I love musicals.
I’ve reviewed them on Broadway for years and have been a fan all my life. They are, in my opinion, an irresistible art form that America has singularly perfected.
That undeniable soft spot for the genre, however, does not mean that I long for singing and dancing to grand jeté into every damn thing.
And yet, TV and film writers and directors have a very different view. There is a growing infatuation with shoving ballads and jazz squares into television series and movies like a teapot into an overpacked suitcase. Aka we don’t really need them.
Songs in a DC Studios sequel about a murderous psychopathic clown? Sure!
In Oscar bait that centers around a Mexican drug dealer who transitions into a woman? Sí!
In a Marvel show depicting a quirky coven of witches? Something tuneful this way comes.
Actors in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” and Disney+’s “Agatha All Along” are belting like they’re gunning for a Tony Award.
Why, God, why is everything suddenly a musical? Has Hollywood grown weary of that old warhorse of interpersonal communication — talking?
Is the entertainment industry attempting to appeal to millennials who were reared on “High School Musical” and “Glee” and have kicked traditional media to the curb in favor of YouTube clips?
Whatever the reason, the takeaway at the end credits is almost always, “That was nice, but I could’ve used less singing.”
Music is moderation is OK. Having a ditty pop up out of nowhere was once an escapist surprise.
The 2001 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” musical episode “Once More, With Feeling” is a famous example. “The Drew Carey Show,” about oddball Clevelandites, had some memorable group dances from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” “Ally McBeal” and “The Simpsons” loved them some razzle-dazzle.
But none of those programs were conceived around a hummable score and choreography, and they didn’t overwhelm with constant theatricality.
That cannot be said about Todd Phillips’ “Joker 2: Electric Boogaloo,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, which has some 15 musical numbers. That’s quite an increase from the pitch-black first movie’s, um, zero.
Critics in Venice were perplexed at why any were included at all.
“‘Folie à Deux’ simply tap dances in place for the majority of its listless runtime,” wrote IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, “stringing together a series of underwhelming musical numbers that are either too on the nose … or too vaguely related to its characters to express anything at all.”
“Musical is putting it kindly,” piled on Kevin Maher in the Times of London. “The songs are a random, uninspired grab bag.”
Of course they are! Having Arthur Fleck croon for more than two hours is crazier than … Arthur Fleck.
Audiences will soon be hearing a lot about “Emilia Pérez,” a French-made, Spanish-language film from Netflix starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez that went down well at Cannes and Toronto as a major Oscar contender.
The telenovela-style tale is about a drug cartel leader named Juan (Karla Sofía Gascón), who kidnaps a lawyer (Saldana) and then forces her to help facilitate a gender surgery and stage a disappearance.
The kingpin resurfaces a decade later in London as Emilia Pérez, and wants to reconnect with her wife (Gomez) and kids back in Mexico. The movie is both comic and tragic.
And — a five, six, seven, eight — another musical.
I was not as hot on “Emilia Pérez” as many critics were, but director Jacques Audiard’s flick will likely be nominated for Best Picture and has its merits.
The acting from Saldana, Gomez and Gascón is very good. Such praise cannot be lavished on its totally pointless and blandly staged songs. “Emilia” would’ve been much better off without them.
Where a treble clef makes a lick of sense is in “Agatha All Along,” the Kathryn Hahn-led spinoff of Marvel’s “WandaVision.” Even the title comes from the popular tune that revealed powerful witch Agatha Harkness’ sneaky machinations three years ago.
The new show’s melodies, such as “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” are not out of place in its world of incantations, magic and Patti LuPone.
Unlike the “WandaVision” track, though, they’re already old hat. They don’t electrify the narrative so much as soothe it. And none will become the massive cultural moment “Agatha All Along” was in 2021.
The haphazardness and mediocrity of these projects’ song-and-dance elements will become glaringly apparent in November when “Wicked: Part 1” hits theaters.
Because, groundbreakingly, “Wicked” is an actual musical. Who would’ve thought that would defy gravity?
