Musicals—9

We’re well into the ‘50s, having looked at An American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

And now we come to the iconic version of A Star is Born [1954] by Moss Hart, based on the original screenplay by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell and Robert Carson. There was a previous version in 1937, and there will be two more in 1969 and 2018, but, for whatever reason, the ’54 version is the one people always go back to. Perhaps it’s because suicide is involved in the plot and, in real life, Judy Garland who starred in the ’54 version did, indeed, commit suicide.

A Star is Born is the story of a woman, a singer whose spouse is plagued by an addiction to alcohol. Her career is on the rise while his is going down because of this addiction and she tries hard to save him. In the course of the film, we hear lots of songs. One way for your musical to work, music-wise, is for all of your songs to come onstage, so to speak.

Think about it. Many of the musicals we’ve talked about have characters bursting into song when they’re very upset or deliriously happy or have some emotional need or reaction that words aren’t big enough for, hence the song—where they can tell what they’re really feeling and thinking. But in films like A Star is Born, all the music is ‘real’ if you will. A character sings a song because it’s her job to sing the song—she’s a performer in the film.

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNl1pv6Sm44. It will clue you in to how they were trying to sell this film. And given that you’ve probably seen the most recent version with Cooper and Gaga, it’s interesting to note the differences.

One of the reasons A Star is Born has been so successful as a musical is that it’s different than most of them—it’s a drama. Most musicals are comedies, romances, maybe dramedies, but it’s rare to find a musical drama—and that’s what this is. So the emotional resonance is all important.

As you think about writing your own film musical, this is an important point to remember: the underlying emotional story for your film is important—even if it’s not a drama! What characters feel and how those feelings come to the surface prompt important plot points as well as important chances for music to have the characters show what’s inside them. This is one of the more important points for any kind of writing, so keep it in mind.

Given that this film seems to get remade every 20-30 years, care to guess what its next incarnation might be? In 2050, say, how might the plot change, how might it be different? It’s interesting to speculate how the story could, once again, morph into a completely new film!

Copyright © Diane Lake

22Sep19

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