Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 15, 1992 TAG: 9201150358
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FAMILY PIX ARE BOFFO BOX OFFICE
THE BIGGEST movie hits over the Christmas holidays were not what some might have expected. The largest grossers were family-oriented pictures such as "Hook," about a grown-up Peter Pan; "Beauty and the Beast," an animated Disney picture (yes, Disney, an organization teen-agers avoided like good food in the '80s); and "Father of the Bride," a remake of the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor classic.This was more than happenstance. There is a message here for the entertainment industry.
Film producer Lili Fini Zanuck, who did the delightful Academy Award winner "Driving Miss Daisy" and whose film "Rush" (about undercover narcotics agents) is performing far less well this season, says, "The real family-oriented pictures are doing incredible business, but the adult films, `Bugsy' and `J.F.K.,' are not doing that kind of business."
The message is that filth and ultraliberal political lessons masquerading as entertainment may have run their course. Especially during tough economic times, fewer patrons seem willing to spend $6 or $7 for a movie ticket, or as much as $60 for a Broadway show, and be subjected to cursing, nudity, sex, gratuitous violence and political indoctrination. They want to escape their circumstances for a while. They want to be entertained.
There is a similar viewer response to television as ratings decline in inverse proportion to the increased amount of sleaze.
Mark Canton, who heads Columbia Pictures, admits that onereason for the downturn in moviegoing is that "maybe there just weren't enough good movies to attract people."
Ted Baehr, who reviews movies for his publication "Movieguide," confirms this view. But Baehr says the times may be changing. He notes that Hollywood produced more G-rated pictures last year than in recent years. He reports that R-rated movies are doing poorly as a percentage of the total movie market, and that while R and PG-13 films currently make up 70 percent of the films produced, they don't make up 70 percent of the top 25 grossing pictures. Proportionately, says Baehr, PG and G movies do better.
Entertainment can play a role in lifting a nation's spirits, as it has done previously in wartime. Wholesome entertainment can inspire us to believe we can succeed in life in spite of any odds arrayed against us. At the end of the 1970s, the incredibly optimistic Broadway musical "Annie" signaled an end to the doldrums of that decade and promised "the sun will come out tomorrow," giving us permission to fulfill our dreams in the '80s.
A musical I saw recently in a pre-Broadway tryout in Washington may be to the '90s what "Annie" was to the '80s. It's called "Crazy for You," and a better musical hasn't come along in a very long time.
Drawing on the compositions of George and Ira Gershwin, the show is wonderfully funny and infectious. Jodi Benson, the female lead who is desperate to save her father's rundown theater way out West, makes you fall in love with love and with her. Co-star Harry Groener's singing, acting and dancing recalls the classical era of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. As my 19-year-old son exclaimed, "It makes you forget everything else," which good entertainment ought to do.
It's as corny as Kansas in August, and it makes you feel as high as a kite on the Fourth of July.
Ronn Carroll, who has a supporting role in "Crazy for You," believes "the time is right for a show like this. The economy is bad and people want to be entertained and enjoy themselves. They don't want to be depressed, scared or appalled. They want to see something that's uplifting."
The entertainment industry is a business and must make money in order to survive. But for too long it has immersed itself in politics and the sewer, and bad box office is beginning to prove it. It's time to get back to making us feel good about ourselves and leaving theaters with songs in our hearts, not sludge in our minds.
"Crazy for You" is another step in the right direction. I can't wait to see it again. I think I'll wait until I start to feel depressed, along about the middle of the presidential campaign. Los Angeles Times Syndicate