I'd say that there may be an appetite for RECENT and headlining musicals as movies - but how often do we see an appetite for remakes of older shows, even bonafide classics? (With West Side Story hopefully a notable exception - but even then there was the recent revival, though that was not part of Spielberg's plan.) There was talk of a new Bye Bye Birdie, but that disappeared. It seems the new Annie just kinda happened without a great deal of fanfare. (We've all forgotten about that one anyway, right?) How did Cats do? (Leaving out any artistic assessment lol). Chicago would never have been filmed if the revival didn't happen. I tend to think that Into The Woods did pretty well, but it's a show that gets done all the time by schools and amateur groups. I tend to doubt that when Merrily appears in some 20 years' time from now that anyone except Sondheim fans will care.
I imagine there will be a lot more appeal for the Wicked film, Dear Evan Hansen, etc, because those are current hit shows. (Had Hamilton waited for the big screen, it would have done equally well.) Who exactly is the target audience for a remake of The King And I? With its only current selling point that it will be rethought for a "woke" audience?
Then of course there were attempts like The Last Five Years and Hello Again - did anyone who wasn't a diehard musical theatre fan even notice them??? |
