In Defense of Movie Musicals...

Musical theatre is often the butt of jokes about annoying theatre kids, Disney adults, or supposedly low-brow entertainment. Yet musicals have been central to the history of cinema and have shaped how we understand the medium itself. Ever since the advent of synchronized sound, musicals have shown film at its most spectacular, blending story, song, and dance into a form that only cinema can fully realize. They transform emotion into performance, turning ordinary moments into visually striking ones.

The 1950s and 1960s are often considered the golden age of the movie musical, producing classics such as Singin’ in the Rain, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and The Sound of Music. These films created extravagant, visually stunning sequences that remain firmly embedded in our cultural imagination decades later. They have been replicated countless times yet somehow never lose their magic. While critics often point to the supposed absurdity of characters suddenly bursting into song, that convention is precisely what makes the genre so compelling. Musical numbers function almost like a character’s inner monologue, as in a novel, allowing audiences to understand emotional states and relationships more deeply. And after all, isn’t every moviegoing experience dependent on some degree of suspended disbelief?

The genre’s decline in Hollywood is often traced to the late-1960s, when large-scale productions became increasingly difficult to sustain financially. After 20th Century Fox struggled to break even on the lavish Hello, Dolly!, studios began to view the grand movie musical as unsustainable. In the decades that followed, musicals became more sporadic and often shifted toward realism, reflecting changing audience tastes. In the post-9/11 era, especially, Hollywood leaned into a kind of hyperrealism that didn’t always translate well to the theatrical nature of musicals. Films like Les Misérables attempted to ground the genre in gritty realism, but in doing so it sometimes lost the very sense of stylization that makes musicals work. These uneven adaptations contributed to the misconception that musicals themselves were the problem.

Yet when musicals embrace spectacle and emotional expression, they thrive. Films like La La Land, often cited even by skeptics as an "exception", actually follow in the long tradition of classic movie musicals. Like its predecessors, it uses song, color, and choreography to communicate character psychology and relationships. 

Even when musicals are not considered "high-brow", they remain undeniably effective. Part of their charm lies in their theatricality and their willingness to embrace emotion without irony. No matter how many times I have seen The Phantom of the Opera, I still get chills when the opening notes of "The Phantom of the Opera" begin. Musicals create moments that stay with audiences precisely because they lean into spectacle and feeling.

Musicals are often campy and playful. Movie musicals like The Rocky Horror Picture Show have become cult classics because of their irreverence and theatrical excess. That very silliness is part of what makes the genre so powerful. By exaggerating performance, gender, and emotion, musicals can subvert norms and create space for marginalized voices. In many ways, the genre’s own marginalization within popular culture has allowed it to become a space where alternative identities and forms of expression can flourish.

Ultimately, musicals deserve more credit than they often receive. Rather than dismissing them as frivolous, we should recognize that their theatricality is precisely what makes them so enjoyable and enduring