The Do's and Don'ts in Musical Television

Today I want to go through my thoughts on Musicals in television. Because its rare when we actually find a musical experience on TV and even more rare when we are given a true musical experience that’s emblematic of what we would see on Broadway or your most annoying friend’s community theatre production.

Before the 70’s musical experiences were the blockbusters of their time. They were known as huge event movies because the musical by nature commands a lot of attention with its dramatic presence and large budget. Plus, with minimal places to find entertainment, large stage productions were a great place to spend on a night out. However, After the boom of television and accessible media like cameras and computers, the stage in general became a more antiquated medium. 

Bu alas, here we are in 2019 and Cartoon Network just released a “Steven Universe” movie that’s almost entirely musical to critical acclaim. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it, go do that. It’s so good I almost cried. I definitely didn’t cry at a cartoon because I’m no nerd, but I almost cried
. Almost. And if that wasn’t enough, Amazon Prime’s “Transparent” is finishing it’s show with a musical movie. I cried while watching the trailer as well but that has nothing to do with the movie, I’m just going though some stuff
 Anyway. It’s clear the medium is still respected and loved by many. So let’s take some time and go over what has been premiering in the last 10 years and which productions have been doing the work to properly service the legacy of Musical Theatre and productions have been NBC’s “Smash”.

In order to create a great musical, I don’t think its enough for there to just be songs mixed in with everything else. What allows a musical to be unique is how we learn information about a character or place through music. Songs can paint the theme of a setting (Belle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTUZswZHsWQ ) or songs can justify a character’s questionable choices (No Good Deed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a5kqdYnT9g ). Sure, both of these things can be done with dialogue, but the song ads an energy, life and specific tone that is instantly fed into our brains. To me, a musical is at it’s best when a character is so full of emotion or vehemence. For example, it’s not likely to hear a character compose a song about how they don’t know what “vehemence” means. Not to say it can’t be done, but the music usually carries forward a little more vigor.

Over the years, animation has done a really wonderful job carrying the musical format. Shows like South Park, Animanicas, Adventure Time and most recently Steven Universe, have done an incredible job to make songs that help paint clear images for our characters. (I’m Just Your Problem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s5-ODUA-Cc ) But I wouldn’t call these musical TV show. Although some have had movies or episodes heavily focused on music, it’s something that the show uses to keep things interesting, instead of consistently delivering musical performances. However, I love when animators mix in music to their storytelling. The bombastic nature of musical theatre drama always fits so well into the exaggerated and weird properties of animation.  

Why is this paragraph bold? I did not intend for this. I have no idea how to fix this
 comment below if you know what the fuck is happening here. I have to move on, but like
 wtf..?

In 2009 we had “Glee” premiere to wild success. Personally, I admire how it was able to take the idea of live performance and sell it in a way that was invigorating for a mass market. But allow me to apply a lesson I learned from the hit move, “Minions” for this.  Just because something sells, doesn’t make it good. Although the show had a good start in its first season, the themes and character development fizzle out in order to focus on themed episodes with more popular music that felt rushed out for an album instead of crafted from a meticulously written story. Ironically Glee is doing exactly what musicals were doing in the 20’s and 30’s. A composer would create a handful of songs (like an album) and a team of writers and producers would piece together a story. But Irving Berlin is dead and I’m not having none of that shit! A musical on Broadway shouldn’t exist primarily to sell an album (just as animated movies shouldn’t exist to sell merchandise), I believe their first priority is to tell a story that services the characters. Glee pumps out hit after hit, but the story and the characters suffer creating flat characters and boring plot lines. I’ll admit I’m not above listening to Glee music though. I still listen to Proud Mary. It was a bop then and still is today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9PiEieC0WQ 

Smash came next because NBC saw the success fox had with Glee and said, “We want that, but worse!” Smash takes all the terrible drama of your least favorite soap opera and mixes it with the unenthused performance of Katherine MacFee. It has the same problem as Glee, where the plot is there to service the songs, instead of it being the other way around. Smash will set up a problem, create steaks, then stop everything so a character can perform a musical number. (National Pastime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsMd-uadvlQ ) During songs and performances, we don’t learn anything about the individuals, they don’t grow or change. Everything is stagnant while we wait for the musical number to be over. I honestly think if the show took out the musical numbers and subsequently cut the budget in half, it would have been a great drama about mounting a new musical on Broadway. But as with Glee, the TV drama and the musical drama felt too different to create a cohesive world.

Quickly after that we have Galavant, on ABC. What’s that? you’ve never heard of it? it’s probably for the best. So Galavant is a very campy musical TV show about a brave knight on a quest to rescue his princess. (Galavant Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWnDwM0RSX4 ) OK so remember before how I was complaining that Glee and Smash don’t do a good enough job representing “musicals”, well Galavant has the opposite problem. This show belongs nowhere on TV because none of the characters are relatable. TV and film are best when they are getting really close and personal to individual characters. But live theatre cant really bring the audience in like TV or film. It’s the reason a recorded stage production always feels so lame. Galavant, with all its campy jokes, 4tth wall breaks, and genuine stupidity just doesn’t do a good enough job at establishing a universe that is compelling enough to keep an audience. Galavant may have worked on the stage, but on television, the overacting and excessive energy just doesn’t fly.

Now that I’ve complained into your face for long enough, its time to finally go over the single greatest piece of musical television, and that is CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”. This show brings televised musicals to a brand-new level! (West Covina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92538NJ0lbE ) The music fun and jam packed with energy while also constantly informing us about a character and point of view. A scene doesn’t stop to let a song start, every element of show works to move the story forward. It’s incredibly refreshing and delightfully inspiring to watch a show eloquently utilize elements from traditional theatre and spin them into a show that feels totally unique. If you cant tell, I miss this show so much! I miss the truth behind each musical number, I miss the surprisingly talented cast and I miss how the songs all poked fun at some aspect of music or performance. (One of my favorite songs does an incredible job making fun of “Smash” and you can bet I am absolutely here for that) (Love Triangle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck-UhvbCDAk )Congrats to Rachel Bloom on her well deserved Emmy for her performance and dedication to Rebecca Bunch.

Musicals often feel antiquated or old-fashioned these days and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” capably reversed that entire mindset and made musicals feel cool. To me “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” embodies exactly what a television musical should be and it absolutely deserves all the credit for pulling off effortlessly something that no other show has done in the past. 

I sprinkled some musical clips from all the shows I discussed around the article so feel free to check those out since they are all “Kevin Approved”.  

As always, thank you so much for reading, and have an amazing day!