Stephen Schwartz: Last News

opened in the late 1920s, talking pictures were taking the nation by storm, most notably through 1927’s “The Jazz Singer,” the first musical movie. From the inception of talkies through the 1960s, the movie musical, often adapted from successful Broadway shows, was one of the most popular film genres.Although the genre began to wane in popularity from the 1970s through the 1990s, the one-two punch of screen original “Moulin Rouge!” (now a smash Broadway hit) and “Chicago” in the early 2000s brought about a resurgence in popularity for the musical film genre that remains to this day, with at least one major movie musical released annually.In the 21st century, the most anticipated movie musicals tend to be big-screen adaptations of Broadway hits—think 2007’s “Sweeney Todd” or 2012’s “Les Misérables”—which can often take years to develop.