9/11 Movie Musical 'Clear Blue Tuesday': I'm Not Sure What To Think

If you had come to me in the past couple of years and told me that you were working on a movie called "Clear Blue Tuesday," I would have said, "Wow! A movie about feminine hygiene products? That could be really cool and edgy, even gloriously feminist with the right approach!" But then, if you had told me it was actually a movie about the September 11th attacks, I would have said, "Oh, well, I'm really not sure about that." And then, if you had added, "And it's a rock musical," I would have definitely sought a way to extricate myself from the conversation.

But that's just me! If you haven't already heard, "Clear Blue Tuesday" -- which opens Friday in Greenwich Village -- focuses on the lives of eleven people, post-9/11. As Michael Wilson at the New York Times's CityRoom blog reports, as the calendar passes through the anniversaries of the attacks, an "attractive and eccentric cast of New Yorkers fall in love and split up, lose jobs, get jobs, shack up -- and sing, roughly one song per character." It's really involved!

The songs are all over the map, stylistically and thematically, and include one called "Help Me Help You," sung by an executive firing a depressed underling, and "Spank It," a hair-metal piece about playing the drums. In another song, "Reckless," the singer's character -- a harpist and science fiction fanatic -- imagines marrying an alien in space in a scene replete with twinkling stars and floating planets.

If the project has anything going for it, it's that it's heart seems to be in the right place. The actors in the movie have all written their own songs and everyone clearly believes in the power of art to heal. One of the participants is Jan O'Dell, a 73-year-old Off-Broadway actress who received a brain injury on 9/11 after she was struck by debris from the World Trade Center. Wilson says O'Dell -- who comes across as the sort of woman you'd be lucky to know -- is the "beating and wounded heart" at the center of the film.

Maybe it's just this line from the Times write-up that bothers me:

The film, often doggedly cheerful, will not please uniformly, and only die-hard fans of musicals, very earnest people and Sept. 11 completists are likely to digest it whole.

I sort of hope there's actually no such thing as a "Sept. 11 completist."

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Comments

[den1953]

11:36 AM on 09/02/2010

Wow i suppose there isn't a whole lot of acts in this musical how much bridges falling down can be sung?

[jrpup]

11:02 PM on 09/01/2010

Wow, that kind of describes what Jason's writings would be good as: feminine hygiene products

[Nelson Montana]

10:14 PM on 09/01/2010

Still too soon.

[LeonBNJ]

09:06 PM on 09/01/2010

An interesting idea to say the least. Perhaps a musical dealing wih the serious problem and major changes that occured in the aftermath of 9/11 is a very good way of bringing attention to those issues.

[Pema]

08:30 PM on 09/01/2010

jason fem hygine products? your too old to find tacky funny.

[TGTommyrocket]

05:54 PM on 09/01/2010

Huffington Post's misinformation on this film does Clear Blue Tuesday a terrible disservice. It makes this seem like a movie musical set during the collapse of The Towers, which it decidedly is NOT. What it is, actually, is an examination of the lives of people in NYC after the tragedy. The whole buttload of mis-reportage on this story is way off base and Huffington Post should be ashamed of itself for misrepresenting the film. This is not a "9/11 musical" - though that seems like an easy catchphrase to stir controversy. It's a movie about how people live through trauma.

[CMinSF]

08:14 PM on 09/01/2010

Thanks TG, the harsh tone notwithstanding. Although this film will interest me about as much as it will Jason, I'll share an unbiased review from New York-based IMDB critic Michael Murray:
"Of the many artistic works that have attempted to make sense of September 11, 2001, none has captured the New York perspective of the quietly hellish aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center better than Clear Blue Tuesday. The musical film, which was conceived, directed, and partially written by Elizabeth Lucas...examines the tragedy itself only obliquely. It focuses instead on the long-lasting effects of that violation of national and personal security on 11 New Yorkers, and through them you come to understand the day's loss-and potential gains-in ways you couldn't even if you were surrounded by CGI explosions. That's no small feat for any dramatic presentation, let alone a low-budget film...Yet it is accomplished, with impressive clarity, seriousness, and even humor..." - Matthew Murray, New York

[Tags]

04:52 PM on 09/01/2010

Out of the Blue and Into Left Field.

