Poor old Joker: Folie a Deux. Todd Phillips ‘ sequel absolutely TANKED last year, because nobody wanted to see a musical that depressing. I’ve only got round to watching it myself, as I’m not the biggest admirer of Lady Gaga. But guess what? I loved it.
For me, it succeeds as an anti -musical, because it scrutinses trial by media, the empty spectacle of celebrity and how fandom permeates throughout society as a distraction from facing reality. Indeed, Joker’s would-be love interest Lee (Gaga) gives up when it’s simply Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix)and not Joker standing vulnerable and in pain right in front of her. She’s only there for the media circus, but the clown has scrubbed off his make -up. It could be a metaphor for the MAGA followers, leaning into a president who is fuelled by narcissism and corporate greed. What happens when performative elements are withdrawn? There’s just an empty stage.
Even Damien Chazelle’s ‘La La Land ‘ could be perceived as an anti -musical. It’s all about how relationships never quite match up to the idealised Hollywood version of love on the big screen. Mia, portrayed by Emma Stone, is a sardonic barista/jobbing actor who should be a perfect match for Ryan Gosling’s character Seb, a jazz purist. Yet complacency has set in, and we witness the affair falling apart. No amount of singing and dancing can paper over the cracks. It’s bold, low-key and melancholy, and there is no neat resolution at the end.
So too with Tim Burton’s dark adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical ‘Sweeney Todd ‘. Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham – Carter) baker of disgustingly meaty pies, keeps her love for the titular Demon Barber Mr Todd (Johnny Depp) under wraps, and even knows what happened to his missing wife, but won’t admit it. She is punished accordingly for this, and it’s brutal.
Maybe it’s because I’m not part of the right demographic for musicals. You’ll never see me queuing for ‘Wicked’ any time soon. But all of the aforementioned films appeal to me because they avoid the cliches of conventional musicals- the meet-cute; expositional, chirpy theatre school singing and tacked -on happy endings- and are all the more powerful for it.
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