Changing the Game for Movie Musicals
Before Chicago came out, there was a lot of doubt about whether movie musicals had any kind of future. Attitudes were changing at the time, and musicals, which had been so popular from the 1950s right through to the 1980s, had slowly faded away. However, it’s fair to say that Chicago completely subverted expectations and changed the game for the movie musical.
Photo by Miramax / Producers Circle / Storyline / Kobal / Shutterstock
Along with other big musical releases like Moulin Rouge!, Chicago helped to usher in a whole new age for the musical genre. In the years that followed, many other Broadway and West End musicals were given film adaptations, with examples like Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Mamma Mia!, Nine, and Les Miserables.