"Hamilton" - A Triumphant Second Wave

Disney’s streaming release of the mega hit musical “Hamilton” has solved one of the great cinematic conundrums of the past 60 years. How do you take a beloved and successful Broadway musical and repackage it into a movie that is faithful to the original material?

Here are the biggest potholes that block the success of almost every stage-to-screen attempt.

Lip-syncing: All movie musicals (except for “Les Miz”) have the actors lip sync the lyrics that they (or someone else) recorded in studios months before.  It never sounds believable.

Wrong actors: Since Hollywood craves that big, big hit, producers often hire famous movie stars to play the leads. Often these stars don’t sing well or dance. One reason musicals are so electrifying is that the skills these Broadway actors/singers/dancers display live on the stage is nothing less than jaw dropping. Movie stars can’t come close.