Cinematic musicals have had a rough time in recent years. The genre was almost killed off in one fell swoop by Cats back in 2019, but thankfully it has been saved by the likes of Encanto and last year’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Now, one of the biggest hits on the West End stage has…
Tag: musical
Sing 2
Director: Garth Jennings Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Edgerton, Tori Kelly, Jennifer Saunders, Bobby Cannavale, Bono, Letitia Wright Written by: Garth Jennings Running Time: 113 mins Cert: U Release date: 28th January 2022 Some say that bigger is better. That isn’t strictly the case with Sing 2, the sequel to the hugely successful…
West Side Story
Director: Steven Spielberg Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Rita Moreno, Brian d’Arcy James, Corey Stoll, Mike Faist Written by: Tony Kushner, (based on the Broadway musical) (book) Arthur Laurents, (music) Leonard Bernstein, (lyrics) Stephen Sondheim Running Time: 156 mins Cert: 12A Release date: 10th December 2021 The 1961 screen version of…
Encanto
Directors: Byron Howard, Jared Bush and (co-director) Charise Castro Smith Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow Written by: (also story) Jared Bush, Charise Castro Smith, (story) Byron Howard, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Running Time: 102 mins Cert: PG Release date: 24th November 2021 The 60th animated…
Dear Evan Hansen
Director: Stephen Chbosky Starring: Ben Platt, Amy Adams, Kaitlyn Dever, Julianne Moore, Danny Pino, Amandla Stenberg Written by: Steven Levenson, (also based on the musical stage play with music and lyrics) Justin Paul and Benj Pasek Running Time: 137 mins Cert: 12A Release date: 22nd October 2021 It has won Tony Awards and Grammy awards;…
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Director: Jonathan Butterell Starring: Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Richard E. Grant, Shobna Gulati, Sharon Horgan Written by: Tom MacRae, (based on the stage musical) Jonathan Butterell and Dan Gillespie Sells Running time: 117 mins Cert: 12 Release date 17th September 2021 There seems to be a cinematic musical resurgence. Already this year, we…
Cats
Director: Tom Hooper Starring: Francesca Hayward, James Cordon, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Ray Winstone, Robbie Fairchild, Laurie Davidson Written by Lee Hall, Tom Hooper, (poetry collection “Old Possum’s Books of Practical Cats”) T.S. Eliot and (based on the musical) Andrew Lloyd Webber Running Time: 110…
Frozen II
Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Starring: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, Sterling K.Brown, Evan Rachel Wood, Alfred Molina, Martha Plimpton, Jason Ritter, Rachel Matthews Written by (also story) Jennifer Lee, (story) Chris Buck, Marc Smith, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez Running Time: 104 mins Cert: U Release date: 22nd November 2019…
Western Stars
Directors: Bruce Springsteen and Thom Zimmy Starring: Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa Running Time: 83 mins Cert: PG Release date: 28th October 2019 It is rumoured that Bruce Springsteen, on seeing the film that used his songs, Blinded By The Light, that The Boss decided to direct his own film. Alongside longtime director Thom Zimmy, we…
Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher Starring: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones, Stephen Graham, Steven Mackintosh, Tom Bennett, Tate Donovan Written by: Lee Hall Running Time: 121 mins Cert: 15 Release date: 22nd May 2019 Coming off the tailcoats of Bohemian Rhapsody, a film that didn’t work for me, now comes Rocketman,…
Aladdin
Director: Guy Ritchie Starring: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Megahban, Nasim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen Written by: John August and Guy Ritchie Running Time: 128 mins Cert: PG Release date: 22nd May 2019 Hot on the tailcoats of Tim Burton’s re-imagination of Disney’s Dumbo, now comes another animated movie that has been…
Mary Poppins Returns
Director: Rob Marshall Starring: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, Joel Dawson Written by: (also screen story) David Magee, (screen story) Rob Marshall, John DeLuca and (based upon the “Mary Poppins” stories) P.L. Travers Running Time: 130 mins Cert: U Release date: 21st…
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