[peowlemeow]

04:47 PM on 09/01/2010

The actor from "Band of Brothers" and "3 Burials of (I can't remember)" did a surprisingly good monologue on 9/11 from a yuppie point of view in "The 25th Hour" that really struck me as grotesquely candid and realistic.Anything from actual survivors would be refreshing.Singing relieves stress,if that's how they do it ,more power to them.

[lostonbridgetofuture]

03:21 PM on 09/01/2010

I don't know. I saw that movie "Remember Me" and I went in blind, although I did figure out that it was concerned with 9/11 by about half way through. Even then, I thought it was just about how the tragedy affected those in NY. The ending got me by surprise and I almost had an attack of some sort. Can't explain it. I don't think that I would go out of my way to see a fictional story about that day.
The only thing that surprised me more than the ending was that that vampire kid actually can act a bit. THAT was the real surprise.

[blastocyst]

09:05 PM on 09/01/2010

Though I've never written, directed or produced a film I admire "Remember Me" for the performances all around, the aesthetics of it and the subtle recollections of 'The Day'. Almost had an "attack" did you? Welcome to the club. I think that your observations are fairly astute, 'Bridge'. Fine post, yours.

[c6d6]

03:16 PM on 09/01/2010

This musical sounds like an odd idea, but I must point out that many musicals are about sad and controversial subjects. I never understood why Blockbuster eliminated their musicals section and put them all in with comedies. South Pacific is about WWII and also racism. Fiddler on the Roof is about Jews being forced out of their town in Russia.

Miss Saigon isn't exactly about the beautiful countryside of VietNam.

Still think a musical about 9/11 is deeply weird, though.

[Uproar]

04:30 PM on 09/01/2010

I guess a serious play seems like the more obvious choice. But maybe people don't want to see it then. A musical probably adds another element to a sad story, that makes people want to see it?

Good points, about Fiddler, and Miss Saigon though. Not all musicals have to be happy and cheerful.

[TOOO]

03:15 PM on 09/01/2010

The comedy-metal band (because I don't know what else to call it) Spinal Tap had (still has?) a running gag about doing a musical based on the life of Jack the Ripper: "Saucy Jack".

That's what comes to mind here.

[Firbolg]

03:08 PM on 09/01/2010

Oh, dear.
I suppose it’s only a matter of time before “9/11 Anniversary Day Sales” join “Memorial Day Sales” on our commercial calendar.

[Raul Garcia]

02:55 PM on 09/01/2010

Thanks for the warning.

[cadetland]

02:34 PM on 09/01/2010

Hey, cool... and while we're at it, why not make "Schindler's List: The Musical"?

Sigh.

[JesseEHenthorn]

03:36 PM on 09/01/2010

I'm not sure I follow. Schindler's List is a form of visual media already. How would it further be tarnished by turning it into a musical? Also, how is this a bad idea - if the people producing the act are trying to make a statement about life and recovery? It seems the hipster thing to do, to be negative and cliche about everything, but "all I am saying...is give - this play - a chance".

Even though tragedy may not be compared emotionally, on the value of human life - the halocaust was 3667 times worse than 9/11. Look at all the portrayals of the Halocaust.

[PersimmonNJ]

02:29 PM on 09/01/2010

Not getting why folks think it's a weird or disrespectful or "happy" or flip title...9/11/01 was indeed a clear, sky blue as anything, Tuesday. It was a clear blue Tuesday that changed our world. I have to wonder why folks didn't think the obviously-intended-to-be-a-money-making-blockbuster "World Trade Center" with its dogged literalism far more offensive than a much more abstract indie film that centers on New Yorkers trying to move on.