Everyone knows how the social contract works in movie theatres. You don’t film the screen with your phone, you don’t talk too loudly and for god’s sake, you don’t sing along with the people on-screen.
When Wicked opened across megaplexes North America last month, social media users were already tensing up over the possibility of seatmates bursting into song alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba or Ariana Grande’s Galinda.
One especially entitled fan suggested those of us who prefer less audience participation should wait for the film to stream online. (Erivo didn’t go quite as far, but did tell Hoda Kotb in a Thanksgiving Day broadcast that she was fine with audiences singing along in the auditorium.)
On social media, some moviegoers have shared videos of themselves singing in the theatre — much to the dismay of other fans online.
The will of the people will not be denied — and neither will the chance to sell tickets to repeat attendees. As of Christmas Day, Universal Pictures is launching official sing-along screenings of Wicked.
Theatre kids dying to trill the high notes in Popular or belt out Defying Gravity can sing their hearts out, knowing that everyone else in the theatre is OK with it. (You know who you are.)
Sing-along events for movie musicals, where the lyrics appear on-screen karaoke style, are relatively common these days since they’re a great way to get audiences together to celebrate a beloved film. The sing-along version of The Sound of Music just played at TIFF Lightbox last week, hosted by Toronto comedian Martha Chaves. But it’s very rare to see a film given the sing-along treatment while it’s still in its first-run.
“Wicked is such a hit and I love it so much,” said author and Revue Cinema Dumpster Raccoon host Anthony Oliveira.
Oliveira previously staged a full-on Jellicle Ball for Tom Hooper’s disastrous screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats at the Roncesvalles rep house in January 2020, mere weeks after the film opened — and bombed — in theatres.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that every drag queen now has a Wicked number; it [offers] that over-the-top expression of emotion that’s just endemic to the musical genre,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of people that want to perform to it.”
Oliveira is happy to see the Wicked sing-along screenings happening — he’s planning his own Dumpster Raccoon screening in advance of Wicked: Make Good next fall.
In-theatre sing-along event attendees, he said, should be cautious that these things tend to benefit from having a host.
“You need a ringleader for a sense of coziness and community,” Oliveira said. “Rep cinemas, local neighbourhood cinemas, are good at it. That’s why I have performers before my screenings; it’s a way for people to feel like they’re actually participants in this.”
Oliverira said successful sing-along screenings are difficult to replicate without a host to keep things on track and keep the energy up.
“It’s a cold, cold bathtub to get into, [and] part of my job is to sort of get everybody up to temperature,” he said of hosting sing-alongs.
Cineplex is currently selling tickets for the sing-along screenings on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but don’t expect the run to be that limited.
“We are still confirming showtimes and participating theatre locations across the country,” Cineplex Vice-President of Communications Michelle Saba told Toronto Today.
Saba said the sing-along version will screen in conventional auditoriums only, not in IMAX and AVX where audience members can still be shushed.
As far as the actual sing-along shows go, Saba said “there are no guidelines — we encourage our guests to enjoy the interactive experience!”
That’s what Oliveira loves most about his screenings too, the sense of people assembling for an experience they just can’t have at home.
“It’s the Norma Desmond thing,” he said, referencing Gloria Swanson’s faded movie star in Sunset Boulevard, which of course, also became a big Broadway musical. “There’s a kind of energy in a theatre that can’t be replicated at home, that is more than just the size of the screen. It’s the sense that you’re feeling something and someone you don’t know is also feeling it with you.”
And theatre kids are known to feel things very hard.
“They want a sense of being seen,” Oliveira said. “Or being heard. It’s why we go to karaoke. No one’s doing it because they’re great at it! They’re doing it because it’s a chance to be part of what is making that magic.”
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Norman Wilner has written about entertainment and culture since 1988, most recently as the senior film writer for NOW Magazine. He currently hosts and produces the Someone Else's Movie podcast and publishes the Shiny Things newsletter.
