Although this movie came out the year before the short lived Broadway transfer of Stephen King's horror classic, there seems to be a little wink at British theater audiences who got to see the disastrous show in London. Yes, movies had already given us "Springtime For Hitler", and we later had "Elephant!" and "Songbird" (based on "Sweet Bird of Youth") as parts of musical theater in the movies. So now there's a musical version of the story of the Greek gorgon Medusa, and we get cheesy choreography straight out of "Fame" (along with the disco score) that would be similar to the outlandish music and lyrics and dances of "Carrie", considered one of the most hideously bad flops on stage ever.
The talented and lovely Nadine van der Velde is an aspiring dancer trying to get a chorus part in this odd choice for musical theater (a Toronto production) and a mystery surrounding the Phantom like Christopher Plummer (dressed to look like Benjamin Franklin) puts a curse on the set as she becomes similar to Phantom's Christine. This was the same year that "Phantom" opened on Broadway, but at least the songs and choreography matched the theme and were not desperately out of place. But for some reason, van der Helde becomes far too obsessed with the rehearsals which seems to be tied into Plummer's past.
She gets far too into the character, eventually going out of her way to sabotage the leading lady.
The Gothic elements of the mystery thriller are obvious and the plot is straight forward, but individual plot devices are strange. Van der Helde begins to giggle eerily out of the blue and you start to wonder if the spirit of the fictional version of Medusa is taking over the production. There's a tough choreographer as well as the gruff but basically kind producer (both women) as well as fellow producer John Colicos, standing by as van der Helde out of the blue has a Helen Lawson moment, but unfortunately, there's nothing campy about that scene, so outside of the weird dance numbers, there's nothing fun to laugh at. Theater fans and artists will appreciate these aspects of the film, but others will be snapping their fingers, screaming at the film to pick up the pace.
The talented and lovely Nadine van der Velde is an aspiring dancer trying to get a chorus part in this odd choice for musical theater (a Toronto production) and a mystery surrounding the Phantom like Christopher Plummer (dressed to look like Benjamin Franklin) puts a curse on the set as she becomes similar to Phantom's Christine. This was the same year that "Phantom" opened on Broadway, but at least the songs and choreography matched the theme and were not desperately out of place. But for some reason, van der Helde becomes far too obsessed with the rehearsals which seems to be tied into Plummer's past.
She gets far too into the character, eventually going out of her way to sabotage the leading lady.
The Gothic elements of the mystery thriller are obvious and the plot is straight forward, but individual plot devices are strange. Van der Helde begins to giggle eerily out of the blue and you start to wonder if the spirit of the fictional version of Medusa is taking over the production. There's a tough choreographer as well as the gruff but basically kind producer (both women) as well as fellow producer John Colicos, standing by as van der Helde out of the blue has a Helen Lawson moment, but unfortunately, there's nothing campy about that scene, so outside of the weird dance numbers, there's nothing fun to laugh at. Theater fans and artists will appreciate these aspects of the film, but others will be snapping their fingers, screaming at the film to pick up the pace.