Movie musicals have come a long way since the days of Busby Berkeley’s lavish extravaganzas, featuring gentlemen in top hats and tails gliding glamorous ladies across the screen. Nowadays, they are making musicals out of just about anything, from murderous women to transvestites to…the evils of smoking pot?
That’s right. Showtime’s newest original picture, Reefer Madness, is a boisterously funny musical that lampoons the legendary 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda film of the same name. It’s a tongue-in-cheek raucous musical comedy about clean-cut kids who fall into a twisted, hilarious downward spiral of reefer, sex and mayhem. It boasts an all-star cast–including Kristen Bell, Neve Campbell, Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer and Steven Weber–and premieres April 16 at 8:00 pm ET.
Here are five other modern-day musicals that veer off the beaten track into the wacky, the weird, and the definitely outrageous:
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
A sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania who uses body parts to build the perfect man. What could be quirkier? This cult classic, whose late-night showings have avid viewers come dressed up as their favorite characters, follows the bizarre adventures of said transvestite, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), and his household of miscreants who terrorize some unexpected houseguests. So, put on those fishnet stockings, apply the heavy eye makeup, and let’s do the time warp again!
Choice lyrics: “So come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab. I see you shiver in antici…pation.”
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
How about a giant plant that talks, sings, and thirsts for human blood? Yeah, that’s light and fluffy stuff. Based on the Off-Broadway hit, this musical centers on Seymour (Rick Moranis), a nerd of the highest degree who is taken in and given a job by Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia), the owner of a rundown florist. Seymour spends his time doing menial tasks and lovingly gazing at the shop assistant, Audrey (Ellen Greene). One day, just after an eclipse of the sun, Seymour discovers a strange plant that he names Audrey II. But in caring for the weird plant, Seymour discovers its rather unique appetite. The plant grows and grows, as does Seymour’s infatuation for Audrey. But who will get her first?
Choice lyrics: “FEED ME, Seymour!”
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
As yet another example of cross-gendering, this musical extravaganza is based on writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell‘s critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of the same name. We meet songwriter-singer Hedwig, formerly Hansel, a transsexual whose botched operation leaves her with the titular “inch.” Hedwig goes after her lover, who has stolen her songs and become a huge rock star, and shadows the ex-paramour’s tour with her own band, the Angry Inch, by playing in diners and laundromats. One could say Hedwig is the not-so-proverbial woman scorned. Oscar Hammerstein II would be rolling in his grave.
Choice lyrics: “My sex change operation got botched; my guardian angel fell asleep on the watch; now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch; I’ve got an angry inch!”
Moulin Rouge (2001)
It’s not the tragic story about a dying courtesan (Nicole Kidman), her ardent lover (Ewan McGregor), the conniving club owner (Jim Broadbent), and the lecherously evil Count (Richard Roxburgh) that makes Rouge different. It’s the way the operatic subject matter is presented. From acclaimed director Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge is fast-paced and vibrant. Its dizzying quick cuts and elaborate set pieces mix such popular tunes as Elton John’s “Your Song” and Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” with original songs to create the perfect Rouge milieu. Why? Because it “Can-Can!”
Choice lyrics: “If life’s an awful bore, and living’s just a chore that we do caus’ death’s not much fun. I just have the antidote, and though I mustn’t gloat at the Moulin Rouge. You’ll have fun… Scratch that little niggle, have a little wiggle, you know that you can… Because we Can Can Can!”
Chicago (2002)
Vengeful women, infamous murders, scandalous headlines. This Academy Award winner is certainly not your run-of-the-mill musical. Set in 1930s Chicago, the musical focuses on two notorious song-and-dance gals–Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie (Renee Zellweger)–who have offed their respective lovers for nefarious reasons. Awaiting trial, the two hire corrupt lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), who tap dances his way around the courtroom. But tension builds as the two women stop at nothing to outdo each other in their obsessive pursuit of fame and celebrity. ‘Cause that’s the Chicago way!
Choice lyrics: “He had it comin’ (He had it comin’)…He only had himself to blame…If you’d a been there, if you’d a seen it…I think that you would have done the same.”
What’s coming next?
The Producers: The Movie Musical
First a cult movie, then a smash hit Broadway show, and now a movie adaptation of said musical. Man, talk about coming full circle. Mel Brooks‘ 1968 The Producers starred Zero Mostel as shady Broadway producer Max Bialystock, who teams up with his nerdy accountant, Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), to concoct a scheme to over-finance a huge flop and pocket the excess budget. Except the show unexpectedly becomes a smash hit. In 2001, The Producers was turned into a Tony-winning smash Broadway show in its own right, starring Nathan Lane as Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Bloom. Now, we get to see Lane and Broderick reprise their roles for the big-screen version, along with Uma Thurman as their busty secretary Ulla. Can’t wait.
Opens Dec. 23
Rent
Hmmm, a Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical based on Puccini’s La Boheme about harsh urban realities such as AIDS, homelessness, and paying the rent? Sign us up! Directed by Chris Columbus, and starring most of the show’s original cast members, the musical-turned-feature film tells the story of a group living in New York’s East Village. There’s nerdy love-struck filmmaker Mark (Anthony Rapp); his obsession, former lover Maureen (Idina Menzel); Maureen’s public interest lawyer lesbian lover, Joanne (Tracie Thoms); Mark’s roommate, Roger (Adam Pascal), a former junkie; Roger’s lover, the drug-addicted S&M dancer Mimi (Rosario Dawson); their former roommate Tom Collins, a computer genius; Collins’ drag queen street musician lover, Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia); and Benjamin Coffin III (Taye Diggs), a former member of the group who married money and has since become their landlord and the opposite of everything they stand for. Whew! That’s some serious stuff.
Opens Nov. 11
