Musicals for people who don’t like musicals

June 24, 2024 6:20 PM

Looking for recs for musicals that are more modern film-y and less campy Broadway show-tunes-y. More like Hamilton, In the Heights, La La Land, Sing Street etc. Maybe I’m looking more for movies with songs rather than traditional musicals? I’d like to watch live recordings or film adaptations, not live in theater.
posted by roaring beast to Media & Arts (46 answers total)

The Greatest Showman is a surprisingly modern take on PT Barnum.
posted by SPrintF at 6:28 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a classic, a French movie that is a full-on opera but also an intimate romance and beautiful 60s period piece. I'm not a musical person but I adore it.
posted by lhputtgrass at 6:35 PM on June 24 [14 favorites]

Once. An Irish busker meets a Czech immigrant and they start making music together that charts the course of their relationship.
posted by chrisulonic at 6:35 PM on June 24 [19 favorites]

Well if it means anything, my musical-averse spouse was quite willing to see the Book of Mormon (written by the guys behind South Park). Alas, our tickets were refunded due to COVID, and we haven't yet gotten to see it.
posted by hydra77 at 6:46 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]

Waitress: The Musical
posted by sacrifix at 7:03 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

We all know this, but for reference: Jesus Christ Superstar by Webber & Rice has their most listenable songs and least traditional show-tune-y yelling.
posted by ovvl at 7:19 PM on June 24 [4 favorites]

This might not be quite the vibe, but I remember "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" managing to spoof musicals pretty successfully while also working in its own right.

It is a 25-year old (yikes) South Park movie, so, uhh, probably best to expect that some stuff hasn't aged well. But, might be worth checking out as a period piece!
posted by Zephyrial at 7:22 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

Come from Away. Based on events in the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland, when planes carrying several thousand people were ordered to land there on 9/11, and the passengers stranded for weeks. The video (on Apple+) is a very well done professional recording of the live show. The characters are based on actual passengers and residents, and grew out of oral-history style interviews.
posted by hovey at 7:45 PM on June 24 [16 favorites]

"Rent" is a favorite of mine. I haven't seen the movie, as I actually prefer live stage productions. YouTube has many university and even high school productions available...Miss Saigon I love, but may not be what you are looking for.
posted by Czjewel at 7:53 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

If you like La La Land, please meet its (sorry, trying not to be a certain kind of snob but argh I can't help myself) vastly superior progenitor, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (if you're open to something not in English.) It's a period piece but I don't think one would say it's camp. It's through-composed, meaning there aren't individual songs separated by talking, just all the dialog is sung.

I mean, my guess at what would be "camp" is, given the examples, "songs that sound like mid century musicals rather than late 20th c pop songs"? Musicals that middle aged gay men like? (In which case, Umbrellas is sort of a third thing altogether) But...you could try Dear Evan Hansen which is poppy, or any of the dozens of jukebox musicals that sloppily mush a band's greatest hits into a plot that's mostly afterthought. Mamma Mia, American Idiot, Rock of Ages...
posted by less-of-course at 8:29 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

If you like the original movie, The Color Purple is a good one. I loved the musical version of Mean Girls that just came out, but oh boy, many people hate it. One common criticism is that it changed too much from the Broadway version. I liked the Waitress pro shot, but not as much as the first two. It might help to look for stories you already appreciate in their non-musical form. The Les Miserables from 2010 with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman is really effective.

Come From Away is my very favorite and it is a lot more story than dance line and showtunes.
posted by soelo at 8:30 PM on June 24

I don’t know if it’s possible to watch in full anywhere but Fela! was wonderful.
posted by vunder at 8:49 PM on June 24

Passing Strange.

