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Let's Talk Movie Musicals

Heyo! Hope you've been doing well. Please note most of this post is opinion based. You may disagree and you are welcome to disagree in the comments. If you enjoy musicals like I do, you know there's been a weird history of movie musicals within the past 20 years. So let's talk about it.

Disclaimer: I don't like Cats. Have never liked Cats and I will never watch the film adaptation. This is the hill I will die on.

The idea for this post came LONG before the 2021 releases of Tick, Tick...BOOM and West Side Story. But those two musicals are great examples of what happens when you cast theater people over big names in Hollywood. Movie musicals is such a weird genre because you can have a great production, but one person who can't sing on your cast can put a sour taste in people's mouths. The two musicals that come to mind are Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Les Miserables (2012).

The Phantom of the Opera film I only watched once, but I've rewatched the musical scenes many times and this post is JUST about the performances over anything else in the movie. Emmy Rossum isn't my favorite Christine, but she did okay. Patrick Wilson was a good Raoul. But Gerard Butler as Phantom? That was an odd choice and not the one that I would have chosen. How they could have gotten it so wrong when an actor who has given one of the best (the best in my opinion) performances as the Phantom WAS IN THE MOVIE! Ramin Karimloo, who is one of my favorite state performers, one of my favorite singers, was in The Phantom of the Opera. He portrayed Christine's father IN A PHOTOGRAPH! They had the man in their grasp and didn't use him for the role that he has exceeded in. To be fair, at the time, he was portraying Raoul on the West End, but he still could have given a much better performance than Gerard Butler.

An almost identical issue happened in the Les Miserables film. Great all-around cast, except for Russell Crowe as Javert. I LOVE Russell Crowe. I enjoy watching his films. He's a great actor, but a singer he is not. But the Les Miserables film has a great actor who has portrayed Javert in their grasp. Hadley Fraser was given a new small role as a National Guardsman. He was even playing Javert on the West End around that time. He would have done a better job as Javert than Russell Crowe. There are so many other actor's they could have casted.

Coincidentally Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser are good friends and have worked together on stage productions of both Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.

There are obviously some great casting choices in both films, but the best casting choices have to do with the performer having a background in theater. The performance in Phantom of the Opera that has stuck with me is Patrick Wilson as Raoul. The performances who stuck out to me in Les Miserables were Samantha Barks, and pretty much every member of the ABC Cafe - which for those not familiar with the musical are the young students who rebel. They all have theater backgrounds. Specifically musical theater backgrounds.

I've only seen three Broadway shows, but the talent that is put on those stages is exuberant! I know realistically people both in film and on stage have contracts, but theater is a revolving door of talent. There are plenty of big-name Hollywood stars who have a theater background. Like Hugh Jackman! We've now seen him in two movie musicals: Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman.

And we don't always need big name Hollywood stars in films to bring people to theaters! For example, the remake of West Side Story that came out this past December. Their stunt cast was Ansel Elgort, but he's not so big a name. If anything, the people who have gotten the most awards and nominations, the most recognition from West Side Story are the lesser-known theater performers. For example, Ariana DeBose, who just got a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her performance.

Andrew Garfield was a risk for Tick, Tick...BOOM! because he doesn't have a musical theater background, and it was his first time singing. His casting could have been a terrible thing for the film being that he is the star. However, he pleasantly surprised lots of people, especially me.

I would love to see a Phantom of the Opera film remake with a great cast. That one is overdue. It's a beautiful musical and deserves beautiful performances. Especially from the titular character. Les Miserables was almost perfect had they casted a different Javert.

I TRULY hope the next movie musicals follow West Side Story and Tick, Tick...BOOM! because we don't need stunt casting in MUSICALS! We just need good performances.

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