In the 2000s, it seemed that Broadway was becoming inundated with jukebox musicals. That is, musicals built around songs that already existed in the American soundscape. My first inkling that this was a resurging trend was when Mamma Mia, a movie built around the disco music of (No More Bloody) Abba, had a touring company that was wildly popular in even minor metropolitan areas. Moulin Rouge is probably the most post-modern example of these by retrofitting, mashing, reworking, and otherwise abusing the music of our collective consciousness, destroying the original versions while breathing new life into them.
I had thought jukebox musicals were something new, a trend that had resonance in the blossoming world of fan service and nostalgia. Nostalgia is nothing new. Meet Me in St. Louis is a movie built wholly out of nostalgia mixing in old songs with new ones. Made in 1944, Meet Me In St. Louis tells the tale of a family distressed by the prospect of moving from St Louis for the father’s work. Set in 1904, the backdrop of the then-oncoming World’s Fair is decimated to a mere time and location landmark. Meet Me in St Louis is more about family dynamics and tradition being set against opportunity and global change.
The ostensibly main character is Esther (Judy Garland), the second eldest daughter, who is starting to get to be about that age to marry off. She has semi-unrequited love interests in neighboring hottie John Truett (Tom Drake), even though the tall and handsome drip, Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully), is actively pursuing her. This nonsense is the A-story set against the main arc of “We don’t want to leave.”
But, the real star of the show is the C-Story. The youngest daughter, Tootie (Margaret O’Brien), is a pistol and a half. She’s just a fast mouthed, know-it-all, asshole of a character, and she’s the best thing about the movie. At Halloween (Meet Me in St. Louis hits a lot of holidays over the course of a year), Tootie comes home injured, and blames John Truett for her injuries, when really she was setting bonfires and causing mayhem. But, really, her best scene is her Christmas scene with Judy Garland. Distressed by the still-coming move, she looks to Judy for support, who sings a sad soulful rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which, really, what?! Further distraught, she runs out of the house to the front yard with a baseball bat and slaughters the snowman family that they all created to represent themselves, lit by a sickening green light from the window. Family dynamics indeed!
Anyways, like most Christmas classics, Meet Me In St. Louis is all about family traditions dominating over moneyed interests, and is intended to give you the warm and fuzzies. Director Vincente Minnelli, who directs the shit out of this movie, eventually married Judy Garland, and they had Liza Minnelli. But, perhaps we’ll talk about that another time.
Meet Me in St. Louis airs on TCM tonight (12/11) at 1:15am.