A dying art form. Did anyone ever see "That's Entertainment!" (a pseudo-documentary that basically had a lot of MGM musical clips from the '30s, '40s, and '50s)? That was classic stuff. After I watched it, though, I had that furshlugginer "On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe" song stuck in my head the rest of the day...

Now pull that throttle, whistle blow...
A huffing and a puffing and away we go...
All aboard for Californi-yay!
On the Atchison (on the atchison)
On the Atchison Topeka (on the atchison topeka)
On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe!

"That's Entertainment" was MGM's fiftieth anniversary celebratory movie. A classic compilation film, it spawned two sequels and 1985's "That's Dancing". (Gene Kelly died shortly after the release of "T.E. III" in 1994.) "That's Dancing" contained the first public release of the long version of Ray Bolger's "If I Only Had A Brain" from "The Wizard Of Oz."
Musicals fell out of favor in 1978, with the failure of Universal's $30 million version of "The Wiz." Fox seems to want to get back in the game with their 2001 release "Moulin Rouge". With the video clips I have seen, though, it looks like an exercise in foolishness.
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire were the epitome of class. They are sorely missed.

Grease is the word.

The Wiz? What about Xanadu?

Xanadu?! Xanadu?! XANADU?!

Please, DON'T remind me of that movie!

I'm with Webber. Grease IS the word. But, my favorite musical of all time is Showboat. Grease is second, with Paint Your Wagon third.

I own NO movie musical soundtracks, by the way.

No-one has mentioned the Rocky Horror Picture Show yet!

Because we were all to busy doing the TIME WARP again!

Best audience lines:

• Where's your ****ing neck -- to the criminologist
• Who's your favorite Vulcan -- to Frank just before he mispronounces "spark"
• What? Meatloaf AGAIN???? -- just as dinner is served

Sven, nobody mentioned Rocky Horror because I never noticed this board before. -_^ I love that movie. But, then, I'm a sucker for musicals of any sorts. I love Tim Curry's acting in this film - he does a magnificent job, particularly (IMO) with the delivery of Frank's lines. Of course, his singing's pretty good too.

Another musical I like (sort of a guilty pleasure) is Sweet Charity. The song "Rhythm of Life" is excellent, and seeing a hundred hippies sing and dance to it in praise of their leader, Sammy Davis Jr., is hilarious beyond words.

Anybody see The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T? It's an absolute joy to behold. There's an extended musical sequence that takes place in a dungeon that has to be seen to be believed. I am amazed that it was made in 1953 every time I see it, it's so wonderfully surreal.

Miko--yes, thank God for cable. I was surprised that over the many years of reading about fantasy and sci-fi films, I had never heard of this one. I showed it to a friend's kids and they were fascinated by it. It's like a live Dr. Suess book (he wrote the story). I imagine this would have been great to watch in an "altered state".

Has anyone seen the Andrew Lloyd Webber special that was made for PBS? Antonio Banderas did a killer version of the theme to Phantom of the Opera!

Incidentally, the theme is my favorite piece from Phantom. I'm sick to death of "Music of the Night". The Michael Crawford version, that is.

I wonder if they'll ever release a new Phantom album, featuring everyone who's ever played the lead roles. I'd LOVE to hear a version of the theme by Paul Stanley, or "Music of the Night" by Robert Guillame (sp?)!

Has anyone heard what the status of the movie version is? Is it still a go, and have they cast the leads yet? I'm tired of rumors about the cast!

Anyone able to sit through the entirety of the movie "Evita?" I watched it on TNT for about 20 minutes and almost barfed. The failure of "The Wiz" in 1978 and "A Chorus Line" in 1985 almost killed movie musicals, "Evita" may have been the last nail in the coffin. A woefully miscast Madonna (who was kept despite her pregnancy) led to the doom of this film, which took over a decade to get to the screen.
I may have been the only person in history who liked the film version of "A Chorus Line" better than the play. I saw the film three times in the theaters, the play only once in the 16 years it was on Broadway.
I also had heard that the film of "A Chorus Line" cost $25 million to make. I can't figure that out, as it took place almost entirely in a Broadway theater (it was filmed at the Mark Hellinger theater) and had only one major star (Michael Douglas). Maybe all those years in development cost big bucks.

Richard "Gandhi" Attenborough directed "A Chorus Line" - maybe that's where some of the money went.

At that time, a superstar director made maybe $1 million per film, and Attenborough was not a superstar director (a quality director, to be sure, but he did not have the name recognition of Speilberg or Coppola.) Attenborough also did not have the reputation as a budget buster, like Coppola. This film may have been a case of inflated costs, to make the film look like a loser, in order to screw the profit participants (which Douglas may have been.)

And as we all learned from the Art Buchwald/Coming to America mess, you should always ask for a part of the Gross, not the Net!!!!

South Park counts as a musical.

BLAME CANADA!

"Shut your f*ckin face, Unca F*cka!"

South Park: BLU actually has decent music, though the movie itself is rather a bit too gross for me. I still laugh every time I hear, "It's Easy, Mmmkay!"

"South Park" is a very funny film, musical or not.