Spike Lee filmed the closing night performance (so it's a filmed performance like Hamilton) but the music is very "un-Broadway"; the composer, who goes by the name "Stew", is one of those musicians who just does his own thing and usually is an avant-garde outsider but by some fluke this particular show ended up on Broadway. It's a bit autobiographical; it's based on Stew's own coming-of-age as an artist as a younger man who left Los Angeles and went to Amsterdam and Berlin to Find Himself a bit. (My favorite bit: this number, in which he has asked some people where he can find a place to stay and one of his new friends just gives him a spare key to her own place and says she can stay with him, and it triggers this whole "holy crap I'm going to be okay after all" overwhelming moment for him).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:07 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]

The Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou and Inside Llewyn Davis incorporate a lot of great musical performances.
posted by staggernation at 9:12 PM on June 24 [9 favorites]

Tick, Tick...Boom was nominated and/or won a bunch of "best of" awards including best film and best actor. Esp if you like Larson's Rent and LMM's work. The Sunday clip doesn't show it's full film-y-ness but it does have a bunch of Broadway stars who came out amidst COVID to film a single song to honor Larson, Sondheim and all they stood for.
posted by beaning at 9:14 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]

If you liked Sing Street, you will probably like The Commitments.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:29 PM on June 24 [5 favorites]

Pennies From Heaven, the 1981 Steve Martin film (but avoid the weird British 1978 mini-series which inspired it)
posted by Rash at 9:48 PM on June 24 [6 favorites]

I have three recommendations:

"That Thing You Do" isn't a musical, but it is about musicians and is filled with music and I love it.

"Begin Again" was directed by the same guy - John Carney - who made "Once" and "Sing Street" and features some good tunes.

"Flora and Son" is the same director's newest movie and is pretty good. The main character, Flora, is actually Bono from U2's daughter. He seems to make movies about musicians, so the movies feature good music. And I've liked all of them.
posted by tacodave at 10:05 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

The film version of Cabaret is very well done, imho. (Is it camp? There's probably an argument that it is, but not in the sense you're thinking of, I don't think.)
posted by hoyland at 10:19 PM on June 24 [4 favorites]

The Spielberg remake of West Side Story is really surprisingly good, and whilst not entirely free of camp, it has a slightly gritty edge that the original arguably lacks.
posted by rd45 at 12:52 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

Topsy-Turvy (1999) history of the making of Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado. Great acting, great songs, great set design!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:36 AM on June 25 [7 favorites]

My husband, who hates musicals, liked Pitch Perfect.

He doesn't like when people randomly burst into song, but he thought the movie was funny and liked that the songs were part of the plot.

I liked Tick...Tick...Boom (I watched the Netflix version with Andrew Garfield). It was really well-acted, and I liked that it had these big, beautiful songs against the backdrop of normal life stuff like waiting tables.
posted by champers at 3:08 AM on June 25

"Barbie" for me is very musical like and has some outstanding bits. I' m sure you heard about "I'm just Ken"
posted by SweetLiesOfBokonon at 3:28 AM on June 25

Maybe try Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 4:46 AM on June 25 [13 favorites]

If you are looking for a place to watch these recommendations, this comment on reddit lists a lot of them and tells you which streaming service carries them.
posted by soelo at 5:46 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]

I'm not familiar with your positive examples because that's how much I hate musicals.
I, however, love Singin' in the Rain* and Fiddler on the Roof. They are full human stories that happen to organically have song in them.

*There's one number that is over the top, but it has Cyd Charisse, so that helps.
posted by droomoord at 6:10 AM on June 25 [4 favorites]

Seconding the South Park movie. It's an inspired satire of the overly-earnest Disney product of the day. Parker and Stone's first film is also a fine, fine musical experience.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:13 AM on June 25

It's a tv show and not a movie, but you might like Girls5eva. Also Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Tonally different (and certainly more melodramatic), Daisy Jones & The Six is also pretty fun (the music is suprisingly good)

I have a sneaking suspicion you'd love "Stereophonic" but it's still fresh on Broadway so you've probably got a while before there's a filmed version
posted by thivaia at 6:53 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

Night of the Hunter, a film noir starring Robert Mitchum as an evil preacher. You wouldn't notice it's a musical, but nearly every character has a song.
posted by hydrophonic at 6:58 AM on June 25 [4 favorites]

Also, I don't know if this counts but American Utopia is pretty mindblowing.
posted by thivaia at 7:00 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

The Blues Brothers?
posted by Vek at 7:21 AM on June 25 [7 favorites]

You might enjoy Repo! The Genetic Opera.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:03 AM on June 25

The Wicker Man (the original, of course).

