These are a particularly controversial type of musical. Critics who dislike them accuse them of being "McMusicals", only being released to gain as much profit as usual and establish franchises. However, they have been hugely successful with audiences over the years, often gaining big fandoms and becoming ingrained as part of pop culture and memes.
This article's main aim will be to explore the brief history of the megamusical genre, both its format in the 1980s and its format in the 21st century. Its main traits will be identified and I will state my overall opinion of them at the end. I will also identify examples that match the genre's requirements and discuss the highs and lows.
The 1980s - The Beginning
Most people agree that it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who first made megamusicals a thing. He had a few hit musicals such as Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1968) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) in the seventies that had some megamusical traits, but it was Cats (1981) that ultimately codified the traits that would be associated with them. He would then really made a name for himself with The Phantom of the Opera (1986), based on the Gaston Leroux gothic novel of the same name. These megamusicals would define the format associated with them at the time.
Most eighties megamusicals tend to be sung-through with maybe a few spoken lines every now and then. The sets are big, the casts are big (often focusing on an ensemble cast rather than a single protagonist) and the costumes stand out big time. Often there will be a story that explores certain universal themes, but it lacks a lot of depth and is only a minor feature when compared to the spectacle. The music is very catchy and consists of modern pop and rock songs, often including power ballads and big orchestrations. Commercially, they will be very successful and popular with audiences, though critics will be more mixed about them.
To explain these points in further detail, I will be briefly analysing Starlight Express (1984), the megamusical Lloyd Webster very loosely based on Thomas The Tank Engine. Whilst it is not as famous as Lloyd Webber's other works such as Cats and Phantom, it's still pretty enjoyable and it puts these aspects to good use.
- Major focus on spectacle and visuals? Check. The musical is performed on rollerskates and there are train tracks designed to go around the audience so that actors can skate around them. It's a very immersive experience to say the least. Additionally, the costumes themselves look really nice and accurately portray the trains that they are imitating as well as the character's personalities.
- Storyline that explores universal themes but is only second nature to the spectacle? Check. The main plotline is about a steam train called Rusty who wants to win the big race and impress the aloof Pearl, but must compete against the bullying diesel engine Greaseball (who is essentially Elvis as a train) and the arrogant electric train Electra (very apt). It's essentially the classic underdog story that we all know about and explores the idea of not giving up on your dreams and having more confidence in yourself, so not anything new here (of course, maybe the fact that it's applied to trains could be classified as original).
- Large ensemble cast? Check. Though Rusty is the main protagonist, there's quite a lot of focus on other characters and their own subplots as well, such as Pearl's search for her ideal partner, Greaseball and Electra's rivalry and the dining car Dinah's turbulent relationship with and undying devotion for Greaseball. There are also groups of similar characters such as the National Trains and the Rockies who don't have single members stand out, but they are still memorable as groups.
- Soundtrack with catchy pop songs and power ballads? Check. For example, Greaseball is inspired by Elvis Presley and Electra gets a song called "AC/DC" as a reference to the famous Australian rock band.
- Does very well commercially? I'll definitely say check on this one. It's had a decent run in the West End, and then there's Germany's obsession with it. Not only is it the longest running musical in Germany so far, but they even made their own theatre specifically to put on that show. Complete with the classic train tracks around the audience for crying out loud! And family events that are held backstage too!
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| I mean, LOOK AT IT! And that's just the standing ovation we're looking at here! (Note: This was a 2018 production of Starlight Express at the Starlight Express Theatre in Bochum, Germany.) |
Starlight Express is an interesting megamusical. Sure, the plot has some weird themes and messages (seriously, steam engines being more efficient than diesel or electric?) and Pearl is a complete bitch at times. But it's fun and engaging with a brilliant set, lavish costumes, catchy music and memorable characters, and I was rooting for Rusty throughout that show the whole time.
I'd also like to point out that the spectacle of Starlight Express is partly the reason why this would not work as a movie. Not only would there be a loss of audience immersion, but the way that the characters are portrayed onstage means that it would be hard to find a way to properly depict them on the silver screen. Keep them in costumes and on roller-skates, and it just looks like people in costumes and on roller-skates. Turn them into actual trains, and it loses the dancing from the original show (unless they tried to have dancing trains, and that would just look stupid). The best they could possibly do is try and go for the Chicago film root of showing them as trains in "reality" and as people during the "fantasy" segments, but that would just get confusing quickly, even if the events of the show are implied to be in the head of a young train fanatic.
Sometimes, some of the megamusicals such as Phantom, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon do have serious stories that play an important role in the show. But the spectacle is still grand and the script is still sung-through. For instance, Phantom has the famous chandelier scene, Les Mis had the turning stage (which was sadly removed from recent productions) and Miss Saigon has the helicopter.
