Stand! is an Ambitious and Urgently Relevant Musical

Marshall Williams and Laura Slade Wiggins in Stand!

There’s certainly a ton of ambition in Stand!, a new movie musical set during the 1919 Winnipeg general strike. A film adaptation of the Canadian stage musical Strike!, the story centers on two wannabe lovers, Stefan (Marshall Williams) and Rebecca (Laura Slade Wiggins), separated by family prejudices and social upheaval. Stefan has just arrived in Winnipeg with his father, Mike (Gregg Henry), from Ukraine in the aftermath of The Great War. Mike has contempt for Jews like Rebecca, and her brother Moishe (Tristan Carlucci) shows just as much dislike towards Stefan. It’s a standard Romeo and Juliet scenario, but set against a rather topical background.

Stand!’s story, written by Danny Schur and Rick Chafe, is an especially relevant one. As soldiers return home, they find that the city’s many immigrants - another consequence of the war - have been hired for their old jobs, leaving them without work. Stefan and Mike work in a pumphouse, where they’re being paid half of what those soldiers were. Naturally, instead of directing their anger at the right people, many of the soldiers blame the immigrants for stealing their jobs, and some even turn to violence. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is further fueled by lawyer A.J. Anderson (Paul Essiembre), who publishes numerous articles that sit somewhere between fake news and straight propaganda.

The modern day comparisons don’t stop there - the work itself is grueling, wages are low and stagnant, and there certainly aren’t any benefits. A growing labor movement is spreading across the city led by Helen Armstrong (Hayley Sales), attracting not just overseas migrants but people like Emma (Lisa Bell) as well, a black woman fleeing the violent racism of the United States. “The more we do nothing, the more nothing changes.” she tells a room of potential strikers. Swept up in a moment of radical change and uncertainty, Stefan and Rebecca only have each other.

Hayley Sales leads striking workers in one of the more impressive sets of Stand!

Like I said, ambitious. There’s a strong, layered story going on here with various characters of different backgrounds and perspectives who find themselves coming together to achieve common goals - goals that just so happen to resemble the same struggles of today. But Stand! has a few obstacles to overcome. First and foremost is its relatively small budget, something that director Robert Adetuyi and his crew make the most out of, but is still roughly noticeable. While the costumes are able to do the heavy-lifting into making you believe the film’s period setting, some locations threaten to take you right out of it.

But what’s most frustrating is the music, which lacks an actual orchestra behind it. Instead, every musical number is far too simplistic and sounds like it was composed and performed entirely on a single keyboard. Perhaps this is also due to budgetary constraints, but aside from the titular song performed wonderfully by Lisa Bell, none of the numbers are able to stick with you. They’re also few and far between - and usually quite short - in the movie’s nearly 2 hour runtime, which almost makes you forget that this is supposed to be a musical until someone suddenly breaks into song. The scenes themselves are also awkwardly dubbed and flatly shot, which sure seems strange for the director who’s been involved with franchises known for their dance choreography like Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, and Bring It On.

There’s still something special here. A star-crossed love story set among a historic, tragic, multi-racial, multi-generational strike sure sounds like it should be a massive hit with the current culture. Perhaps all Stand! needs is a substantially beefier production and a more interwoven narrative. As it stands, things end rather abruptly and not everyone’s story feels fulfilled or connected enough. The right ingredients are there, toss in a few millions of dollars and this could be the sweeping, epic musical that it has the potential to be. Of course, that’s much easier said than done.

Stand! opens in US theaters only December 1st. You can grab tickets here.