San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
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Strange times call for strange musicals.
While some theater companies are completely canceling their 2020 seasons, there are still plenty of ways to enjoy musicals. In July, Disney Plus will release a film of the original production of “Hamilton,” and the streaming service BroadwayHD offers hundreds of live theater productions with its monthly subscription.
There’s still a lot out there, but what about shows that are very, very out there? I’m not talking about “Little Shop of Horrors.” I mean the work of singing lunatics on camera, usually limited to smaller screenings.
In these unsettling times, let’s get strange with cult musicals.
“Stingray Sam” / “The American Astronaut”: No one makes bizarre space musicals like Cory McAbee. These two films follow the future’s bluecollar astronauts on nonsensical quests through various space stations, planets and asteroids. From a boy king who leads miners in singalongs before retelling his tale of a breast sighting to a set of interstellar mutants who startravel in a wooden barn, everything about these movies is unbelievable. McAbee’s talent for catchy music carries them through, and he’s an underrated songwriter for trying things others won’t.
Watch it: Available to rent on various services, including Amazon Video.
“Shock Treatment”: The semisequel to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has only gotten more relevant as the years have passed. This time, protagonists Brad and Janet (now married) live in Denton, a town that is entirely set in a television studio. There, they have to navigate a maze of quack characteractor doctors, unscrupulous sponsors and game shows to find their way back to each other. Amazingly prescient when it comes to reality television and 24hour programming, it sometimes feels like “Shock Treatment” was the pitch for our current American state headed by a former television star. Also, Richard O’Brien’s songs here are better than the ones in “Rocky,” and I’ll happily fight you over it.
Watch it: Available on DVD and Bluray.
“Hamlet 2”: Technically, this is a movie about a musical rather than a musical itself, though it does have two original numbers, including “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.” A terrible high school drama teacher who is suddenly saddled with a group of completely uninterested STEM students decides to fulfill his dream by using them to launch a sequel to the greatest play of all time. Doesn’t everyone in “Hamlet” die? That’s where Jesus and his time traveling van come in. The musical angers the parents, and the ensuing backlash brings the cast closer together in the name of art. It’s a feelgood flick that will warm the heart of any outcast with a dream no one believes in. Watch it: Stream on Hulu.
“Repo! The Genetic Opera”: This film is amazing just for existing. In a future where organ failure is rampant, companies rent transplants to patients who must pay up unless they want a visit from the Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head). The cast is the strangest group ever assembled for any purpose, including goth rocker Nivek Ogre, Broadway icon Sarah Brightman, “Goodfellas” actor
Paul Sorvino and Paris Hilton, who allegedly had the script smuggled to her in jail to prepare. The blood flows and the melodrama reaches incredible heights throughout the film. It truly has to be seen to be believed.
Watch it: Stream on Tubi.
“Rock & Rule”: Before it was lauded for children’s programming, Canadian animation studio Nelvana tried its hands at a featurelength cartoon film for adults called “Rock & Rule.” Released in 1983, two years after the animated film “Heavy Metal,” it lacked the latter’s main draw (nudity) while still being too adult for a PG13 crowd. The result was that it utterly bombed.
Which is tragic because it is phenomenal. In the distant future, nuclear war has eliminated people, and the mutated descendants of our pet dogs, cats and rats have rebuilt society. A megalomaniacal rock star, Mok, is fed up with his slipping popularity and decides to raise a demon at a concert to shock fans into worshiping him as a god. To that end, he kidnaps Angel, the keyboardist and cosinger of a local band, leaving her boyfriend Omar and his rhythm section to save her.
The soundtrack features original songs from Cheap Trick, Blondie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s a perfect storm of early ‘80s animation meshing with some of the greatest names in pop and rock to create what ends up being an unforgettable adventure. It took years as a cult film for the movie to finally get the recognition it deserves, and for my money, it’s the best nonDisney animated musical ever made.
Plus, it shows that even if we don’t survive the apocalypse, maybe the music will. That’s comforting right now.