We make stage musicals out of pop culture movies, because we are artistically bankrupt and risk-adverse, and then we convert those stage musicals back into movies. What a weird trend. 1
The weirder trend is how we cut trailers for these removieizations, to make it look like they aren’t musicals.
This trailer for Mean Girls has a track from Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album and not a single moment where any of the characters sing. You’d be walking into this thinking that they literally decided to remake the movie without Lindsay Lohan.
The Color Purple did the same thing (“a bold new take,” that doesn’t mention it’s the Broadway musical from 18 years ago)
There’s one quick moment of a character singing and then fast cutting so you might think she’s singing in church. But she’s actually singing “I’m Here,” the show-stopper at the end of the stage show.
I’m not saying any of this is bad, The (new) Color Purple killed it at the box office and I’ll be seeing both this and Mean Girls, even though I’ve seen both the original movies and the stage versions before. But like, own it and stop pretending people don’t like musicals, so we have to hide it in the advertising.
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okay technically the path for both The Color Purple and Mean Girls was book first then film adaptation then stage musical then back to film, if we’re getting pedantic.
