by Heather Bellingham

Created on: August 12, 2010   Last Updated: August 13, 2010

It’s recently dawned on me that over 60% of my DVDs are films that have musical numbers. Some are full-on musicals, and some just have one or two points where we take a break from the story for a good old song-and-dance routine. Initially, this frightened me. As a film geek, I make vain attempts to make it appear that I have good taste in movies. Musicals, in the general consensus, are cheesy and uncool. They’re completely ridiculous – in reality, people do not stop at key points in their life to belt out a tune.

This has led me to wonder why I seem to be drawn to the musical number. Why does my DVD collection include so much singing and dancing? Has my theatre background had that much of an effect on me? Did five years of high school performing arts classes really drill musicals into my skull? Was it just how I was brought up?

It may simply be my love of the over-dramatic. I tend to be drawn to highly stylized films, and what could be more highly stylized than musicals? It’s all about the suspension of belief and escapism. In fact, it may be the ultimate suspension of belief. Movies in general try to bring the audience into their world. Most dramatic pieces tend to do this more subtly, using characters and situations that the audience can relate to, and by creating situations as realistically as possible so that the audience may believe. Musicals, on the other hand, slap you with a fish and flat out tell you to suspend your belief. They wave big flags and scream: “we’d like to inform you that this isn’t real”. But isn’t that what movies are all about? Most films aren’t real, and musicals merely tell you to sit back, forget your troubles, and enjoy the show. No reality required. 

Initially, we all see musicals as a child. In these films, the musical numbers are just a device to keep a child’s interest due to their short attention spans. But tell me, who can’t at least hum the tune to “Under The Sea” (The Little Mermaid) or “Hakuna Matata” (The Lion King)? Most of the older Disney cartoons are a unifying force among my peers – no matter what you’re dressed like or how popular or not you are, you can all come together and sing “Be Our Guest” (Beauty and the Beast). Some are timeless – almost anyone, of any generation, can sing “If I Only Had A Brain” (The Wizard of Oz) or “Summer Nights” (Grease). Songs like

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