How many songs make a musical?
When Lizabeth Scott sang a song early in the movie, a question popped into my mind: How many songs does a movie have to have to be classified as a musical? Obviously, one song does not a musical make. And as I figured that would be her only song, I thought that would be the end of my musings. But then she sang another, and another, and another, until by the end of the movie she had sung five in all. And yet, I still do not regard this movie as a musical. Nor does IMDb or Netflix so classify it either. Moreover, I have no doubt that if they had managed to squeeze one more song into this movie, it still would not count as a musical.
Obviously, it would not be an expressionistic musical, where people sing and dance in an unrealistic manner. But it could be thought of as a backstage musical, which is realistic in the sense that all the singing and dancing occurs on a stage or during rehearsals, much as might actually happen in real life. And yet, not even in this sense is Dark City a musical.
The only thing I can figure is that in a backstage musical, the plot centers around the performers as they strive to be successful, whereas in this movie, the action centers around people that are not part of the performance, and Scott’s songs are just fillers. In fact, she even says early on that she cannot sing and that it is just a way of making a living.