musicals

My mother raised me on them. It's interesting because for some reason, I always neglect to put them on my lists of favorite movies, in spite of the fact that I adore many of them.

Unfortunately, I can't abide most musicals written after, oh, 1970ish. I saw a bunch when I lived in NYC and they sucked bad. Musical composers now don't know how to write a catchy tune.

In no particular order, here's a list of some of my favorites:

Fiddler on the Roof: Love the music, love the story and message--both Broadway cast and movie. Of course I never saw it live. I'm mostly familiar with the movie versions of musicals. My grandmother bought the sheet music for The Sound of Music when it was on Broadway and my mother is most familiar with the Broadway version as well as the Mary Martin recording. While Mary Martin brought Peter Pan, Nellie Forbush (in South Pacific), and Maria von Trapp to notoriety, she always annoyed me because my OTHER grandmother was obsessed with her and I was born on the same day (Dec. 1). I was also born on the same day as Bette Midler, Richard Pryor, and Woody Allen.

Yes I realize I'm using full names here. Big fucking deal--it's a discussion with myself so suck it up.

OK, that was a major tangent.

Thoroughly Modern Millie: One of my favorites ever. It was written as a movie musical original and unfortunately some jerks came along and *rewrote* it to stage in the late '90s. The Broadway version blows. The movie one, however, is grand. And it's directed by George Roy Hill (of The Sting fame). Carol Channing is annoying but otherwise it's hilarious and fabu.

On another tangent from that--the musical Hairspray also blows big time. The movie is so much better.

Kismet. Ah. Gorgeous music. Of course, it was all primarily taken from themes from Borodin's opera Prince Igor, but who cares? It is of course responsible for making Stranger in Paradise a very popular tune (also from Prince Igor, or perhaps The Steppes of Asia?). I don't know who was in the original Broadway cast, but I'm in love with Howard Keel and am quite pleased with the movie one. I saw it staged in Boulder and it was pretty similar to the movie--I'm thinking the stage version doesn't differ much.

Hello Dolly. Is a totally absurd musical. But some of the music in it is great and I loved it when I was a kid. It was on TV recently and I was rather embarrassed by it. Or perhaps I was embarrassed by Barbra Streisand--she's certainly embarrassing me in my old age. God, the costumes are horrendous in that movie. My mother saw it on Broadway with either Marlene Dietrich or Betty Grable. She can't remember which.

Meet Me In St. Louis is one of my favorite movies ever. I admit it. It's so great. I can't help it. My ancestors lived in St. Louis at the time of the World's Fair in 1904, so somehow it feels homey to me. I don't know why. The movie was well-researched--many of the songs in it were actually popular at that time, and if they weren't they were mostly written to sound that way. The woman who wrote the book, which was based on her own personal history, oversaw the screenwriting and the set design. I read the book this summer and it was pretty close to the final version of the picture. And lest we forget, that movie brought Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to the world.

Of course, I love pretty much all Lerner and Loewe stuff: Gigi, My Fair Lady, Camelot.

Love a lot of Rogers and Hammerstein (and now getting into Rogers and Hart, who wrote a bunch of standards): Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I. I really can't stand Carousel. Most of the music from The Sound of Music annoys me, but I absolutely adored it more than anything when I was a kid, so I'll never get over that.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is sick and twisted but fabulous anyway.

Cabaret is one of the best musicals ever. I am not fond of the movie but I realize that the same people kept writing the same incarnations over and over. I like the original version best. The music's great, the plot's great, the message is intense and deeply depressing and therefore cool.

OK. This is getting way too long-winded. Signing off now.