In an interview published late last week, renowned musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber told the Daily Mail that a film adaptation of Cats could soon be coming to the big screen. “I haven’t seen the [Les Mis] film, but it’s fantastic for musicals because everybody wants to make them again,” the Lord ALW said. “Universal has now got Cats out of the drawer in which they locked it years ago when they bought the rights, and suddenly they’re talking about a film.”
So the good news is that studios want to make musicals again. The bad news is that Cats is the musical that they want to make. Of course, they’re also making an oddly cast film version of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods and who could forget the highly-anticipated (for hate-watching) televised version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood? YOU COULDN’T FORGET IT EVEN IF YOU WANTED TO.
That said, there are a lot of incredible musicals that have successfully made the jump from stage to screen. Some incredible musicals even started as movies. With that in mind, we here at Jezebel have decided to count down the best movie musicals of all time. This list is inarguable, definitive and completely objective.
(For the sake of brevity, we decided that animated films and jukebox musicals would not qualify. I know, I’m sad about leaving off Purple Rain, too.)
20. Camp
(I know that Camp is a bit of a jukebox musical, but there are some original songs. Besides, who can argue with baby Anna Kendrick?)19. The Muppets
18. Moulin Rouge 17. The Music Man 16. Oliver! 15. Fame 14. Guys and Dolls