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Regina George has a secret. she sings
Despite what the marketing suggests, the latest installment of the pink-accented nesting doll set, “Mean Girls,” now in theaters, is unmistakably a musical movie. The 2018 Broadway musical is based on his 2004 film, which was inspired by the 2002 nonfiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes, and this new version includes songs. Contains dance. There’s a fun moment in the song where members of the school’s marching band belt out the saxophone and tuba.
You wouldn’t know it from the movie’s trailer if it weren’t for that fleeting shot of the band. The first trailer for November is set to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back!” — No original music included. Instead, it was made to look like a vaguely edgier remix of the 2004 film.
The second trailer, released on January 3, features a line or two of “Meet the Plastics,” before the soundtrack shifts to a new song. The song is a collaboration between Megan Thee Stallion and Renee Rapp, who plays suburban high school Regina. apex predator. That song “Not My Fault” is indeed in the actual movie. It plays over the credits.
These “Mean Girls” trailers are similar to “Wonka,” which was released on December 15th, and which were released on Christmas Day, as a movie that has spent much of its marketing budget downplaying and concealing its awkward position as a musical movie. Joined “The Color Purple”. At the end of the Wonka trailer, Hugh Grant’s Oompa Loompas threaten to burst into song, but Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka simply says, “I don’t think you want to hear that.” This is due to the character who invented chocolate that makes people sing.
Why do these trailers reflect The Chocolatier? Indeed, recent musical films such as Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Dear Evan Hansen, and In the Heights Some of the films underperformed at the box office. And today’s Hollywood is fixated on seeing properties that aren’t aimed at superhero-loving men as niche. Deadline recently claimed that audiences tend to discount musicals and that the only way to attract ticket buyers is to hide the singing and dancing, like grated vegetables in brownie batter.
Or maybe it’s the other way around. Musicals are nothing if not dessert. Who are these studios trying to fool? And for how long? When Tap Shoes comes on the scene, even the most credulous of viewers have to figure it out right away. If that viewer hates musicals, the reveal won’t come as a pleasant surprise.
Are there really that many people who think musicals are demotivating? Although not everyone considers themselves a drama geek, there are many who are passionate about singing and dancing. If that were the case, there wouldn’t be as many seasons of “The Voice,” “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Masked Singer.” It’s true that 2021’s movie musicals underperformed at the box office, but the pandemic and, in the case of “In the Heights,” simultaneous streaming were at least partially to blame. And none of them were improvements on the original stage version. (A nice exception is “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” in 2022.)
This is a problem with most modern musicals. It’s a distrust of form, a reluctance to commit to the wonder and fantasy that musicals offer. That’s evident on “Mean Girls,” which seems mildly disconcerting with any song that can’t be presented diegetically or dismissed as a dream sequence. Even “The Color Purple” shows some discomfort in incorporating song and dance into a more sober story of a woman’s triumph over neglect and abuse. Contrary to what the trailer might suggest, ‘Wonka’, by contrast, stages its few songs with a sense of glee and abandon. That probably applies to the brooding “Scrub Scrubs.” I couldn’t help but hum along while washing the dishes.
This season, from the trailers, there was at least one instance where a movie was proud of its theatricality. (Well, if the ecstatic delirious “Dix: The Musical” is anything to go by, he has two examples of that.) That would be “Barbie.” It’s not entirely a musical, but it does include original songs, a cover or two, and a fever dream ballet. The trailer for “Barbie” never denied this, with Margot Robbie’s Barbie praising his home party for its “planned choreography and custom songs.” A few seconds later, there’s a dance break and she’s roaring along to “Closer to Fine.”
“Barbie” earned more than $1.4 billion. So it’s safe to say that the trailer praising singing and dancing didn’t turn anyone away.
That trailer ends with Cass Elliot’s prompt to “make your own music.” These new musical films have done just that. Would you like to celebrate?
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