Musical Folie a Deux? by Jeff Smith

What do you think of when the name The Joker is mentioned? I bet it’s Batman’s most iconic villain, who has been his nemesis ever since his first appearance in Batman #1 in 1940. If you said “A Broadway song and dance number with a famous popstar”, I’d question your associative thinking. But, you’d be absolutely correct. This is what Warner Brothers gave us as a sequel to its 2019 hit, Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix. 

***SPOILERS BELOW***

Joker: Folie a Deux, which translates to “crazy for two” is a continuation of events from the first movie. It’s still a dark, gritty portrayal of Arthur Fleck, a twisted character who had a poor start in life and developed the Joker personality as his coping mechanism. The film starts with Fleck awaiting trial for the murders he committed in the first movie and continues through the events and results of the trial. He’s now joined by Harley Quinn, played by Lady Gaga, who‘s fascinated with the Joker persona. She tries to help Fleck escape prison by starting a fire, and a relationship develops. All the while their thoughts and feelings manifest themselves through song and dance. 

The movie treats you (more like force-feeds you) 15 musical numbers -- mostly covers-- with one original piece. They range from popular songs like “Once in my Life – Stevie Wonder”,“Close to you - The Carpenters”, “To Love Somebody - The Bee Gees” to Broadway tunes like “That’s Entertainment - The Band Wagon (1953)” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now” from the musical Sweet Charity (1966). The only original song is the eponymous “Folie A Deux.” All musical numbers showcase the musical talents of Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix. Who knew he could sing… and dance? The only exceptions: the opening songs played during the cartoon, sung by Nick Cave; and a rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In” performed by the other inmates of Arkham Asylum. The most notable number is Gaga and Phoenix’s duet of “Gonna Build Me a Mountain” from the musical “Stop the World I Want to Get Off" (1961). 

But why did they ever make this movie into a musical? The original had no musical numbers. And the character of the Joker doesn’t come off as a singer. Why would the director, Todd Philips, think this’d ever work? Why did Warner Brothers even approve such a project? It’s such a deviation of what the Joker (both the movie and the character) represent, that’s it's hard to even imagine how this story could come together.

Movie musicals have been a part of cinema since the first “talky” films with sound and dialogue. The very first talky was, in fact, a musical -- “The Jazz Singer" (1927) -- which was made nearly a century ago. The golden age of musicals spans between the 1930s through to the 1960s and ending in the 70s. It spawned classics such as “Singing in the Rain" (1952), “The Sound of Music" (1965), “The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and too many others to count. It was hard to go a week without a new musical hitting the screen. 

The classic hit musical usually has a formula that includes three things: 1) an uplifting story, 2) a big name performer(s) and, most importantly, 3) a hit song. Stories varied greatly; ranging from "cowboys courting women," to "a night out on the town," to "Arthurian legend." Pretty much anything was possible. But the most popular tended to have a big musical number that left viewers uplifted and inspired. Performers, back in the day, were trained and groomed with the musical in mind. Stars like Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Julie Andrews went through rigorous training. They had to sing, dance, look the part, and act. Actors could get away with doing three of the four. But pulling off all four actually made you a household name! The hit song was the most important thing. Not just a catchy ditty, but a hit that sold records outside the theater. Hits back then were “You’re the One That I Want” – Grease (1978), “Singin’ in The Rain” – Singin’ in the Rain (1953) and “White Christmas” – White Christmas (1954).  These were songs people would hum on their way to work; songs that would bring people to the movies; songs that would make studios money. 

The attitude towards modern movies has changed. Upbeat positive “feel good” movies lost favor in the 80s. Darker, more-grounded stories with protagonists showcasing moral ambiguity have become more popular. The happy musical just doesn’t fit into modern cinema very well. The genre took on darker themes: "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986), a story about a man eating plant, and "Sweeney Todd" (2007), a story about serial-killing and cannibalism. The more positive musicals were relegated to movies geared toward kids and not always taken seriously. Let’s face it, a musical is a type of fantasy. Rarely (if ever) do people break out into song in real life. I’ve never seen anyone in my engineering office start dancing with supervisors and managers to sing about how efficient they made the new dishwasher line. That literally never happens. 

Studios now see musicals as a risk, and they take certain precautions to make movies more acceptable to the modern audience. The most common strategy is to take a proven Broadway musical and bring it to the big screen. This was done during the golden age and is still a good way to mitigate risk today.  Broadway shows already have a built-in audience and may feature a well-known hit song. "Les Miserables" (2012), "Hamilton" (2020), and "Phantom of the Opera" (2004) all started on Broadway. This, however, may not always produce a sure-fire hit. "Dear Evan Hanson" (2024) and "Cats" (2019) were popular on stage, but failed miserably at the box office. 

The juke box musical is another strategy employed by movie studios. These are musicals that take pop songs and insert them into stories, hoping the popularity of the song brings people into the theater. "Moulin Rouge" (2001); "Jersey Boys" (2014) about the music of the Four Seasons; and, if you're a fan of ABBA, there’s "Mamma Mia" (2008) and "Mamma Mia Here We Go Again" (2018.) Technically you could lump musical docu-dramas like "Ray" (2004), "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018), and "Walk the Line" (2004) into this category as well.

Studios might not even market movies as musicals at all. It's too risky to let people know what they’ll be seeing up-front. "Mean Girls" (2024) and "Wonka" (2023) gave no inkling they were going to be musicals. Directors might sneak a musical number into one of their scenes. "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984) started with a musical number from “Anything Goes." George Lucus put a lot of effort in "Return of the Jedi (special edition)" (1997) to include an alien musical number during Jabba the Hutt’s palace scene. And Mel Brooks included a hilarious, extravagant number about the inquisition in "History of the World, Part 1" (1981). These couldn’t resist including a musical scene, even if it was sorely out of place.

Producers and directors love musicals despite the current movie trend. In the movies "La La Land" (2016) and "The Greatest Showman" (2017), they went all in, trying to recapture the feel of the musicals of the golden age. “Go Big or Go Home” was the attitude and both were met with great success.

So where does the Joker sequel fall into all this? 

Warner Brother obviously knew the risk. The movie wasn’t marketed as a musical. Almost all the songs were covers. Like the first movie, the story is dark and unsettling. It could have been a good fit for the time. But what Warner Brothers failed to do was recognize their core audience. Fans of the first movie were Batman fans or comic book enthusiasts, and not inclined to watch musicals. They probably felt betrayed seeing their favorite characters sing and dance. 

At the same time those who love musicals probably didn’t go see the original Joker film, so it’s unlikely they’d show up to see its sequel.

Who was this movie for? My guess? It was for fans of Lady Gaga. She has a bizarre flair and an eccentric stage persona. Remember her meat dress? She released the album “Harlequin” to coincide with the movie’s release. Quite frankly, she’s not quirky and dark enough to play Harley Quinn. 

After two weeks, the movie only grossed $51.1 million domestically and $165 million globally. Joker didn’t need a sequel. It stood alone well enough. The filmmakers should’ve just used the formula they knew worked, instead of trying a weird esoteric musical that was a jarring departure from the original film.

Warner Brothers did a cash grab; Joker: Folie a Deux is just plain folly.