they were amazing in this film. their voices go so well together and i love their chemistry. tisha campbell and tichina arnold voices stood out. they provided great narration for the film but they were barely in it. they should have been in it more. every musical would be better if they had chorus girls like these lol. do you guys agree with me?
shareI've always enjoyed them and always recognized two of them from tv shows.
shareThey are easily one of the best parts of the film, but they have a much bigger role than you may notice. They may not be the main cast, but they are in nearly every song, and they show up in plain street clothes on occasion. Not to mention they are around in major scene transitions singing on rooftops or in the street.
shareThey were so great, every time I see the show live, I feel put out that the chorus girls are not some Supremes-style homage to the '60s.
shareThey weren't chorus girls, they were the film's Greek chorus! There's a big difference!
They really did function like an ancient Greek chorus as well as an early sixties girl group. They were both participants in the action and commentators upon it, and in fabulous three-part harmony! And they were downright spooky in "Suppertime" moving through the drama like glittering ghosts...
[deleted]
The musical "Hairspray" sort of stole the idea, it had a trio of girls doing the same kind of early-sixties Motown music, and popping up here and there to either sing in the character of performers, or to appear here and there as bit players.
A Greek Chorus is surprisingly hard to carry off in the modern world, I can't think of another film from the last century that made good use of the idea.
[deleted]
Now that I think about using Greek Choruses, I think the only way to implement them in the modern world is as part of a musical. Apparently in the days of Aristophanes they used to talk or chant in unison, and talking or chanting in unison is right out of fashion! We'll accept singing in unison but not chanting in unison.
These days the single narrator has taken the place of the Greek Chorus, sometimes a story is narrated by a supporting character who is involved in the action, it's the same sort of thing but now the convention is a single voice. I wish I could think of an example of that, but I haven't had enough caffeine today.