Musicals

I love How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as well as another stagey Frank Loesser cinematic adaptation, Guys and Dolls. I also want to mention Fiddler on the Roof, A Hard Day's Night, Stop Making Sense and I'll stop for now before I start to get too far gone. (I'll come back for those later.)

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Not every musical made was a big budget production. particularely in the 1940's. Here is an example of a better than average B musical.

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If you are going to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, try the tv version which is a video of the stage play with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett and George Hearn as Sweeney Todd.

The movie version leaves a lot to be desired. This musical is forced along by a constant driving rhythm that is missing from the movie and gives the stage play its urgency. The removal of this music leaves the movie a bit moribund, if you will. Another complaint is the selection of Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. Bonham Carter is too delicate and pretty to play that tough old pragmatist and murder's accomplice Mrs. Lovett and SHE CAN'T SING. Her voice is much, much too light. The parts of Todd and Lovett are made for Broadway belters.

The only part of the film I liked is when Todd/Depp is reunited with his razor and declaims the line "NOW MY ARM IS COMPLETE." Johnny Depp is a genius actor who can make you believe he is anyone despite looking like a 15 yr. old girl.

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One of my favourites, which hasn't been mentioned yet.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)



Gorgeous little musical, which plays out entirely in song. It's difficult to find a picture on the net that does justice to Demy's iridescent palette, as well as Deneuve's wide-eyed minx of small-town dysfunction. Michel Legrand's music is simply magical, even if it perhaps lacks the sing-a-long value provided by your canonical Hollywood favourites. I don't know if that's because my French isn't up to scratch or what; nevertheless it's unforgettable stuff, with a final act that lives long in the memory.

Good call on that one. If you can't sing the songs, you can certainly hum them.

Just watched this one yesterday

"Springtime for Hitler and Germany! Winter for Poland and France!"

Because of the movie, the original novel the musical is based on was reprinted. Upon reading it, I was surprised to discover Mrs. Lovett described as "buxom, young and good looking," and this makes her almost as popular as her pies to most of her customers, mainly young law clerks. Mrs. Lovett became homely and middle-aged when the novel was adapted to the stage while it was still being serialized in a "penny dreadful" magazine. The novel is much better than the play and it's bad reputation comes from the fact most people who are familiar with the story have seen the melodramatic play and not read the source material.

Whether Mrs. Lovett is young and good looking or a fright, it is a musical and she should be able to sing intelligibly. The movie is an adaptation of the musical by Sondheim and it is destroyed by the lack of attention given to the music and it's presentation. I know nothing about Sondheim's source material but his musical play is not handle well at all by Tim Burton. One should not have to refer to source material to make a determination on whether a movie is good or bad. The proof of the pie is in the eating and Tim Burton's pie was very tired and sorely lacking in any internal drive. It is the removal of competent singers and the interstitial tissue of the connecting score that cause Burton's Todd to collapse. If Bonham Carter could sing I would have one less complaint about the film.

I wasn't criticizing your criticism of the film, which I haven't seen. (I saw the KCET one) The Sondheim version isn't directly based on the play either but a twentieth century play adaptaion. That's where the backstory comes from, that Sweeney Todd is out for revenge against an unjust world for what happened to him. In the original novel and first play adaptation Sweeney Todd's motive is more simple: greed. Johanna (Oakley) is not his daughter; the magistrate (different name and not in the first play) is a good guy who discovers the mystery behind why cusomers are seen walking into Sweeney Todd's barber shop, but don't always come out, and the connected mystery behind the origin of the horrible smell behind St. Dunistan's Church; and so on. Sondheim rejected doing a direct adaptation of the 19th century play because he thought it was dated and poorly written. He was right. Apparently, he never read the novel which was out of print until the 1990's. It reads like a more pulpy version of Dickens with a great deal of humor, and swift moving scenes that often take place far from Sweeney's shop.

Believe me I take no offense. I enjoy a reasonable argument. Now that you have described the novel more thoroughly, I might take a look at it.

Cabaret all the way.

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Well, to be honest, Roserosie, the reason I feel ambivalent about the story behind The Sound of Music is because, while Captain Von Tropp, who'd worked for the Nazis for a long time, until he became fully aware of what the Nazis really stood for and what they were doing and decided to take his family over the mountains to escape to Switzerland, it also turned out that the Swiss, too, were pretty horrible--very anti-Jewish in that respect. So, being Jewish, although I've seen TSOM afew times and enjoyed it, the behaviour on the part of the Swiss sort of dwarfs the fact that Captn von Tropp did a good thing by taking his family over the Alps and into Switzerland to escape the Nazis. Hope I've been of some help here.

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Well, to be honest, Roserosie, the reason I feel ambivalent about the story behind The Sound of Music is because, while Captain Von Tropp, who'd worked for the Nazis for a long time, until he became fully aware of what the Nazis really stood for and what they were doing and decided to take his family over the mountains to escape to Switzerland, it also turned out that the Swiss, too, were pretty horrible--very anti-Jewish in that respect. So, being Jewish, although I've seen TSOM afew times and enjoyed it, the behaviour on the part of the Swiss sort of dwarfs the fact that Captn von Tropp did a good thing by taking his family over the Alps and into Switzerland to escape the Nazis. Hope I've been of some help here.

Anchors Aweigh, I beileve wasn't mentioned and is quite possible one of the best musicals ever made in my opinion.

I've got a really off-the-wall musical for you that likely few of you have ever seen and even fewer would ever list.

The film is Red Garters, a musical comedy set in the wild west, but it's a West none of you would recognize--a stage-set with houses and trees represented by suspended plywood cutouts and an occasional potted bush spotted around to represent the outdoors. 1950s pop singer Guy Mitchell plays a singing fast-gun dressed in white who rides into town just in time for the combination burial and barbecue featuring his late brother who was dry-gulched by person or persons unknown. So he sets out to find the murderous varmint. Costarring in the film is Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt) and Jack Carson. It wasn't everyone's cup of tea even when it first came out and copies are bound to be rare, but it's an interesting little movie that is very different from most musicals Hollywood cranked out.

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'Guys and Dolls' is a thoroughly enjoyable example of musical comedy at its very best. The wonderful production owes a lot to the talented Abe Burrows who made the adaptation to the screen. The costumes by Irene Sharaff set the right tone and Brando has a certain charm as Sky Masterson. One of the best things about this movie is their lingo. It's a mixture of high class and street slang and overall, Guys & Dolls is one of my favorite all time musicals, and it's one that you should take time to watch every time it comes on.

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN are another two favorites of mine.

Great choice. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but this one sold me.

Thanks for Red Garters bit, Will. At the opening of that performance, in the foreground facing the bar, you'll see the other fast-gun in that strange little town, Gene Barry, dressed all in black with a matching mustache and the absolutely worse Mexican accent. He even "sings" in the film.

Geeeesh..when I made my list I was thinking maybe there were a few I had seen that just weren't coming to mind..now I'm beginning to think I have amnesia or something..I've seen many many of the ones you've all mentioned..and I've seen several that I'm just going to have to check out!

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Herr Zeller: Perhaps those who would warn you that the Anschluss is coming - and it is coming, Captain - perhaps they would get further with you by setting their words to music.
Captain von Trapp: If the Nazis take over Austria, I have no doubt, Herr Zeller, that you will be the entire trumpet section.