This BFI list from 2019 has a lot of the expected ones but also some unusual ones so that may be worth a look.
posted by edencosmic at 9:03 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]

Paint Your Wagon
posted by Rash at 9:05 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]

Seconding Book of Mormon with respect to not liking musicals with that caveat that if you don't like South Park, you won't like Book of Mormon.
posted by falsedmitri at 9:22 AM on June 25

I tend to dislike musicals, but really enjoy movies that are about music. A recent favorite for me was Musica and I also loved tick tick boom, Once, and Begin again as others have mentioned and Hearts beat loud.
posted by pie_seven at 9:57 AM on June 25

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, Moulin Rouge!, if you can handle that it's supremely silly at times.
posted by sukeban at 10:24 AM on June 25 [7 favorites]

Several of my favorite films are semi-musical-ish:
- True Stories, the pleasant David Byrne film with a bunch of Talking Heads' songs
- Otto Preminger's Skidoo, while one of my favorite films, is not a great movie (I like it, but it definitely isn't for everyone). It sort of turns into a musical in the last act.
- The Muppet Movie. The original three Muppet movies are among my favorite films, but I'll always feel that the first is the best. They're not really musicals, but they do break into song at times, in that Muppety sort of way.
- Finally, it isn't one of my favorite films, but I have a soft spot for it, and it feels more film-y than musical-y to me: 1776
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 12:47 PM on June 25 [3 favorites]

I know you are focused on movies and recordings of performances, and are explicitly not interested in live theater, but are you open to engaging with musicals by listening to cast albums? If so, I’d recommend listening to the Hadestown soundtrack.
posted by jennyesq at 2:19 PM on June 25

Yentl (1983) is a film where the music is well integrated-- the songs are basically just the Streisand character's internal monologue, no one else "hears" them.

The Yiddish-language film it's based on, Yidl mitn Fidl (1936), is even better (and one of my all-time feelgood movies): the title character dresses as a boy to go on the road with a klezmer band, so the music makes sense as part of the story.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:00 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]

2nding Hadestown.

I am not a musicals person and there are many things about that genre I feel like I do not “get” but I do like My Fair Lady so maybe you would too?
posted by rustcellar at 4:48 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]

If you're okay with fairly quirky, there's always The Monkee's experimental stoner movie Head, which doesn't have a straightforward plot, but does have great rock/pop songs.
posted by ovvl at 9:23 PM on June 25 [2 favorites]

As a musical-hater, but movie-lover, I finally broke down recently and watched “Singin’ in the Rain”. Reader, I LOVED it. It has become one of my top5 movies of all time. I also developed a mad crush on Gene Kelly (and I’m a lesbian). The man can dance, who knew? :)

Runners-up:

Saturday Night Fever (although not a musical in the usual sense)
Grease
Sound of Music
The Little Mermaid - 1989 (Ursula is my spirit animal.)
posted by Bourbonesque at 5:32 AM on June 26

Across The Universe uses selected Beatles tunes to tell a boy-meets-girl story in the turbulence of the 1960s. Terrific cameos from Bono, Joe Cocker, and Eddie Izzard.
posted by John Borrowman at 8:59 AM on June 26

This Is Spinal Tap?
posted by credulous at 10:45 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]

Hugo Award winner Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
(and Palme d'Or winner Umbrellas of Cherbourg, as noted).
posted by Vox Clamato at 7:10 PM on June 26