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May 22, 2023·edited May 22, 2023

Just watched CHICAGO for the first time recently (mostly because of SCHMIGADOON!) and yeesh, he just does not know how to direct a musical number in an interesting way. It's crazy that they keep letting him make them.

Contrast any sequence from CHICAGO to any sequence from Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY or even IN THE HEIGHTS and it's just not even in the same ballpark, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Marshall's direction is frenetic but to no purpose, none of the angles he cuts between are visually interesting or poetic or even give you a sense of the space, but just seem like watching a stage-bound play from different parts of the house.

Marshall's musicals basically feel like the filmed HAMILTON play on Disney+, or any random PBS "Great Performances" episode, if they were edited really ineptly.

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