Make This Movie: A Musical, Any Musical, Directed By Greta Gerwig

This weekend will see either Greta Gerwig or Christopher Nolan take home the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film award from the Directors Guild of America. The outcome, admittedly, won’t make that much of a difference as to determining the frontrunner for the Best Director Academy Award since Gerwig didn’t make the cut with AMPAS, but a surprise win for her here from the DGA could be seen as a welcome consolation to one of the two women most responsible for Barbie’s artistic identity (the other, of course, being Margot Robbie, who was nominated as one of the producers of the Best Picture-nominated smash hit but missed out in Best Lead Actress).

Her unexpected absence from this category, thankfully, will not hinder her opportunities since her movie is still nominated for multiple Academy Awards and was a cultural phenomenon. It can be interesting seeing what directors do after achieving an enormous amount of industry goodwill, including the ones who don’t end up winning an Oscar in recognition. Oftentimes they do what I expect them to do: leverage that goodwill into funding an expensive, risky passion project they’ve been nursing for years. That’s how Darren Aronofsky was finally able to get Noah produced and how Alfonso Cuarón was able to secure $15 million to make Roma. Sometimes they lay low and don’t put out a subsequent feature film for a long time like James Cameron after winning for Titanic or Bennett Miller after receiving his second nomination for Foxcatcher.

And other times, they decide, as Ron Howard did after stealing David Lynch’s Oscar and Denis Villeneuve went for after receiving his first Best Director nomination for Arrival, to use this opportunity to direct big-budget franchise blockbusters. It appears that Gerwig has opted for this post-awards trajectory, signing on to direct at least two installments of a rebooted Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix. Which… I mean, good for her, I guess. It’s her career. She can take it in whatever direction she wants. There’s certainly nothing wrong with wanting to direct on a bigger canvas after helming the most successful theatrical feature of the post-pandemic era.

But helping a streaming service hit the “Reset” button on Narnia just seems so… beneath her, to me at least. In the same way that I’m still heartbroken over Barry Jenkins wasting his talents on Mufasa: The Lion King. Especially since “remake of a dated fantasy epic” was not the thing I was hoping she’d tackle after watching this scene from Barbie, probably my favorite in the entire movie:

Doesn’t that one scene alone suggest that Gerwig has it in her to make a killer movie musical? The bar for good musical filmmaking is so tragically, pathetically low that she could very easily direct something that mops the floor with every musical not directed by John Carney from the last fifteen years at least. And they could still be big-budget movies, too! Imagine an epic-sized adaptation of Hadestown. That’s a smash hit musical, right? Potential for big crossover appeal from Broadway to Hollywood? Hey, if you’re a producer trying to get an adaptation of that off the ground, maybe give her a call and an offer? Just a thought?

Maybe that’s a bit too intimidating. Maybe Gerwig isn’t interested in helming something with really high expectations attached. That’s fair. So why not consider adapting a musical with less pop culture “baggage” like, say, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812? That was a criminally underrated musical that deserved a longer run and certainly deserved the Tony Award for Best Musical over Dear Evan Hansen. Sure, its lack of sustained success on Broadway may make most potential financers nervous… unless someone with the track record of Greta Gerwig throws her bonafides behind it. If anyone could make it happen, it’s her.

Or perhaps she’d be tired of directing blockbuster-sized projects after two knocking out two Jesus Lion movies and would prefer to go smaller for a follow-up, like an adaptation of & Juliet. That would even fit in more snugly with her filmography since that version of Juliet Capulet has a lot more in common with Christine McPherson, Jo Marsh, and Barbie than any character William Shakespeare wrote. It’s also more overtly comedic, if she was looking for something else in line with her $1.5 billion-grossing hit.

Look, boiled down to its essence, I just want to see more musicals directed by filmmakers like Gerwig who actually seem to care about directing them well. Just look at what we’ve had to settle for, recently: The Color Purple couldn’t even film its black cast properly, bathing them in brassy color-tinged lighting that flattened their expressions and turned a story requiring a certain level of grace in adapting it into the most gaudy affair that committed the cardinal sin of feeling like it would have been immensely improved if it excised all of its musical numbers. Wonka was also hobbled by a garish and cheap-looking visual aesthetic with no consistent unifying sense of setting, while suffering additional issues of too many plot points bouncing around its main character without ever seeming to go anywhere narratively interesting. How nice would it be if Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks didn’t have to fight against the limitations of their movies to deliver excellent performances? Wouldn’t it be a relief for a musical director to not just passively tolerate a miserable-looking Hugh Grant phoning it in? There was a time when movie musicals were the Big Leagues of Hollywood; the Grownups Table of the movie business.

So, in closing: Greta Gerwig, who is definitely reading this article right now, have fun and get paid massive sums of money for those Narnia movies. I hope the gig is everything you dreamed of and more. But after that gig, if you are not entirely sure what you want to direct next, please consider a musical. That genre is in desperate need of more competent directors who actually understand how to stage good dance choreography and memorable song numbers. You saved an entire movie studio from bankruptcy last year; saving a still-desired genre of film that has had a rough go of it these last few decades is well within the realm of your abilities. And I am pretty sure you would have a blast doing it as well.

Just something to think about. Good luck at DGA tomorrow!