Here’s the News: The Movie Musical Is <i> Not</i> Dead

Though Haithman cites many examples of musicals in the past decade or so, largely as failures, she never seems to address the reasons for that lack of success.

There is still a significant segment of society that enjoys these films, but it seems to me that those who do not, particularly those of my generation, are now too significant to allow musical film the universal appeal it once had. As a college student studying film, I have had the experience of having the power to my room cut by pranksters irritated by my watching “Oklahoma!”

In our society, optimism is no longer considered acceptable. Where openheartedness and honesty were once revered, cynicism and self-absorption have taken their place.

The only large-scale musical successes of recent years have been Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Perhaps, if we are indeed growing disaffected with the values of the Me Generation and if the “traditional” values represented in these movies are in some sense returning, we are due for a resurgence in musical popularity.

Obviously there is more than one factor involved, but I suggest that the popularity of these films is deeply connected to the national psyche.

ERIC Y. FANG

Claremont