamppost in one of the film’s most famous dance sequences).
Aged just 19 at the time, Debbie Reynolds holds her own against her more experienced co-stars with her sparkling performance as Kathy, the chorus girl whose singing voice means she’s better suited to the ‘talkie’ era than Don’s co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). The song and dance numbers might look effortless on screen, but that was far from the case: after filming Good Morning from 8am to 11pm, Reynolds was left with bleeding feet (“Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life,” she later said).
Watch Singin’ in the Rain on Amazon Prime Video
Mary Poppins (1964)
Watching this Disney classic back almost six decades later, it is hard to believe that Mary Poppins marked Julie Andrews’ film debut — from the moment that she lands on Cherry Tree Lane, having floated through the air via umbrella, maintaining ramrod posture throughout, she is effortlessly self-assured as the magical nanny. And then there’s the singing voice, so sweet and clear on A Spoonful of Sugar, then haunting as she tells the story of the old woman outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Feed The Birds. No wonder the role won her an Oscar in 1965. Throw in a jaunty earworm of a song about women’s rights (Sister Suffragette, which has surely provided many young viewers with their first encounter with the women’s suffrage movement over the years), a fantastical animated sequence, dancing chimney sweeps and you have one of the most enduringly enchanting musicals of all time (although the less said about Dick Van Dyke’s garbled take on a Cockney accent, the better).
Watch Mary Poppins on Amazon Prime Video
La La Land (2017)
From the moment that a Los Angeles traffic jam gives way to the joyful song and dance sequence for opening number Another Day of Sun on a gridlocked freeway, it’s impossible not to be swept away by director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to the golden age of Hollywood musicals. Frequent co-stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling prove they have some of the best chemistry in the business as aspiring actress Mia and jazz musician Sebastian, both seeking success and creative fulfillment, ideally at all once.
It’s a real feast for musical geeks, crammed with references to some of the genre’s most iconic moments (the glorious ‘what if?’ sequence towards the end of the film is a nod to An American In Paris’s dream ballet, for example, while the dance routines pack in nods to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and songs like City of Stars and Audition (The Fools Who Dream), written by The Greatest Showman duo Pasek and Paul, linger in the mind long after the credits have rolled. No wonder it was such an Oscars hit upon its release, even if it has become more notorious for the award it didn’t win (Best Picture, after a bungled announcement that named La La Land before the correct winner, Moonlight, was announced).
Watch La La Land on Amazon Prime Video
Mamma Mia! (2008)
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One Greek island, three potential dads and a tonne of solid gold Abba hits, plus a jaw-droppingly starry cast (ranging from Meryl Streep to Colin Firth to Pierce Brosnan in what surely remains the biggest post-Bond casting curveball), many of whom weren’t going to let a lack of musical talent and / or dance coordination get in the way of a good time: despite the initial critical mauling (one newspaper likened Brosnan’s singing to the sounds made by a “water buffalo”) Mamma Mia! was always going to be a feel-good box office hit. Indeed, it proved so successful that it broke the record for the highest grossing film directed by a woman (Phyllida Lloyd), and clung on to it for almost a decade, until Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman burst onto the scene.
As Donna, the struggling hotelier whose daughter Sophie has sneakily invited three of her former love interests (played by Brosnan, Firth and Stellan Skarsgård) to her wedding, the ever-versatile Streep is scene-stealing. If you manage to get through her pre-wedding rendition of Slipping Through My Fingers without shedding a tear, you probably have a heart of stone.
Watch Mamma Mia! on Amazon Prime Video
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Like much of the Australian director’s work, Baz Luhrmann’s unapologetically OTT spectacular spectacular is probably an acquired taste, but it would be hard to deny that Moulin Rouge! (rarely has a film title been so deserving of that exclamation mark) is one of the most dazzlingly original musical movies of the past few decades.
The tragic love story of beautiful showgirl Satine (Nicole Kidman) and penniless, idealistic poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) is soundtracked by a glorious array of some of the 20th century’s biggest tracks (sometimes, as in the case of Elephant Love Medley, mashed up within the same knowing musical number) shoehorning in everything from The Beatles and Elton John to Madonna and David Bowie (plus a Kylie Minogue cameo, cementing its camp classic status). Its one original composition Come What May, originally written for the soundtrack of Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, still manages to hold its own among all those classic love songs, though.
Watch Moulin Rouge! on Amazon Prime Video
Dreamgirls (2006)
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After a handful of failed attempts to bring Dreamgirls to the screen in the ‘80s (one potential movie version was intended as a star vehicle for Whitney Houston, but hit some bumps when Houston revealed she wanted to sing songs intended for both main characters), this Supremes-inspired tale finally became a film two decades later. It was worth the wait. Fresh from her stint on American Idol, Jennifer Hudson turns in a genuinely jaw-dropping performance as Effie White, the lead singer of girl group The Dreamettes who is eventually pushed out of the spotlight in favour of the more marketable backing singer Deena (played here by Beyoncé). Her rendition of the show’s standout number And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, building from an almost whispered vocal to its defiant refrain, is surely up there among the all-time best musical moments, while Bey gets her own superstar showcase courtesy of Listen, one of the four additional tracks written for the film with Henry Krieger, the original Dreamgirls composer.
