Scarlett Curtis Responds to Criticism - EXCLUSIVE

By JBR

After the Twitter furore today, it seems Scarlett Curtis has come under some fire, not least from us, but from the Musical Theatre world at large. Ain't nothing scarier than an army of West End Wendies (me included) parking their tanks on your lawn. Heavens, we're surprised Cameron didn't borrow Saigon's helicopter!

But Scarlett faced up to her critics and contacted us. We are delighted to publish the article that Scarlett ACTUALLY wrote. So, we ask The Telegraph - to what end and to what purpose did you butcher it in the first place?

Scarlett - we aplogise.

xx

What's so wrong with happy endings?

My family are very into happy endings. Growing up, if a movie didn’t end in a kiss or a wedding, I wasn’t really interested and it wasn’t until watching The Graduate when I was 12 that I even began to realise that people who get together at the end of movies might not necessarily be happy forever and ever the end goodbye.

Disney’s next film is an adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Broadway musical ‘Into the Woods’. It’s set in the world of fairytales (think Shrek but with less ogres) and features a number of our favourite fairytale characters including Cinderella, Jack (of beanstalk fame) and a witch played by Meryl Streep. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Disney, musical, Meryl, I may never watch anything else for the rest of my life. The original musical of ‘Into the Woods’ is a brilliant twisted take on the entire construct of fairytales and ‘happy endings’, Cinderella marries a handsome prince but grows bored, Jack kills the giant but is hunted by his angry widow and other themes of the film include death and the pains of single parenthood. It’s a great musical but the lack of a traditional ‘happily ever after’ ending may shock viewers who’ve come to rely on Disney for a fairytale ending.

I’m sure the movie will be great, and let’s face it, anything starring a singing Meryl Streep is going to pull in the audiences, but those of us who grew up on Prince Charming’s and singing teapots can’t help but ask ‘What’s so wrong with a good old happy ending?’. Happy endings have developed a bad reputation in recent years. As a culture we’ve grown to see them as a trick, a big lie made up by Hollywood to deceive young girls and make all boys feel inadequate for the rest of their lives. And there’s no doubt that there are some down sides to Disney’s original format for ending their movies, which more often than not climaxed in the message that every girl needs a man to save them. But things are definitely changing, last year Disney broke the mould with ‘Frozen’ which ended in a spectacular display of sisterly love with the two princesses saving each other while their prince’s (and snowmen) stood by and watched. But despite revolutionising a number of different stereotypes, it was still a happy ending, and that’s not something I’m ready to give up yet.

As most 17 year olds who’ve just gone through their first breakup will tell you - ‘Real life has no happy endings.’ However I don’t think that films that end with a happily ever after are necessarily trying to convince us otherwise. Happy endings aren’t there to fool us. People that enjoy them aren’t idiots who’ve been duped into thinking the world is a place filled with hearts and marshmallows. When a films end with a wedding, or a kiss or an underdog scoring a winning goal in a sports match, they’re not trying to convince you that the ever minute of the rest of these characters lives was joyful and perfect. Happy endings are just a choice to end a movie on a good note. On a positive moment. Sure, things in these fictional characters futures will go wrong, but what an honour that we go to see a part of their imagined lives when things turned out great. Everyone’s had a moment in their past that could be construed as a happy ending, a proposal, a reconciliation with a parent, that time that you and your best friends defeated Lord Voldermort (okay maybe not that last one). And I think that movies that end with happy endings make us relish these moments a bit more.

Happy endings are also a form of escapism, when things are going wrong, and it seems like the film of your life is going to end with you crying in your pyjamas, happy endings remind us that there are good things to come, that this life, no matter how crappy it can seem, does actually contain some pretty cool things.

I’m definitely still going to see ‘Into the Woods’. Because seriously, Meryl, singing, who can turn that down? And I do love Disney’s expansion into making more diverse fairytales. But I’d like to ask that we don’t give up on the happy ending quite yet. After all, millions of people get married every single day and I literally don’t know one person who’s ever been murdered by a zombie.

#articles