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https://theconversation.com/new-nz-tv-series-happiness-gives-us-an-engaging-musical-peak-behind-the-amateur-theatre-curtain-253025>
"The last few decades have seen many attempts to make musical TV shows.
Some of them applied the aesthetics of musicals (where people spontaneously
sing and dance) to the television form, such as the recent cult series
Schmigadoon! (2021–23) and the less successful medieval-set
Galavant
(2015–16).
Others have foregrounded music by being backstage musicals, or “backstagers”,
about the creation of musicals.
Glee (2009–15), about the American high
school show choir scene, was the most successful of these. It led to imitators
like
Smash (2013–14), about a Marilyn Monroe musical; 2018’s
Rise, a major
flop about a high school producing Spring Awakening; and, my favourite,
High
School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019–23), a meta-fictional take on
the Disney musical canon.
Backstagers have usually been more successful and also easier to produce than
true through-and-through musicals for television, as they place their stories
in settings that allow for the more or less “natural” presence of song and
dance as part of the shows being staged. This acts as a bridge for audience
members who might baulk at the singing and dancing fantasies inherent to the
musical genre.
With their new show
Happiness, Kip Chapman and Luke Di Somma have created a
welcome New Zealand answer to this style of musical TV show."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