Watch Dreamgirls on Amazon Prime Video
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
It would have been rude not to make another Mamma Mia! film when a title as good as this was waiting in the wings (there’s also the small matter of the original film’s $611 million box office takings, which probably played no small part in getting a second one made). At once a sequel and a prequel (the producers say it took cues from The Godfather Part II) it dances between the past – exploring Donna (played in flashback by Lily James)’s exploits on her post-university trip through Europe – and the present, when her daughter Sophie is attempting to relaunch the family’s hotel.
The emotional stakes are higher this time (no spoilers, but if the final 10 minutes don’t make you shed a tear, then your heart is probably made from coal), with the added bonus of Cher appearing via helicopter to perform a disco version of Fernando. It feels like a fever dream, in the best possible way. And if you thought they’d used up all the best songs in the first film? We raise you underlooked gems from Abba’s back catalogue like Andante Andante, Angel Eyes and One of Us.
Watch Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again on Amazon Prime Video
Chicago (2002)
All-singing, all-dancing movie musicals had very much fallen out of favour in Hollywood around the turn of the millennium — until this adaptation of a Broadway classic from director Rob Marshall shimmied its way to six Oscar wins, including Best Picture, at the 2003 Academy Awards. Renée Zellweger is magnetic as Roxie Hart, the starry-eyed ingenue who ends up on Murderesses’ Row at the Cook County Jail after shooting her lover dead, while eventual Best Supporting Actress winner Catherine Zeta Jones is equally compelling as her fellow inmate Velma Kelly, a vaudeville star at the centre of a cause célèbre.
The duo had all-star back-up, too, in the form of Richard Gere (as a slippery, showboating lawyer), Queen Latifah (as the jail’s corrupt matron) and John C. Reilly (as Roxie’s gullible, good-hearted husband). With its Bob Fosse-inspired choreography, the Cell Block Tango sequence, when Roxie’s cellmates come clean about the crimes they were sent down for, is a real showstopper.
Watch Chicago on Amazon Prime Video
The Lion King (1994)
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Yes, the 2019 live action remake had Beyoncé and Donald Glover on the cast list and some impressively photo-real CGI, but the animated original still reigns supreme over Disney’s back catalogue. That’s in no small part thanks to the atmospheric soundtrack by Hans Zimmer (raise your hand if you are still triggered by the opening notes of To Die For, his composition which accompanies that tear-jerking moment midway through the film) and the original songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, from the opening fanfare of Circle of Life to the comic swagger of Hakuna Matata to the sweeping emotion of Can You Feel The Love Tonight (all three of those tracks received Best Original Song nominations at the Oscars). No wonder it has since become a mainstay on Broadway and the West End. Story-wise, it’s basically Hamlet with lions, with all the family betrayal and backstabbing that entails (most of it comes courtesy of Jeremy Irons’ unbeatably nasty Scar).
Watch The Lion King on Amazon Prime Video
Hamilton
It’s rare that a recorded version of a stage performance that A. manages to recreate the magic of seeing a show in the flesh and B. is as exhilarating and absorbing as a dramatised movie musical, but the 2020 film of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton pulls off both of those feats effortlessly, with the creative camera work giving it a real cinematic feel. Through a dazzling fusion of musical genres, referencing everything from classic showtunes to hiphop, Miranda tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers, previously overlooked in the history books. This performance was filmed in 2016, with Miranda in the title role and Leslie Odom Jr as Hamilton’s political rival Aaron Burr, along with Phillipa Soo as his long-suffering wife Eliza and Renee Elise Goldsberry as her sister Angelica. If you are yet to catch the show in the West End or on Broadway, this is a pretty good taste of being in the room where it happens.
The Sound of Music (1965)
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In a musical double whammy that’s yet to be surpassed, less than one year after the release of Mary Poppins, Andrews starred as another singing nanny in the screen adaptation of The Sound of Music, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. It tells the story of novice nun Maria (Andrews), who decides to swap convent life for a job teaching the von Trapp children, to help her work out whether she really wants to spend the rest of her days in the nunnery. 60 years on, it’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that she doesn’t, and her warm, free-spirited approach eventually endears her to all seven von Trapps, and their father (Christopher Plummer).
The opening sequence showing Maria spinning around on the top of a hill, shot on location in Austria, is among the most iconic in cinema — though Andrews has since revealed that during filming, the force of the blades of the helicopter used to capture the sequence was so strong that she’d be knocked over every time, which is why the camera cuts to a close-up when she starts singing.
Watch The Sound of Music on Amazon Prime Video
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Before songwriting duo Alan Menken and Howard Ashman went on to soundtrack iconic Disney films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, the pair wrote a musical based on cult ‘60s B-movie Little Shop of Horrors, about a plant that thrives on human blood. After a run off-Broadway in the early ‘80s, it got the big screen treatment courtesy of director Frank Oz, complete with a cast that’s basically a who’s who of ‘80s comedy, featuring appearances from Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, John Candy and Bill Murray.
Moranis plays florist Seymour, who ends up cultivating the blood-thirsty plant Audrey II (named after his love interest, played with ditzy charm by Ellen Greene), whose appetite for humans soon gets out of hand. The film fizzes with chaotic humour which, as you’d probably expect from a tale of a massive, man-eating plant, gets pretty dark (so dark that the film’s original ending was deemed too much for audiences and had to be reshot).
Watch Little Shop of Horrors on Amazon Prime Video
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