For almost 100 years, Universal Pictures has brought films to life through song and dance. With Wicked (2024), Universal continues to set new heights and defy gravity for what can be done in modern movie musicals.
Movie musicals have long been a fundamental part of the Universal Pictures library. From golden age classics to jukebox favorites to contemporary originals, the genre has become a beloved staple within the United States and beyond.
Soaring all the way to the land of Oz, Wicked is just the next step in Universal’s musical journey. As we look back at the history of Universal Pictures movie musicals, we revisit the films that got us to where we are today.
Show Boat (1936)
Show Boat is a romance directed by James Whale. It is based on the 1927 stage musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, itself adapted from Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel of the same title.
Universal Pictures had previously released a different version of Show Boat in 1929 which had minimal sound. However Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal, sought to produce a fully musical film inspired the successful broadway show. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance, and began a long legacy of Universal Pictures musicals.
Flower Drum Song (1961)
Flower Drum Song is a 1961 film directed by Henry Koster, adapted from the 1958 Broadway musical by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical was based on the 1957 novel by Chinese American author C.Y. Lee.
Starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki, Jack Soo, Benson Fong, and Juanita Hall, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards and holds historical significance as the first major Hollywood film to feature a predominantly Asian-American cast in a contemporary Asian-American story. In 2008, it joined Show Boat and was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1973 American musical drama film directed by Norman Jewison, and co-written by Jewison and Melvyn Bragg, based on the concept album and stage musical written by Tim Rice and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The film, which stars Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen, tells historic religous stories in an epic and modernized fashion. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it “a bright and sometimes breathtaking retelling” of the source material.
The show returned to NBCUniversal in 2018, when on Easter Sunday, NBC aired Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, a live concert version of the show featuring John Legend as Jesus, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas, Alice Cooper as King Herod, Norm Lewis as Caiaphas, Ben Daniels as Pilate, Jin Ha as Annas, Erik Grönwall as Simon Zealotes and Jason Tam as Peter.
The Wiz (1978)
Before there was Wicked, there was a different musical film that took us down the yellow brick road. Based on the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, The Wiz reinterprets L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with a Black cast.
In this version, Dorothy is a 24-year-old teacher from Harlem who is magically transported to the urban fantasy realm of Oz. As she searches for help from the enigmatic Wiz, she befriends a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion. The film was shot in Queens, New York, with a star-filled cast featuring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson (in his feature film debut), Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor.
In December of 2015, NBC produced television special The Wiz Live!, starring Shanice Williams as Dorothy Gale, Elijah Kelley as the Scarecrow, Ne-Yo as the Tin-Man, David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion, Mary J. Blige as Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, Queen Latifah as the Wiz, Amber Riley as Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North, Uzo Aduba as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, Stephanie Mills as Auntie Em and Common as The Gatekeeper.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Starring The Blues Brothers, characters originally created for the recurring musical sketch on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, the 1980 American musical action-comedy film was directed by John Landis. The film stars John Belushi as “Joliet” Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother, Elwood, in and around Chicago, Illinois, where the film was also filmed, the screenplay was written by Aykroyd and Landis. The movie includes musical performances from artists like James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker, alongside non-musical roles played by Carrie Fisher and Henry Gibson.
The Blues Brothers became a cult classic of late-night cinema as an audience-participation show, and even spurred a musical sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) starring Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical comedy co-written and directed by Colin Higgins. The film was adapted from a 1978 Broadway musical of the same name, and stars Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton, Jim Nabors, Charles Durning and Dom DeLuise.
Inspired by a real ranch house located outside Austin, Texas, the house used in the film is located at Universal Studios Hollywood and is included as a part of the historic backlot tram tour.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Featuring songs by ABBA, Mamma Mia! was one of the first jukebox musicals from Universal Pictures. The comedy centers on a young bride-to-be who invites three men to her wedding, any one of whom might be her father. It was directed by Phyllida Lloyd and written by Catherine Johnson, adapted from the 1999 stage musical. The film stars Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, and Julie Walters.
An international co-production among Germany, the UK, and the US, the movie was primarily filmed on the Greek island of Skopelos. Mamma Mia!
A box office success, the film earned over $600 million worldwide and was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2008. A sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, was released on July 20, 2018, with much of the original cast returning.
Les Misérables (2012)
Based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo, and the stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Jean-Marc Natel, Les Misérables is an epic period musical directed by Tom Hooper. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen, with Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, and Daniel Huttlestone in supporting roles.
Unlike most movie musicals, director Tom Hooper chose to record the film’s vocals live on set with the orchestral accompaniment recorded in post-production, rather than the traditional method where the film’s musical soundtracks are usually pre-recorded and played back on set to which actors lip-sync.
I just felt ultimately, it was a more natural way of doing it. You know, when actors do dialogue, they have freedom in time, they have freedom in pacing. They can stop for a moment, they can speed up. I simply wanted to give the actors the normal freedoms that they would have. If they need a bit for an emotion or a feeling to form in the eyes before they sing, I can take that time. If they cry, they can cry through a song. When you’re doing it to playback, to the millisecond you have to copy what you do. You have no freedom in the moment – and acting is the illusion of being free in the moment.
— Director Tom Hooper
Dear Evan Hansen (2021)
Dear Evan Hansen is a coming-of-age story based on the 2015 stage musical of the same name by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Ben Platt reprised the titular role which he originated on Broadway six years earlier. The cast also includes Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, Colton Ryan, Danny Pino, Julianne Moore, and Amy Adams.
To promote the film, Platt performed “You Will Be Found” on NBC’s America’s Got Talent and “Waving Through a Window” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Wicked (2024)
Nearly 100 years after Show Boat, the musical genre is thriving at Universal Pictures, with arguably its most ambitious musical to date, Wicked. The untold story of the witches of Oz, the epic fantasy film stars Emmy, Grammy and Tony winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart. Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode (in her feature film debut), Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, and Peter Dinklage also star in supporting roles.
(Source: NBCUniversal)
