The western genre remains buried in the past despite outliers like “3:10 to Yuma” and “Appaloosa.”
But the movie musical is on the verge of a comeback. It just won’t look like anything Mitzi Gaynor, Judy Garland or Gene Kelly ever danced in before.
The “Footloose” remake is finally a go with “Gossip Girl’s” Chace Crawford set to star under the direction of Kenny “High School Musical” Ortega.
Suddenly, studio executives are rushing around shouting, “let’s put on a show!”
The success of low-budget, teen-friendly films like “Jonas Brothers – The 3D Concert Experience” and “HSM3″ are all the proof you need that young audiences will gobble up a little song, a little dance and a whole lotta teen idols on the big screen.
So the packaging may be different, and the marketing campaigns will be, too. The new musicals will be fully integrated, most likely, and feature a raft of product placement/tie-ins to ensure teen viewers ape the stars on screen.
But rest assured the left-for-dead movie musical is back.
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
