The official trailer for “Wonka” featured Hugh Grant's Oompa Loompas playing the famous song and flashes of dancing, including a shot of the chorus line stepping in high notes. A TV spot released in November features Chalamet's performance of “Pure Imagination.” Plus, 1971's “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” was itself full of songs, so the song-and-dance aspect of the first part shouldn't shock anyone.
And Warner's official “The Color Purple” promo featured a dance sequence and Barrino belting out “I'm Here” from the Tony Award-winning show. But no, the studio wasn't completely in control of the film's musical nature.
Why can't musicals be more clearly advertised as musicals? Do you think it's too niche? Too old? Are studios afraid of repeating past failures like “In the Heights,'' “Cats,'' and “Dear Evan Hansen''? Perhaps a little bit of all of the above?
The reason is more complicated than you might think. Broadway fans may criticize it, but each movie is different and needs to be marketed accordingly. Studio officials told the Times that early marketing priorities for “Wonka,” for example, were to emphasize the story and characters, and to familiarize audiences with Chalamet's version of the top-hat inventor. That's no easy task, considering how widely beloved Gene Wilder's famous songs are.
Marketing experts, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one factor is that, unlike Broadway-born productions such as “Les Misérables'' and “Mamma,'' the original movie versions of “The Color Purple'' and “Mean'' It is possible that “Girls'' was not a musical. Mia!” was obviously successfully marketed as such.
