Your choices: Fred & Ginger's glide through Swing Time (1936), the non-stop possessed dancing of The Red Shoes (1948), Gene Kelly and friends exuberantly going On the Town (1949) early Bollywood classic Mother India(1957), Mean Green Mother and Off Broadway transfer Little Shop of Horrors (1986) or Christian Bale and David Moscow (the ex Mr. Kerry Washington) hoofin' it through Newsies (1992)
After voting... kick us two titles in the comments: 1, a big well known musical you'd like to relive in this series and 2, a less celebrated tuner you'd love to see celebrated. That'll give us ideas for future months.
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41 comments:
big well known musical: cabaret
less celebrated tuner: hair
Big well known musical: All That Jazz
Less celebrated tuner: This is trickier for me. Maybe one of the less talked about Judy Garland ones, For Me And My Gal perhaps? I haven't seen it, so I can't vouch for its merit, though.
Not so much celebrated, but I'd love to see peoples reactions to 20 Centimetres. Or Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You.
For a bigger musical choice, how about Martin Scorsese's New York New York. Or, because it's so bad, The Wiz.
I can't choose a big musical to recommend, but I would recommend Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, translated as The Young Girls of Rochefort. It's in French, features Gene Kelly, and some really cute songs.
I'm not sure what counts as well known, as I felt sure your current roster of nominees was pretty familiar.
That said:
Well known: Any Fosse Charity, Cabaret, Jazz.
Godspell.
A Little Night Music.
Well known among some:
Lil Abner
The Gang's All Here
Less well known among most:
20cm
The Apple
Yes, Nurse! No, Nurse!
Totally obscure:
Broadway Rhythm (1944) - you'll be glad you did
Oh, yeah, I'll put in a second voice for New York New York.
1. Bedknobs and Broomsticks
2. Everyone Says I Love You
Smaller:
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Bigger:
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Well-Known -Jesus Christ Superstar
Lesser-Known: Streets Of Fire
1. Evita
2. Evita (?)
1. My Fair Lady, please, Always, always do I love talking/reading about My Fair Lady.
2. Everyone Says I Love You deserves some love.
Well-known: King of Burlesque, that well-known Alice Faye musical from 1936.
Less well known: Born to Dance, also from 1936, in which Jimmy Stewart sort of sings and sort of dances.
I just want to give a strong and solid "Word" to Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. It's probably the most ludicrously gleeful movie I've ever seen, plus George Chakiris, Gene Kelly, AND a third act murder mystery subplot/musical sequence. Amazing, amazing, amazing.
Big Musical: My Fair Lady. I'm curious to hear people's views on this classic musical. Some love it, some like it, some absolutely hate it for its overwhelming tunes.
Small Musical: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's completely underrated in the genre itself.
1. Cabaret
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
How about Holiday Inn? Its relatively well known (having introduced the world to White Christmas) but is rarely ever discussed.
Or what about another Bing Crosby film, High Society? Its absolutely awful but could make an interesting article.
I'm not sure whether it's big or small (it gets bigger every time I watch it), so I'll list it twice:
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
I also like Demoiselles a lot, and I adore New York, New York, as well as the INSANE Gang's All Here. Giant bananas, rising and falling in tandem: here you go.
"Well-known" and otherwise seem hard to gauge from person to person, but I'd like to hear a chat about Les Girls or about Peter O'Toole fighting his way through Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Sweet Charity
All That Jazz
Cabaret
Damn Yankees
No one can fill Fosse's dance shoes.
Hairspray? Mamma Mia? Puhlease.
People don't recognize real quality anymore.
Bush mediocre-sized everything!
Well, it's totally getting smoked in the Musical of the Month poll, but I love On the Town with an bsessive fondness I reserve only for movies where Ann Miller dances.
Just saying.
For a big well-known musical, I would be overjoyed to read a whole -athon of blogs about The Music Man. There are lots of relevant themes hiding under that fast-talking, colorful, over-the-top exterior. I promise! If you don't believe me ,you'll be in Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Blogathon!
I would like to throw another lesser-known vote to Hedwig.
Because, duh.
1. Paint Your Wagon
2. Meet the Feebles
1.) I'd love to hear about The King and I.
2.) It'd be cool to find out some opinions on the Dorothy Dandridge vehicle, Carmen Jones.
- Adam
1. West Side Story
2. White Christmas (although it was big in its day)
Big Well Known: All That Jazz
Less Celebrated Tuner: Gold Diggers of 1933
My two favorites of the genre.
Shall we dance?-Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, roller skating. Boom.
Hedwig, duh.
TOMMY!
big well known
TOMMY
(it is big well known, right?)
less celebrated
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
or
20 CMS
(following Glenn)
and maybe you can do a little special thinghy for
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!!!
Okay, c.p. and Lulu have said 20 Centimetres, which I didn't think anybody else had seen so that's good to hear.
Sammy Jo, i'd argue that Hairspray is a faaar better movie musical than Sweet Charity was. Some great musical sequences aside ("Big Spender", "Something Better") the movie is clearly Fosse's weakest.
Well-known: I'd like one of the other ones on your list. Red Shoes, Newsies, Swing time, etc. Great list.
Less known: I've never seen The Young Girls of Rochefort, although I'd like to.
Alternatively, "The Boyfriend", directed by Ken Russell, starring Twiggy, Christopher Gable of the Royal Ballet, Tommy Tune, etc. Called a precursor in style to "Moulin Rouge".
Well-known: Top Hat, arguably the greatest of the Astaire-Rogers films (Swing Time doesn't hold a candle for me)
Lesser-known: The Gold Diggers of 1933 or it's appropriately titled sequel The Gold Diggers of 1935. Two great Depression era musicals that have great music, acting, dancing and comedy.
Big: Summer Stock (or is that small?)
If Summer Stock is small, then The Commitments
Small: The Pirate
or Shock Treatment
or Starstruck (Gods, I love Starstruck SO MUCH)
I don't really consider THE RED SHOES a musical. A "dancical" perhaps. But it's definitely one of my very favorite films, so it gets my vote.
My two additions:
Footlight Parade
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Lesser known: Head starring The Monkees!
Even lesser known: a Shaw Brothers produced musical from the late Fifties to early Sixties, preferably starring Linda Lin Dai.
Camelot
(shut up - I just feel like watching it again)
How about Singin' in the Rain for a well kown one, or keeping with Debbie Reynolds The Unsinkable Molly Brown in the obscure category.
Deborah, are you talking about the Starstruck directed by Gillian Armstrong, or another musical called Starstruck?
Big - Cabaret
Less celebrated - The Wiz (it's not as horrible as everyone thinks. It's a tradition to watch it at my house on Christmas Day every year.)
Glenn...are you kidding me about Hairspray being better then Sweet Charity?
Shirley alone elevates Charity past anything Hairspray could hope to be.
Honestly, I found Hairspray to be glorified High School Musical, with weak to mediocre performances from all involved...with the exception of the actor playing Seaweed, and perhaps Pfieffer and Blonsky if I'm charitable.
I could barely sit through it with all the mugging passing for acting. Honestly...is that really all we expect from our actors now?
Didn't get to vote but here's my two titles:
The Band Wagon: Astaire, Charisse, perfection
The Wild, Wild Rose: A Hong Kong adaptation of Carmen from 1960.
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