Musicals—25

As we continue to explore the genre of film musicals, with the aim of helping you toward writing your own, there’s a film musical that came out in 2007 that’s worth our study—and that’s Ray by James L. White and Taylor Hackford.

This movie falls into the rare category of the musical biopic. Which makes me remember one of the, no doubt, many omissions I’ve made from my musicals list over these past weeks—and that’s Lady Sings the Blues [1972] by Chris Clark, Suzanne de Passe and Terence McCloy. Here’s the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z60rycVGlek

Lady Sings the Blues is about the troubled life of Billie Holiday, the jazz singer. The film uses standards that Holiday sang, sung by Diana Ross who also appeared as Holiday in her first acting role—to great acclaim. [Sidebar—I saw Diana Ross on tour earlier this year at the age of 75 and she was phenomenal]. The story goes back to Holiday's younger days and shows all she had to deal with to be able to sing as she did—including battling a heroin addiction. It’s a wonderful film.

And Ray, continuing in that tradition of the musical biopic, tells us the story of the troubled life of Ray Charles. Take a brief look: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=X1rJvSF3l6k.

Are we seeing a pattern here? Does a musical performer have to be “troubled” to get a biopic made about him/her? Well, maybe. Because that’s true of Ray as well. The film tells the story of his beginnings as a boy, going blind, becoming a star, and dealing with many problems—including drug addiction, just like Holiday.

And another musical from this decade, Walk the Line [2005] by Gill Dennis and James Mangold, tells the story of singer Johnny Cash… and his troubled life and battles with, guess what, drug addiction. Of the three musicals I’m mentioning this week, this is my favorite. It’s full of drive and humor and great drama as well. Take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- AFO0rUjXIA.

Where are the music biopics of ordinary singers? Well, there aren’t many of them. The best films involve conflict and, as Tolstoy said, “Happy families are all alike.” Think about it. If a singer rises to fame and has a great career and a fulfilling personal life… well, where’s the conflict in that? What does the drama stem from? If someone just wants to watch the artist play, why not just look a film of one of their concerts?

One of the things we can learn from this doesn’t apply only to musicals but to all film stories—they need conflict to keep our attention. And as a writer, this leads to a question that you can always be asking about your work: “Does it have conflict? And is that conflict interesting enough to build a story around?”

Ray, Lady Sings the Blues and Walk the Line—each a success and each with a similar story.

Can you think of a singer you like whose life story might make an interesting film? You can then use the songs they sang as the backdrop to your story—no original compositions required!

Next week, on to a film from this decade that’s about a singer—but he’s fictitious, so both he and the songs in the film are totally unique… and the songs won the Academy Award. Stay tuned!

Copyright © Diane Lake

12Jan20

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