Singing A New Tune: The Rebirth of the Modern Film Musical from Evita to De-Lovely and Beyond Book

Critics the world over have often loudly lamented that the movie musical is a dead art form. However while it is true that the musical no longer occupies the cherished place of prominence in American cinema that it once did the old razzle-dazzle has had a comeback. Author and film expert John Kenneth Muir faces the music in Singing a New Tune a rollicking study that traces the rebirth of the film musical from the dark days of the earlyWWWW 1990s - when all the musical numbers were cut from the film I'll Do Anything due to preview audience hostility - to the current heyday of Moulin Rouge Chicago (Academy Award winner for Best PictureWWWW 2002) and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. A survey of film musicals incorporates interviews with directors and screenwriters an overview of the genre from the 1920s to theWWWW 1990s and discusses fourteen film musicals fromWWWW 1996 toWWWW 2004 along with musicals on TV. Examining over a dozen musical films from the last decade John Kenneth Muir explains how first-class artists have marshaled everything from spectacle (Evita) to humor (South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut) tragedy (Dancer in the Dark) to Shakespeare (Love's Labour's Lost) and even psychology and sexuality.