Musical | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The new movie “Song Sung Blue” is about the true story of Mike and Claire Sardina and their ongoing struggles to become “intermediate celebrities” in the Midwest as singer impersonators and interpreters. This story shines a light on facts that many already know: that trying to make it in show business is a nightmare, no-money grind that can last many years with no payoff for too many thousands of people who have a dream that is never realized.

Whenever I see a rare film like this, which is about the impossible dream of show business, I think of actors like George Clooney, who in 1982 moved to Hollywood at age 21, and had to beg people he knew to sleep on their couch for 5 years. Clooney begged them for money and was completely broke at 27. Clooney finally got his first big break at age 33 in 1994 when he was cast as a young doctor on ER. How many of us would ever have the courage and perseverance to live a life like this, even if they knew in advance that they would wind up like George Clooney, who at age 64 is now worth over 500 million dollars? The famous story about Clooney is that in 2013, he invited 14 longtime friends to dinner and gave each one a million dollars in cash, to thank them for the significant help they had provided him during those years of financial desperation.

The most amazing about George Clooney is not only how he survived these nightmare years but how he was able to find 14 friends who helped him during this impossible time in his life. This is the reality of following your dream in show business. We always know about the lucky few who make it, but rarely about the tens of thousands who are always on the “outside looking in”.

Mike Sardina is played by Hugh Jackman, who is perfectly suited for this role with solid acting and many scenes of singing either as a solo artist or with his wife Claire, played by Kate Hudson, who proves in this movie that she is a very good singer. Mike and Claire meet at a local fair and eventually marry, starting a group that tours local bars and small venues, calling themselves “Thunder and Lightning”, where Mike impersonates Neil Diamond and Clair impersonates Patsy Cline. The Neil Diamond songs are almost always dominated by his most popular hit, “Sweet Caroline,” and who knows how many thousands of times Diamond sang this song during his career.

Throughout this well-told story, Mike’s struggles to survive financially are well documented, as he takes odd jobs as a mechanic and carpenter just to be very close to financial ruin, always several mortgage payments behind in his below-average house that is right next to a major airport, where huge planes constantly fly over. Mike also has a severe ongoing heart problem that appears in several scenes, will eventually take his life.

Thunder and Lightning is a major hit in the Midwest, with the group eventually opening for the band Pearl Jam. Then real life takes over, and there is a tragedy that puts Mike and Claire’s success on hold for a long time, until there is an unlikely comeback, and a conclusion that is both tragic and expected.

Song Sung Blue includes actor Jim Belushi, who is very good in his role as the group’s travel agent, and Fisher Stevens, who is a close friend of Mike’s and eventually becomes a member of the group. This story does a very good job of showing the stark reality of trying to travel the United States and play broken-down bars to crowds as small as 25 people for very little money. It is no wonder that most people give up their dream after just a few years of trying to pursue an unlikely miracle.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are too low at 76% with my rating 85% for the true story, and the singing and acting of Jackman and Hudson. I give a strong recommendation to this story about pursuing your dreams, no matter what the cost. Below are the movie trailer and the documentary that inspired this movie.

There are many things to admire about the two Wicked movies, the final one, “Wicked: For Good,” released on 11/21/2025. This movie has been in the planning stages for many years, and both films were shot together, starting in December 2022. The entire production was put on hold in July 2023, and then resumed and finally wrapped in late January 2024. The production costs for the two films was a huge $455.8 million and after receiving a tax reimbursement from the U.K. resulted in a net cost of $370.7 million.

What I admire the most is the large amount of man-hours that went into creating the elaborate sets, musical arrangements, costumes, screenwriting, and acting for two movies based on the long-running Broadway play. The brilliant move that the producers of Wicked pulled off was releasing Wicked in two films over a period of a year. The reasons were that the movie would be too long, and as we find out in the latest release, there are too many slow and boring parts in the second movie that would have ruined the high ratings and box office if these scenes were included in the first movie. Brilliantly, the first movie, which received a very high 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, set the stage to maximize the profits the second movie will make, as the anticipation for the second movie a year later increased the odds of much higher box office, despite the much lower 70% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

The problem with this second film is that much of the story is too slow and erratic, with not enough interaction between the two main stars Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). The ending does have a very well-done and highly emotional reunion between these two characters, with an emotional song at a level of quality more frequent in the first movie. The story about how Elphaba becomes a wicked witch, because of her quest to help animals who are not being treated well by the Wizard of Oz, is somewhat convoluted within both films.

Unfortunately, the low Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 71% are correct this time, mainly because of the high quality of the first movie and the drop-off in the second movie. The rabid fans of Wicked will mostly be disappointed at the pacing and quality of this last movie. The most obvious solution would first be to have more scenes with Glinda and Elphaba with them acting and singing together. To be true to the Broadway play, there were just too many slow-moving and unnecessary parts in this second story.

For any true fan of “Wicked” it would be impossible not to see this second movie, which does have enough good parts to recommend.