He's 13 1/2 inches tall. He wears only a sword. He's shiny. Everybody wants him. This is a new weekly Sunday series --my attempt to keep Oscar discussion corralled in the weekends ...at least until we're truly in the season.

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As daily readers of the blog know, I’ve been in a sour mood lately. In trying to shake it and perusing possible topics for this week’s naked gold column I had a flash of inspiration: musicals! Is there any surer over the counter remedy for a bad mood? Just pop one in, thrill to a little song and dance. Suddenly instead of waking up on the wrong side of bed and glowering into your coffee, you’re singing in the shower. Musicals = better moods. It’s a fact. Even depressing ones lift spirits … on account of all the serotonin locked inside of showtunes.

This year three musicals are in the mix: Once, Hairspray and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Before we consider each, let’s take a trip back through Oscar history. Do the Academy voters love musicals? Certainly a lot of musicals have been nominated throughout history. But this was a fairly common movie genre for many decades. Just how much does the gold man prize singers and hoofers?

The bulk of musical activity within Oscar's circus occurred in the 30s but the winning was mostly within one stretch of time (1958-1968) in which the musical was one of America’s favorite film genre: massive blockbusters of the form –often adapted from Broadway hits—arrived annually. The nine Oscar winning musicals are: Broadway Melody (1929), The Great Zeigfeld (1936), An American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958), West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Oliver! (1968) and Chicago (2002) which ended AMPAS tuneless 34 year drought. There are many other nominees that didn’t win. 39 Musicals altogether have been nominated for the award [asterisks indicate winners]. The nominees...

1920s
Broadway Melody (28/29)*, The Love Parade (29/30), Hollywood Revue (28/29),
1930s
The Smiling Lieutenant (31/32), One Hour With You (31/32), 42nd Street (32/33), One Night of Love (34), The Gay Divorcee (34), Broadway Melody of 1936 (35), Naughty Marietta (35), Top Hat (35), Three Smart Girls (36), The Great Zeigfeld (36)*, 100 Men and a Girl (37), In Old Chicago (37), Alexanders Ragtime Band (38), The Wizard of Oz (39)
1940s
Yankee Doodle Dandy (42), Anchors Aweigh (45), The Red Shoes (48)
1950s
An American in Paris (51)*, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (54), The King and I (56), Gigi (58)*
1960s
West Side Story (61)*, The Music Man (62), My Fair Lady (64)*, Mary Poppins (64), The Sound of Music (65)*, Doctor Doolittle (67), Funny Girl (68), Oliver! (68)*, Hello Dolly (69)
1970s
Fiddler on the Roof (71), Cabaret (72), All That Jazz (79)
1980s
none
1990s
Beauty and the Beast (91)
2000s
Moulin Rouge! (01), Chicago (02)*

When you factor in the popular or legendary musicals that the Academy has bypassed including Swing Time (36), Meet Me in St. Louis (44), Singin’ in the Rain (52), The Band Wagon (53), A Star Is Born (54), Oklahoma! (55) and Dreamgirls (06), it becomes clear that musicals are much like any other genre in terms of statue grabbing. You win some you lose some. The Academy voters may never tire of biopics or message dramas but they fall in and out of love with westerns, musicals, and all other specialty items. Basically they love them when the public at large loves them. Roughly that equates to the form being very popular with them in the 30s and 60s, and only in specific instances otherwises.

When I update my charts next week you’ll see all three of this year's musicals in the top bakers dozen of Best Picture hopefuls. We’ll take their Oscar chances in order of release.

 

Once
This Irish drama is not a traditional musical. Instead it's a film with music. But the music is so evoacative that it has much the same effect on people as traditional musicals do: i.e. they fall madly in love with it, the object of their affection transcending whatever limitations it has (in this case its budget and slightness) which would derail it for audiences not won over by the serenading effect. It’s rather serendipitous that the signature song is “Falling Slowly” (clip above) because that’s what happens when you’re watching the film. The longer it goes on the more you love it and when the camera pulls away at the end, you’re in the same bittersweet heartspace that the leads are, only it's the movie you're leaving behind: something you loved and had to part with amicably, something that'll stay with you. Despite its endearing qualities, it would be a coup of the highest order for it to end up in Oscar's shortlist. I’m not sure that there’s any counterpart in Oscar history: threadbare budget, no stars, not from the US… and a summer release at that. Tough going but if we’re lucky will be able to hear the leads performing “Falling Slowly” during the Oscar telecast. The voters had better nominate it for Best Original Song.