This format doesn't really get used much anymore. Blame is usually placed on the Broadway failure of Lloyd-Webber's Aspects of Love, but that wasn't actually a megamusical in the first place - it was just advertised as one despite being more of a soap opera. The most recent users of this format are the critically-reviled Love Never Dies (the Phantom sequel that we never asked for) and the critically and commercially successful Hamilton. Hamilton plays around with the format though - it's sung-through, features modern music, has a grand plot that focuses on themes of social justice and the rise of fall of the titular character and has impressive lighting, but it doesn't really have grand sets and scenery.
The 21st Century - The Highs And The Lows
The format of megamusicals changed in the 2000s, starting with the shows The Lion King (1997) and Wicked (2003). The sung-through format was mostly dropped and more spoken dialogue was used instead, and the plots started to have an equal role to the spectacle. The sets and costumes were still flashy though, such as the Indonesian puppetry in The Lion King and the dresses that Elphaba and Glinda wear in Wicked.
Keep in mind that The Lion King was not the first successful Disney megamusical. That would be the stage version of Beauty and the Beast, but that one barely had any success in the United Kingdom due to being seen as a "sentimentalised big-budget pantomine". Additionally, The Lion King and Wicked were what started the 21st century trend of adapting famous works for the stage and advertising them for families and tourists, similar to the megamusicals of the eighties.
Either way, Disney is a good example of the 21st century megamusical in action. Aside from the works I've just mentioned, they've also adapted Aladdin, Frozen, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid. Frequently, these musicals will use songs that were planned for the original films but never made it in for some reason, with the use of Jafar's song "Why Me?" in Aladdin being a good example. They also make changes to make the plot and characters work better onstage, such as when they turned the parrot Iago from Aladdin into a human. Nevertheless, the plots are still mostly faithful to the original stories and you can expect the same lavish scenery and costumes that they had in the films and other megamusicals.
Results vary each time. Disney is nearly always successful with their stage adaptations of their films (Britain seems to be the only exception of where they do well, and even then we like The Lion King), though reception to the Frozen stage adaptation has been more mixed. Wicked is also very successful and has fully integrated pop culture, up to the point in which it arguably overshadows the (much darker) book it was based on. The Shrek musical adaptation is more of a mixed bag - some people love it, some people hate it and some people like myself are in-between. But it still does well commercially, as indicated by the many times I've seen it promoted over in my home country.
Of course, sometimes it goes wrong. Like with the Spider-Man musical (2011). Yes, we all know it was a thing.
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| If by "famous", they mean the reputation it received for the turbulent production, the injuries the actors suffered on the set, the fact that its creator was fired and had her career killed, and the fact that it had numerous preview showings...yeah, I guess you're right in a sense. |
The full title is actually Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, but I never got what the subtitle was supposed to mean. Besides, given the infamous reputation this musical gained for the injuries the actors suffered due to faulty wires and sets, other people were right to name it Spider-Man: Notify Next Of Kin instead.
What makes this particularly depressing is that the idea for it came from Julie Taymor, the same woman who brought us The Lion King musical. Due to her primadonna attitude on set and her bizarre ideas for Spider-Man, she was ultimately fired from the production. Still didn't stop it from flopping. It holds the world records for most previews shows for a musical, and I'm pretty sure that they could have outweighed the actual amount of shows that were put on when it finally had a proper release, had it not ultimately finished in 2014 instead.
The main problem with the Spider-Man musical, appalling safety conditions aside, is that it doesn't really bring anything new to the megamusical genre. Cats essentially popularised said genre in the first place. Starlight Express obviously had the roller-skates and the train tracks. The Lion King featured the Indonesian puppetry. Wicked was based on a much darker story that served as a retelling of The Wizard Of Oz and explored the backstory of the witches. The Spider-Man musical however...is just an adaptation of the comics and Sam Raimi movies. Even the stunts on the wires have been performed in other shows beforehand.
My Conclusive Thoughts
So my overall opinion on megamusicals? Well, as someone who's not a massive musical expert or fangirl, but shows an interest for them anyway, it ultimately depends on the production and the mood you're in. I desire a good story in a musical most of all, but I have a deep interest in spectacle too. The Lloyd-Webber ones are always fun to watch for instance (Love Never Dies being the only exception), even if the plots can be weak at times. The Disney ones can also be pretty good at times, though The Lion King is clearly the best.
I feel that in order for a megamusical to be successful, it has to be innovative. The spectacle has to be unique and it shouldn't take away from the emotional impact that it's supposed to have on the audience. I have a field day watching the roller-blade stunts in Starlight Express, admiring the puppets in The Lion King and witnessing the different musical styles in Cats, but the Spider-Man musical and Love Never Dies do nothing for me. We shouldn't have a massive glut of megamusicals, but it's nice to see one once in a while.
