The Sound of Music passed out Gone with the Wind to become the highest grossing film of all time. Astonishingly, four of the 10 musicals to win best picture at the Oscars вЂ“ West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Oliver! вЂ“ landed in that decade alone. Then the industry entered the whirling conundrum that was the 1960s. Translations of Broadway hits such as Oklahoma! and South Pacific drew in huge numbers. In the post-war era, Arthur FreedвЂ™s unit at MGM produced classics such as SinginвЂ™ in the Rain, On the Town and Bandwagon. During the Great Depression, Busby BerkeleyвЂ™s staging pushed song and dance towards the edge of surrealism. No other film genre has вЂ“ to mix maritime metaphors with financial ones вЂ“ been so subject to boom and bust.ДЇor about 40 years, from the release of The Jazz Singer to the release of Sgt Pepper, the musical was a reliable staple of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. Since the late 1960s the weather has, however, been extremely changeable. The studios behind the upcoming West Side Story and tick, tick. Obituaries are constantly written for the film musical. The cinema fails to flog the Great White WayвЂ™s prize winners. So the love affair is over? A little less than a century after talkies began with a musical вЂ“ Al Jolson telling us вЂњYou AinвЂ™t Seen NothinвЂ™ YetвЂќ in The Jazz Singer вЂ“ the relationship has come to an unevenly balanced end? Broadway and the West End convert HollywoodвЂ™s hits.

At time of writing, Variety magazine has it ranked at number 41 in the race for best picture.

The film was, even after factoring in Covid adjustments, a financial bomb of sizable proportions.

Released to largely positive reviews, the adaptation of Lin-Manuel MirandaвЂ™s musical about life in Dominican uptown Manhattan was expected to restart the US box office and stake an early claim for Oscars. The relative failure of In the Heights during the summer sent up different shapes of red flag. There was, among the film press, a sense of вЂњWhat the hell is this thing? How the hell did it become a hit on stage? Why the hell is it being inflicted on blameless cinemagoers?вЂќ Stupid theatre. Catch some shade under that вЂњonly a Broadway audienceвЂќ shelf. Atad described Platt as being вЂњcostumed like a geeky middle-schooler from the вЂ™80s in a manner only a Broadway audience could find convincingвЂќ. Most of the attention has, however, focused on the absurdity of casting Platt, a 28-year-old who here looks 35, as the compromised Evan.Д¬orey Atad in Little White Lies magazine was one among several who sensed a disconnect between theatrical and cinematic sensibilities. The ingenuousness of the confessional songs has strained patience. The scriptвЂ™s queasy conciliation with the protagonistвЂ™s deceit has raised eyebrows. Ben Platt revives his role as a troubled youngster who, for reasons too contrived to detail, gets mistakenly identified as the supportive friend of a schoolmate who has taken his own life. The kindest word to use about the reviews would be вЂњmixedвЂќ. This week we get Stephen ChboskyвЂ™s take on the Tony-winning teen musical Dear Evan Hansen. Meanwhile, translations of theatre musicals to film are having a difficult time. The film was, even after factoring in Covid adjustments, a financial bomb of sizable proportions In London, indifferently received song-and-dance translations of Back to the Future, Pretty Woman and The Prince of Egypt have opened alongside Mary Poppins and The Lion King. Moulin Rouge!, adapted from the Baz Luhrmann film, just won the Tony award for best musical. A glance at Broadway and the West End would suggest that, at the top of the market, musical theatre is cowed by moving pictures. That happened with Mamma Mia! It happened with The Greatest Showman. Yet, every now and then, the public will pluck an unheralded musical release from the schedules and turn it into a smash.

There is still a suspicion that too much of the audience has an allergy to these things. Remember all those trailers for film musicals вЂ“ most notoriously the 2007 version of Sweeney Todd вЂ“ that cynically failed to include any singing. The newer medium canвЂ™t quite decide how it feels about its senior partner. Cinema and musical theatre have, for the last 50 years or so, been in and out of relationship counselling.

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