For some time now, theatre has bridged the gap between speaking and singing. But “as the recent reviews of ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Chicago’ have made clear, it has become commonplace wisdom that today’s film musicals cannot work if songs arise naturally and directly out of dialogue. Critic after critic deems film too naturalistic a medium for such an inherently unreal device; characters singing on screen, they insist, must acknowledge the artifice in some way in order for audiences to accept it.”