Hairspray, A Casting Success

   

   The second installation of the Broadway Musical Hairspray had wise casting techniques. With a budget of $75 million, the civil rights movement musical film held an open casting call to cast unknown actors. After over eleven hundred candidates, Nikki Blonsky, a high school senior from Great Neck, New York was choses to stare as the movies protagonist, Tracy Turnblad. With the incorporation of unknown actors, the producers were wise to include major celebrities in the casting. John Travolta, Queen Latifah, and Zac Efron were casted bringing a massive fan-base and anticipation. Not only was there already a hype about this famous casting but the fact that Travolta was playing a woman  (Tracy's mother) brought a lot of discussion and popularity to the film. 

   Since the movie consisted heavily on complex choreography, it became a major focus for the producers to hire multiple choreographers and pay over a hundred and fifty dancers in total. 

"Appropriately enough for a movie with such a democratic sensibility, there is plenty of credit to go around. Mr. Shankman (director and choreographer), drawing on long experience as a choreographer, avoids the kind of vulgar overstatement that so often turns the joy of live musical theater into torment at the multiplex."

   "Hairspray is a musical full of different styles of music.  The different styles of music are comedy, dancing, feel good, classic Broadway, old-fashioned, high-octane show dancing, high jinks, emotion, rocking Motown, electric blues, 60’s sock Hop, blues, pop, doo-wap, and lover’s duet. The diverse musical genres also helped make the movie drift from the typical cheesy musical."

  “Hairspray” is a great musical.  It has history, different productions of it including a 1988 film and a new musical film 2007.  It can be analyzed in multiple ways, research, listening to music, watch youtube, see production of it, and compare it to other events in the world, yours or history." 

   Ending its domestic run on October 25, 2007, Hairspray has a total domestic gross of $118,871,849 and $202,548,575 worldwide. The film was able to adapt well and portray the musical on the big screen successfully. The real reason why this movie was successful was mostly because of its diverse, famous, musically talented cast. 

URL:

http://ttkag87.wordpress.com/final-analysis-of-hairspray/

Article Title:

Final Analysis of "Hairspray"

Website Title:

Kristi Musical Lover

Publication date:

2009-12-04

URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairspray_(2007_film)#Box_office

Website Title:

Wikipedia

URL:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427327/

Article Title:

Hairspray

Website Title:

IMDb

The Musical Catalyst That Is Chicago

   "It's been a critical favorite and an award winner from the beginning, but perhaps the most surprising element about the Miramax musical "Chicago" is its red-hot box office success" said John Burlingame about the film adaptation of the broadway musical "Chicago". From the first few weeks the film premiered for a general audience Chicago was successful in attaining a wide audience (greater than just theatre geeks). The movie was able to reach $100 million at the box office. " You can't do $100 milllion  at the box office and have a narrow appeal. You really have to cross lines". 

   The film won 6 academy awards including best picture. An early exit poll taken at one big-city theater showed that 28% of viewers were over 50, 24% were their 40s, 15% in their 30s and 18% in their 20s. At first the film attracted an older demographic. The producers started releasing the movie to more and more movie theaters and even the male demographic increased, which is rare because of the genre. 

   Chicago is a commendable production because not only was it successful in portraying the musical in a good light but it also was able to break the stereotypical demographic barriers of genre and make the general public relate to the intriguing plot about America's society and legal system. Since its premiere in January of 2003, the 113 minute film has remained a classic and has given musicals a good name. Chicago was actually one of the first musical film adaptations in the 2000s because of its success, it became the catalyst that led to the releasing of many musical adaptations that are classics as well today.

URL:

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/12/entertainment/et-burlingame12

Article Title:

From musical to a movie for the masses

Website Title:

Los Angeles Times

Publication date:

2003-03-12

URL:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/

Article Title:

Chicago

Website Title:

IMDb

URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(2002_film)#Awards_and_nominations

Website Title:

Wikipedia

URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b24qpxrg63k

Article Title:

Chicago (2002) Trailer

Website Title:

YouTube

   

Jersey Boys Ignored By The World

  

The well known Tony Award winning Broadway Musical Jersey Boys was adapted to a screenplay in the beginning of this year. Directed by Clint Eastwood and adapted by the same writers responsible for the Broadway version, the movie had high expectations to make the same impact as the musical has made. " By casting the original Broadway and tour actors, Eastwood preserved the musical and presented it as itself... not with the gimmicks and glamour that Hollywood often flaunts, but rather  the beauty and rawness of the Theatre". 
   Broadway fans may agree that the casting of the Broadway actors made the movie more raw and channeled the characters better; but in a marketing stand point that was the last thing the film should have done. With incorporating the cast with only these type of actors, it limited the audience demographic and made it difficult to publicize. With no big actors that could now tweet and use other social media accounts to tell their followers to get excited for the movie, this movie was mainly reached out to Theatre fans. The big marketing was left to the production company, Warner Bros. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. did not make big efforts to launch a big platform for the film. " Yet for some strange reason, there've been few TV trailers, hardly any talk show appearances, and generally, a complete lack of efforts to make the public aware that the movie exists". 
  
 The sad thing is that this movie could have been extremely successful. As the thirteenth longest-running show on Broadway, there could have been so many things done differently. It is truly a production responsibility ( casting-wise and marketing-wise ). 
   Besides the bad publicity which caused the movie a lot of its income, the 134 minute production did earn $47,034,272 in the U.S. If it could be redone, it would be probable that  a lot of the choices that Clint Eastwood as a director and these Broadway writers and their whole entire team would be different to save their movie. 

URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Boys_(film)#Background_songs

Website  Title:

Wikipedia

URL:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742044/

Article Title:

Jersey Boys

Website Title:IMDB

URL:

http://theatremama.com/jersey-boys-the-movie-go-watch-it/

Article Title:

Jersey Boys The Movie: Go Watch It

Website Title:

theatreMAMA

URL:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/28706-why-clint-eastwoods-jersey-boys-is-being-totally-ignored-despite-all-its-promise

Article Title:

Bustle

Website Title:

Bustle

URL:

http://screenrant.com/jersey-boys-movie-reviews/

Article Title:

‘Jersey Boys’ Review

Website Title:

Screen Rant