More than six years ago, Meryl Streep headed the cast of Mamma Mia! The Movie, which became the world’s highest-grossing musical of all time.
Now the three-time Oscar-winning actress will head the cast of another, Into the Woods, already breaking records in the US set by Mamma Mia! ahead of its UK release this week.
Its director, Rob Marshall, told the Guardian that the box office figures are all the more thrilling because “it’s not just … spoon-fed”. He calls it challenging, as musicals by the legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim “ask a lot of their audience”.
Inspired by the 1987 landmark stage musical by Sondheim and James Lapine, Into the Woods earned $31m (£20m) during its first weekend, breaking the early records of Mamma Mia! and Les Misérables.
With a modern take on some of the most-loved fairytales, including Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, it tells an original story about a baker and his wife – played by James Corden and Emily Blunt – who must rid themselves of a curse placed on them by a witch, Streep’s character, ensuring they would never have a child. The cast also includes Simon Russell Beale and Johnny Depp.
Marshall said: “It has a lot to say about … the parent-child relationship, about the consequences of wishes, about the sense we’re not alone in this world.” He calls it “a very relevant piece for today’s world”. It also explores greed, ambition and love.
The director’s films include Chicago, a musical that won six Oscars including the Best Picture category. He also made Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, which made more than $1bn at the worldwide box office, making it one of the highest-grossing films in history.
Marshall said the musical’s success reflected the fact that in difficult times, audiences need a little escapism from austerity. Musicals offer that, he said: “I certainly go to any film to escape into another world … Music is … connected deeply to the soul. To be able to experience that in a movie theatre, especially with others, is very special.”
The film’s producer, Marc Platt, told the Guardian: “Any musical is some form of escapism because we don’t live in a world where people sing at each other. This particular story has something for everyone. It has the fun and wit of fairytales, and certain aspirational qualities like Cinderella getting the prince initially. But [it also takes] a left turn into a darker corner, which is very reflective of the world we live in.”
Marshall also spoke of the golden age of musicals – the 1940s and 1950s – when audiences flocked to cinemas during the war and its aftermath: “People needed that kind of escape. But also, it’s a genre that lifts you in a way that no other genre can.”
Just as Marshall initially struggled to make Chicago – told repeatedly that it was “not a genre that people were interested in” – it also took time to get Into the Woods off the ground.
Yet, Platt said, Chicago’s “astounding success reinvented the musical” as a commercial movie genre, creating an appetite for films like Mamma Mia! but also commercially successful. He hopes that the latest success will inspire future films: “Success begets success. There are definitely musical films in the pipeline.”
They include an adaptation of Platt’s hit, Wicked, one of the most successful musicals on Broadway and the West End. It will be made by Universal Studios and a script is now being prepared.
In other signs of musicals’ transition to film, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is also working on a film of his stage classic Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Sir Elton John’s company, Rocket Pictures.
Screen musicals are not necessarily expensive, Platt said. “Into the Woods was made on a modest budget. Everybody cut their normal fees to make the movie because we all loved it so much.”
Meanwhile, Marshall wants to create his next musical for the cinema, rather than as an adaptation from theatre: “Some of the greatest musicals – like Singing in the Rain, Gigi and Meet me in St Louis – were written directly for film … a different genre.”
He also paid tribute to Corden, the Gavin & Stacey star just hired to host The Late Late Show in America: “A great comedian, a great actor,” Marshall said. “He has that warmth and that vulnerability. I love that American audiences are embracing him.”