Hairspray
All of the best picture nominees from the 60s were based on Broadway hits. Now, Broadway hits are based on movies. Legally Blonde is the latest earsore travesty of that trend. Hairspray, like the Producers before it, is based on a Broadway hit that was based on a film. The Producers flopped with the public and Oscar when it hit screens but that particular film was leaden. Hairspray, despite all its extra weight (hardy-har-har), is light as air. Its one leaden moment is a terribly unsubtle message scene/song and if I know my Oscar voters that’s actually points for the movie rather than against it: a way to justify the love they’re feeling for it anyway. I don’t really believe that Hairspray will make it to the shortlist but it’ll probably be in the mix. It’s coming to DVD any second which would be enough to revive the interest even if it didn’t have year-end kudos coming.

Working in Hairspray’s favor are five major things:
1) a social message (discussed above)
2) the Golden Globes Comedy or Musical category
3) a hit film in a year when most Oscar contenders aren’t catching on
4) it’s fun. Only Juno seems like competition for the block of voters willing to place comedy in their best picture lineup.
5) Pedigree: Wait! Stop laughing. Hear me out on this one.

Hairspray has been a beloved property for a longtime now. Honoring the movie would be the only way the Oscars could ever conceivably honor the career of John Waters (an endearing eternal fringe dweller) and the movie also stars an Oscar winner (Walken), two previous popular nominees (Pfeiffer & Latifah) and one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men (John Travolta).

Travolta's performance may have been the most divisive in the film but it’s the type of performance that could make a run for a win if it manages the difficult task of getting a nomination in the first place. Consider: He’s a mainstream superstar and Hairspray will delight his Academy fans (who previously nominated him for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction) on a number of levels. I personally didn’t love the performance but even with my resistance to it, I enjoyed the film a lot and got a true kick out of watching Travolta shake it again. With so much of the star’s legend tied to indelible dance moments (Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Pulp Fiction) there’d be a unique sort of Oscar logic in honoring him for Edna Turnblad's impossibly energetic hoofing. A body of work award if you will. You can't stop his beat. He’ll also be moving up next week in the supporting actor charts.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Nothing would make me happier than this being a worthy adaptation of the Sondheim musical. If it lives up to the promise embedded in the utterly classic and brilliant material, a Best Picture nomination could happen (unless voters get queasy about the gore). I’ve already written about the three scenes I saw. There are still a lot of question marks though. How will the public react? That always affects the Oscars. How will the critics react? That does too, more than people admit. Is this another Big Fish? That had early “Burton has matured and Oscar will finally recognize him!" buzz too before it opened in December. Sound familiar? How will the various edits (cutting down the Mrs. Lovett role which is usually a true co-lead and shortening several songs) affect the shape of the material?

 

Will people care that the leads aren’t trained singers? That's a clip of “Johanna” above so you can hear Johnny Depp sing for yourself. The first voice you hear is the young actor playing Anthony, Johanna's suitor. Sweeney (Johanna's father) starts singing on the second verse -- it’s a little tough to hear Mr. Depp since there’s a lot of crowd noise (the audience was reacting visibly to the killings that are happening during the song)

If Johnny Depp manages his third nomination for an altogether Oscar worthy career would this be role that could take him all the way to the podium? Nine musicals have won the top prize by my count only seven actors have won leading Oscars for musicals. The three men are James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy), Yul Brynner (The King and I) and Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady) –that should give hope to Johnny Depp. Oscar voters don’t require their song & dance men to sing superbly. The women on the other hand had better bring the pipes: The four winners: Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld), Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl), and Liza Minelli (Cabaret) --the latter three are of course beloved first and foremost for their musical abilities.

What say ye, Oscar and/or musical fans? Will Oscar be singing showtunes this year? Or will they need something more expensive than Once, more serious than Hairspray, and less outré than Sweeney Todd to put another musical in their history books?

Discuss on the blog

Previous Naked Gold Men
Early Birds and Phoenixes
Fear of 1999 Redux
The Supporting Actress Stock Shortage
The Michael Clayton Fix
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