I've already mentioned some of my favorite musicals elsewhere but I'd like to see "Showboat" again. It's been too long. I love the song "Old Man River", as sung by William Warfield. Man, what a deep voice that guy had!

Uh, who the hell is William Warfield?! Paul Robeson sang "Old Man River". Are you thinking of PAUL Warfield, who I think sang it in a production once?

Sorry, MarkN, I'm going to have to disagree. I can only stand the South Park movie because it's a musical. If it weren't... well, there's only so much gross-out humor I can take.

I'm not a big fan of gross-out flicks either, but South Park is a major exception. It's musicals that I have a low tolerance for.

Really? I *heart* musicals. I'll watch anything with a musical number in it.

This is way OT, but Matthew, Scott, Mark, I heard from Machiko today. She just got moved. She left her computer behind, so the only time she'll be able to go online is when she's over at Mark Morgan's. Thought I'd let y'all know in case you haven't heard anything yourselves.

My aopologies to everyone else for going off-topic like that.

I heard. I was talking to Morgan on ICQ last night.

Uh, who the hell is William Warfield?! Paul Robeson sang "Old Man River". Are you thinking of PAUL Warfield...?
I remember Paul Robeson doing it, but wasn't it in a black and white film version? I was thinking of the color 1951 version, which I had to look for online, cuz I remembered it was William Something-Or-Other, and he's in that one. It has been awhile since I've seen either one.

Gee, I wish MarkM would talk with me on ICQ. In fact, I'm still waiting for him to re-authorize me.

Matthew, I guess I have a greater gross-out tolerance than you do (word of advice: don't ever watch the TV show Operation...or have you?). Besides, it's only a cartoon, although it was very surprising to see a cartoon character flashing around a dildo. Still, there are much grosser things on TV or in movies than "South Park". Just look at the evening news. BTW, I sent you a brief email from my Hotmail account.

Nope, never watched Operation. Not planning on it, either.

I never got that email. Could you send it again?

To Scott: Also with Winston Groom and "Forest Gump." Did he sue, like Buchwald did?

I'm watching "My Fair Lady" as I write this and I must say it's a damned fine picture. I've never seen it before but had only clips of it. There's only one complaint I have of it, as of any movies done in the 60s that take place decades earlier, and that is the women's hairstyles. They're always 60s styles, like in this film where Eliza Doolittle first comes down the staircase in that white dress and her hair is put up in a ridiculous style (I wonder if anyone ever thought of that at the time). Audrey Hepburn was very beautiful and that hairstyle just wasn't created in the 'teens or '20s, let alone probably thought of, when this film takes place. I thought it was earlier but there's at least one car that I saw, a limo. TV westerns from the 60s were also guilty of this. However, I love the costumes, like at the race track, with all the men in grey suits and tophats and the women in their various dresses, though the hats were way too big but then that was the style back then. Maybe not quite as big as those in this film, but perhaps so, too. I'm not very studious of 20s fashion styles.

It was on AMC, as was "Dr. Doolittle" a few days ago, another good musical, and the second of which Rex Harrison starred in with "Doolittle" as a character's name. I'd forgotten about that till I started watching "My Fair Lady".

I'm quite partial to "Kiss Me, Kate" (by the Cole Porter who didn't write "Anything Goes"... ). The film version is quite different from the stage show, in that some of the songs have totally different arrangements ("Too Darn Hot" and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" are two examples) and that there's an original number, "From This Moment On", exclusively in the film version. And of course the language was toned down for the film ("You louse!!!") including, bizarrely, in some of the songs. Plus, the film was made with the old-style 3D fad that was in vogue in the Fifties for all of thirty seconds (approximately ). Still good, though.

I can't believe no one has mentioned "The Phantom Of The Paradise!" But the movie is bit unknown, even though it's just as good as any of the other cult-sevenity musical. (Rocky Horror being the most popular) Still, Phantom Of The Paradise is a fun little flick with great music.

Is that the KISS movie or the one with Paul Williams?

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Paul Williams.

Ah. Thought so. That one I've never seen. I know it's a cult favorite, though. I think Danny Peary discusses it in one of his Cult Movies books. (I love those books. I wish he'd write a fourth one.)

np - Tumbleweed Connection - Elton John

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

The KISS movie, if memory serves me, is entitled "The Phantom Of The Carival," was a TV movie, and wasn't a musical. (I could be wrong on that last one, I haven't seen the movie in a very long time after all)

Nope Monster, It's called "Kiss meets the Phantom Of The Park". The only musical bits are when Kiss sing. Good laugh value, but really, pretty shallow- and that's coming from a Kiss fan BTW!

Phantom Of The Paradise was directed by a then unknown guy named Brian DePalma. It played for weeks at one Manhattan theater in late 1974. I also think it's played recently on AMC.

From Sven, back in 2001....

I'm quite partial to "Kiss Me, Kate" (by the Cole Porter who didn't write "Anything Goes"... ).

Me too. I had the pleasure of playing in the pit orchestra for a high school production of Kate back in... well, um..., er..., let's just say it was a heck of a long time ago...

My favorite songs: "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", "Wunderbar", and "I Hate Men".