10 Best American Musical Movies of All Time

To stick with the U.S., the following titles all rank among the best American musical movies ever made. If they're English-language and were produced in America (they don’t necessarily need to be set there), then they count as American movies, for present purposes. If something doesn’t appear here, and it was English-language, there’s a good chance it was a co-production with another country (see both Cabaret and The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

10 'Nashville' (1975)

Not to be mixed up with Nashville (2012–2018), Nashville (1975) is one of those big old ensemble dramas Robert Altman seemed particularly good at making, deliberately without any concrete narrative. There are just too many people for there to be one main story, but broadly, it follows a large cast of characters who are involved with the music scene in Nashville, Tennessee.

As such, Nashville is one of those grounded musicals where all the music happens in-universe, instead of people breaking into song, or having the songs be a series of dream sequences. Whether this makes it more of a movie about music than a musical… eh, you can argue either way, if you're so inclined. There is a lot of music here, and a good many scenes center on people singing, so it perhaps counts. And it is very American, in sound, style, and what it’s going for thematically.

9 'Chicago' (2002)

It does admittedly take place on death row, and the stakes are appropriately life-or-death, but Chicago is largely a comedy, so it won’t be a downer in the same way that (the non-musical) The Green Mile is, despite sharing a setting, in a way. But Chicago is very cynical while being funny, since it’s about two women becoming celebrities as a way to get out of being sentenced to death.

Basically, if you're one of the five people who remember the Joker sequel, and would like a courtroom drama with musical numbers that’s actually good, then here’s Chicago (this is also assuming those five people have not already seen Chicago… hmm… that feels unlikely). Also, Chicago did amazingly well at the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture and five other Oscars, which is notable, considering it was a fairly strong year (see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist, and maybe even Gangs of New York, all of those also nominated for Best Picture).

8 'La La Land' (2016)

While La La Land is a comedic musical, and that’s one way to describe Chicago, it’s a very different kind of comedy. Chicago is more of a dark comedy, and then La La Land is a bit of a romantic comedy, or a romantic dramedy, because it’s about falling in love and how nice (and amusing) that can be, but then it’s also about what happens when two people are very driven in their creative/professional fields, and those two fields are different.

Also, Chicago has the city in its title, and then La La Land is all very Los Angeles, making good use of the setting while also paying homage to various classic musicals (and some non-musicals) shot there in decades past. It’s all very sincere with its nostalgia, romance, and (eventual) drama, making for an ultimately moving film that also manages to look spectacular throughout.

7 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

Since it’s The Wizard of Oz, there’s a whole song-and-dance when it comes to praising it, because you know what to expect. You know The Wizard of Oz. It’s got a reputation for being one of the best-looking movies of its era, or any era, it has a timeless fantasy story that could potentially work on any person of any age, and it has a ton of songs that – like it or not – remain stuck in your head, even if only heard once or twice.

It’s got that whole enduring legacy thing going for it that means you're pretty much obligated to give it some attention whenever it could receive attention, and despite everything already having been said about it a bunch of times. Obligatory The Wizard of Oz, here. Come get your obligatory The Wizard of Oz. One of the American greats, over here. Come one, come all.

6 'The Lion King' (1994)

There’s not much more that can be said about The Lion King (1994), as was the case with The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps The Wizard of Oz was more of a technical leap forward, if you're looking at film history and all that, but The Lion King was still stunning on a visual front, looking great 30+ years ago and still holding up immensely well today. If you want pleasing visuals, you'll find more here than in the 2019 remake of The Lion King, that’s for sure.

The story is famously like a kid-friendly Hamlet, with a little by way of death, but not so much that it becomes depressing throughout the whole thing (and not depressing by the end, obviously). The Lion King takes certain heavy thematic elements seriously, and balances the dramatic parts with humor and music, somehow ensuring none of it clashes, even if you look at the brisk runtime and assume there’s a real risk of the different components tripping over each other when there’s so little space to share (so to speak). But no, everything’s in perfect harmony here, and it’s obviously a classic.

5 'Little Shop of Horrors' (1986)

Little Shop of Horrors has perhaps the most singing out of any horror movie, and you can very much tell it’s adapted from a stage musical, but in a charming way. That’s another way of saying it’s a musical first, and a horror movie second, or maybe actually a horror movie third, because it’s probably a comedy second, and an effortlessly funny one, too.

Alongside the horror, singing, and comedy, you also get romance, so there really is a bit of everything here. If you want a movie about a talking and carnivorous alien plant to be genuinely frightening, then maybe you're just going to have to keep on looking, possibly endlessly. Little Shop of Horrors is decidedly not that, but it is easily one of the best (and most creative) American musical movies ever made.

4 'The Blues Brothers' (1980)

There’s a link between Little Shop of Horrors and The Blues Brothers (other than the decade and all the singing), because Frank Oz directed the former, and he has a cameo near the start of the latter. Also, lots of people have cameos throughout The Blues Brothers, including a host of legendary musicians, though the main plot concerns a pair of brothers trying to save the orphanage where they grew up.

Their plan involves getting their old blues band back together, and along the way, they're chaotic enough to make a host of enemies, which keeps The Blues Brothers varied when it comes to genre. Lots of singing, sure, but also a lot of comedy, car chases, and general mayhem/destruction. It’s a gonzo “anything goes” sort of movie, and it really does hold up as one of the most purely enjoyable films (musical or otherwise) ever made.

3 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952)

While it isn't quite a history lesson in the traditional sense, Singin’ in the Rain is somewhat eye-opening when it comes to how the American movie industry was about a century ago, with a specific focus on the shift from the silent to talkie era. There are certain truths here, and some time spent on the hardships for actors and filmmakers having to make that change, but it’s largely a breezy affair.

If anyone actually got through that time in history – and within that industry – with similar ease, then good for them. But Singin’ in the Rain is a bit fantastical, just with how optimistic and funny it’s willing to get, and that’s okay. It balances things tonally and succeeds (and then some) as sheer entertainment… a piece of great entertainment about the making of entertainment and all that.

2 'West Side Story' (1961)

The Lion King took some inspiration from Hamlet, but then West Side Story took more than just inspiration from Romeo and Juliet, since it pretty much is an updated Romeo and Juliet, with some added singing. There are differences in the final few scenes, too, but you're left with something pretty devastating either way, what with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet being one of the most famous tragedies of all time and everything (sorry, but you’ve had about 400+ years to experience it).

There’s also a comparison here to be made to Little Shop of Horrors, because you can definitely tell West Side Story was adapted from a stage show, too. The film really owns the theatricality of it all, though, and then on an emotional front, it’s still hard-hitting and surprisingly easy to get swept up in. Few films look and feel quite like West Side Story, which is easily among the liveliest and most energetic musicals of that whole classic era.

1 'All That Jazz' (1979)

Way back in the intro, Cabaret was mentioned as a disqualification, since it was a U.S. and Germany co-production, technically, but Bob Fosse also directed All That Jazz, and All That Jazz is all-American. They're both incredible musical movies, and both stand as very dark in their own particular ways, with All That Jazz being about a work-obsessed womanizer who keeps pushing himself in all walks of life to dangerous limits.

It’s like a psychological drama about someone involved with show business, so you get a few musical numbers that happen within the context of the story, and the film’s universe, but then there are brushes with fantasy in All That Jazz which lead to (even) more elaborate song-and-dance numbers. All That Jazz might well be one of the most introspective movies ever made, but Fosse, in the process of critiquing himself, really did churn out one masterful film.