Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of the Broadway hit Jersey Boys slides into theaters this weekend, perhaps introducing The Four Seasons to lots of moviegoers too young to remember them.
I can’t say much about the movie here (be looking for my review later today), but I can say this: Jersey Boys earns its R rating (almost entirely for language). The Four Seasons do not, it would seem, have a particularly family-friendly backstory.
But when I left the theater, The main impression I carried with me was all the happy, happy music I heard. Without the songs, Jersey Boys might come across as a problematic, bittersweet story about the price of fame. But with them, it felt like a toe-tapping crowd-pleaser.
Amazing what a couple of falsetto-infused ditties will do for a flick, isn’t it?
I’ve long had an appreciation for musicals. The classic ones (unlike more modern iterations such as Jersey Boys) were as family friendly as you could get, and I got a steady dose of them with my own family growing up. When I was a little kid, my mom would slap some musical soundtracks on the ol’ record player, and my sister and I would spin around the living room pretending to be Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. (My sis now teaches dancing, by the way. I think I deserve a cut.) When I got a little older—but still long before we owned a VCR—Mom would whisk us down to a theater that played a steady stream of classic movies, and most of those we saw were old musicals. We saw most of the musicals people regard as classics there, I think: My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Show Boat … they were well-represented.
Of all the movies we saw, though, I think Singin’ in the Rain was the best—a movie a 12-year-old boy could like nearly as much as Raiders of the Lost Ark. The movie didn’t dawdle, first of all—perfect for an easily bored lad like me— and the dancing was athletic and high energy. Gene Kelly, Hollywood’s reigning song-and-dance man of the day, was superlative, and Donald O’Connor was just flat-out hilarious. You can get a little taste of all those elements in the clip below.
[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFxWkUkUsQA:550:0]
Now, how can you not smile while watching that?
Singin’ in the Rain has since become required viewing in our household. I forced both my kids to watch it early on, and they loved it. They, in turn, would foist it on their friends and significant others. If the boyfriend and/or girlfriend in question enjoyed it, well, we’d let them stay for dinner.
‘Course, not everyone likes musicals. The songs drag on, these critics say. The dances are silly. Plus, why would grown men and women burst into elaborately choreographed numbers at the least provocation? Never mind that we’re all cool with 350-foot monsters that spew blue fire or self-aware LEGOs flitting from world to world: Real people don’t sing in the middle of a history final.
And, as such, some modern musicals have become more grounded. Jersey Boys, being about a bunch of singers, simply shows them on stage, singing. Oh, sure, Frankie Valli might sing a lullaby to his kids, but (spoiler warning) you won’t see him break into a whole song-and-dance number at the barbershop, spinning around in barber chairs as lathered-up patrons sing in the background.
Me, that’s a scene I’d like to see.
Hey, I get the crit of old-timey musicals. I might be one of those critics if my mom hadn’t thoroughly indoctrinated me at such a young age. So let me ask you: Do you like musicals or hate them? And if you like ’em, do you have a favorite?
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