Over the past 50 years, there have only been three musicals to win the Oscar for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The first was in 1966 when Julie Andrews sang "The Hills Are Alive", and carried "The Sound of Music" to a win. The second, "Oliver!", won just three years later. Then it wasn’t until 34 years later that another musical, "Chicago", took home the golden statuette in a surprise win in 2003.
And now we are about three weeks away from the 89th Annual Academy Awards and another musical, "La La Land", has secured a Best Picture nomination. In addition, La La Land has secured 13 other nominations, tying the movie for the most Academy Award nominations with "Titanic" (1998) and "All About Eve" (1951).
But La La Land isn’t the only musical that has hit the right note this year. Disney’s "Moana", another popular musical, is up for best Animated Feature Film, as well as Music (Original Song). Moana follows Disney’s "Frozen" from 2013, which went on to become the studio’s largest animated feature film ever.
A large contributor to Moana’s success is Lin Manuel Miranda, best known for his Broadway hit Hamilton. Miranda has gained some additional notoriety because he has the chance to do something no one has ever done – earn a MacPEGOT. MacPEGOT is the acronym that refers to six prestigious awards: The MacArthur Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Miranda has five of these six awards, and is nominated for the sixth, an Oscar, this year. If he receives the award, not only will Miranda be the first person to win the MacPEGOT, he also will become the youngest to complete an EGOT.
So if Miranda and La La Land walk away with Oscars at the end of the month, does this mean that Hollywood is once again embracing the musical? And, if so, why now?
I have a few theories.
Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, La La Land could be the first musical to win Best Picture in more than ten years. And in an era of superheroes and Star Wars, La La Land has already earned more than $200 million dollars at the box office worldwide (according to forbes.com). So what sets this movie apart from other musicals that have been unable to connect with a wide audience?
Part of the answer may be in the approach of the film’s writer and director, Damien Chazelle. In his 2015 film Whiplash, which was nominated for Best Picture, Chazelle turned the music-movie genre upside down. In an interview with NPR, Chazelle explained that he wrote Whiplash – which stars Miles Teller as an aspiring jazz drummer, and J.K. Simmons as his strict instructor – as if it were a sports movie or a war movie. This genre-bending approach made Whiplash engaging from start to finish, and attracted viewers who would typically avoid a ‘musical’ type of movie. Even though Whiplash is not a traditional musical, per se, Chazelle may have cracked the secret to bringing musical movies back to the forefront in Hollywood. With La La Land, Chazelle has created a true musical, and one that not only pays tribute to classical Hollywood musicals, but also redefines a formula for a very modern and engaging work of entertainment.
If La La Land is crowned Best Picture winner in a few weeks, it is likely that many writers and directors will follow in Chazelle’s footsteps – creating musicals that are more malleable, and thereby more approachable, for the modern movie goer.
Chazelle may owe part of his success to Miranda as well, whose Hamilton redefined the Broadway musical nearly overnight. Similar to how Chazelle mixed the sports movie approach with a musical genre, by fusing hip-hop and rap music with a traditional Broadway setting, Miranda used Hamilton to bring about a new definition for musical theater. A large portion of Hamilton’s lasting popularity, since its Broadway debut in 2015, is credited to this musical fusion, making the show attractive to more than just traditional Broadway enthusiasts.
And by becoming the first MacPEGOT winner, Miranda could be one of the founding fathers (Hamilton pun intended) for the return of musicals to the mainstream of pop culture. Already, his work in Moana has proven his influence expands further than Hamilton and, as sung in Hamilton, he is “not throwing away [his] shot.” Miranda even had the opportunity to open Saturday Night Live, due to his rising success.
This rise in musicals is not new, however. There have been efforts in the past to merge music with films and television shows. For example, in 1990 the show
https://youtu.be/gLm5Sn1cMyQCop Rock, attempted to combine singing and police officers. While this show failed (rather spectacularly in fact), other similar, more-recent shows have found success including CMT’s Nashville, and FOX’s Empire.
Maybe this increase in appetite for musical fusions stems from the generation which is consuming the most media – the millennials. As children, millennials were exposed to an extensive amount of musical television and film, such as Disney’s Hannah Montana. Movies like High School Musical and Camp Rock remain, to this day, some of the most popular for this generation (plus, who honestly doesn’t know the opening of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?)
It could be that the appetite for merging musical media in new and different ways is much greater for this generation, and thus the genre has gained greater success.
So, on the night of February 26, we will see if La La Land is another step forward for musicals, or just another Cop Rock-like footnote in music and movie history.
Will La La Land be known as the City of Stars, or will the Oscars be another waste of lovely night?
