With “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” setting a box office record opening for a musical with $42 million last weekend, it doesn’t look like movie musicals are dead.
The all-time best movie musicals like “The Sound of Music,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Grease,” and “West Side Story,” thrived in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s; but, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any movies worth singing about lately. Read on for the best movie musicals to be made within the last decade.
5. Sweeney Todd (2007) Sure most musicals are uplifting, but Sweeney Todd does not lack in musical quality. Based on the Broadway musical, Tim Burton’s dark drama set in Victorian England about a murderous barber out to revenge the man who exiled him and stole away his wife and daughter boasts soaring, melodramatic songs sung by Johnny Depp whose singing is as good as his acting.
4. Walk the Line (2005) Not only does this biography of Johnny Cash tell a moving story, it has the music to match it. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon – as Johnny and June Cash – not only portray the country duo to a hilt; they perfectly capture their singing styles. All together this makes great storytelling and a great soundtrack. Witherspoon won an Oscar for Best Actress.
3. Once (2006) This low-budget film starring real life performers, rather than professional actors, wasn’t a hit at the box office, but the Academy noticed it. Earlier this year, Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard were awarded with Best Song with the titular “Once.” It’s a simple film that tells the love story of two characters who aren’t even given names through the songs they write, rehearse and record in the course of a week.
2. Moulin Rouge! (2001) Unlike “Once,” this movie musical is stylish, glitzy, and over-the-top, which is what makes it so much fun. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor play star-crossed lovers in 1899 Paris. Kidman is Satine, a prostitute at the underworld night club (the titular Moulin Rouge) and McGregor is the idealistic, romantic poet who sings beautifully heartbreaking songs to his beloved Satine in a film reminiscent of “Romeo & Juliet.”
1. Chicago (2002) One of a handful of movie musicals to win Best Picture, “Chicago” boasts an all-star cast of Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah; spectacular, jazzy songs and dance numbers, and an intricate, tantalizing story of love and murder set in 1920s Chicago. Zeta-Jones won Best Supporting Actress.
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