Narrative musical built on existing catalog of an artist or songwriter — story frames pre-written hits. Mamma Mia!, Kinky Boots are prime examples.
Jukebox Musical
You're sitting at the editing table, and the director asks you, "How do we cut this if the entire story is just there to play ABBA songs?" — that's exactly what a jukebox musical is. Not a story that needs music. But rather a catalog of hits that has to justify a story.
Practically, this means: The narrative is a framework. The producers have an artist or songwriter (ABBA, Queen, Elton John) whose catalog has filled the coffers, and they build a plot around it — not the other way around. Mamma Mia! exemplifies this classically: The story of a wedding on a Greek island is thin, but the ABBA songs fit, and the audience comes for "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo," not for the characters' emotional arcs. In Kinky Boots, it's more subtle — Elton John's song selection actually works with a theme (shoe factory, identity), but here too: the music came first.
For the director and cinematographer, the visual priorities change massively. You're not filming music that underscores a scene — as in a classic musical (see: Musical Film) — but scenes that have to justify a hit. This leads to editing logic: quick cuts between performance and story moment to bridge the artificiality. The musical numbers are often more staged, more direct — less psychological integration into the image, more showmanship. The audience accepts the break because they already love the song.
The challenge lies in balancing the authenticity of the catalog songs (fans expect the original arrangements) with dramatic plausibility. A song about heartbreak has to fit into a scene, even if the story never planned for it. That's why jukebox musicals often look constructed — and that's okay. The audience knows what they're coming for. Cinema adaptations (like Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) often try to compensate for this artificiality with location glamour and star power, not with dramatic elegance.