Thursday 28 May 2009

Musicals

Thursday 28 May 2009
I love Musicals. I fell in love with them aged 10 when my parents took us to see Michael Crawford in Barnum and have been hooked ever since on both stage and screen. I should probably thank my Mum as she loves them too and ever since I can remember I was encouraged to watch old films and musicals.

My earliest crushes were Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracey and more, I dreamed of dancing with Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly in Singin in the Rain more than I ever dreamed of dancing with Kevin Bacon in Footloose or Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (which were both released when I was a teenager).

I have friends who have never seen a black and white film (and refuse to do so). Imagine living your life never having seen Some Like it Hot or The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca or Yankee Doodle Dandy. Or Harvey, one of the best films ever made. What a waste! And yes, if you're reading this and you haven't seen any of the above GO AND WATCH THEM NOW.

The point of this rhapsodising? Lia's essential musical education is underway. She loves singing and dancing and is captivated the minute she sees any on TV so I have today (which is payday!) scoured Amazon and Play for cheap DVDs and have bought:

High Society
My Fair Lady
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Calamity Jane
Annie
Bugsy Malone
South Pacific
Oklahoma
The King and I
Oliver
The Sound of Music

All of which are so completely unfashionable they retail around £2-£3 pounds.

I've also downloaded some soundtracks that I'm going to put on a CD for in the car - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver, Sound of Music, Joseph. We've never listened to kids songs in the car (one of the reasons she's already word perfect on 'Take Me Back to the Black Hills' by Doris Day and a huge Abba fan LOL) but now she's up to singing along I intend to give her plenty of opportunity to do so!

8 comments:

Ginnie said...

What a great range of musicals you got. I love 7 brides for 7 brothers I have watched it and seen it on stage many times. Luckily my girls love musicals too, singing in the rain being a firm favourite at the moment. My one daughter was shocked when her friend declared she's never heard of Gene Kelly!! sad!

Sheila said...

Well - I´m standing tall and saying it loud and saying it proud ... Oklahoma is probably my all time favourite film (I saw the stage version in London with Hugh Jackman twice - be still my beating heart) and I love Calamity Jane and Seven Brides (got all three on dvd or video (or in the case of Oklahoma - in both :)
You go Lia :)

Beatrice said...

I'm addicted to musicals as well. My favorite is South Pacific.

I love them all and have see them all live over the years.
Some professionally and some amateur some school plays and some local theater.

Last week I saw Grease at a small local theater. She would like the music in that too!

There is so much talent out there.
Some day I'll go to Broadway. We have very good professional theaters in Toronto and go as often as I can. We also have Stratford and Shaw in Niagara.

Enjoy!

Erin (moviemuse) said...

I love musicals, too. The Sound of Music is one of the first I remember seeing, an My Fair Lady is still one of my favorites. And I agree, Harvey is a fantastic film! Though I think my favorite black and white movies are Roman Holiday and Arsenic and Old Lace.

Joyus said...

Oooooh I forgot those two Erin, they're definitely in my top ten B&W movies too.

Beatrice, Grease was in the basket but I left it for now as I thought it a little grown up for Lia at the moment. I may well get the soundtrack though.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Abi said...

I saw The Sound of Music when I was 9 and its one of my all time favorites. I love Audry Hepburn, and I don't care if they dubbed her singing voice for My Fair Lady. I love The King & I too.

Gina said...

Some people have never seen black and white films?? Really???? I have started a collection of Jimmy Stewart films (The Glen Miller Story is one of my faves, though not B&W) and recently bought 'Arsenic and Old Lace', 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington' and 'Bell, Book and Candle'. I love Jack Lemmon too, and want to get 'The Odd Couple' some time as well as 'Some Like it Hot'. Spencer Tracey, Walter Matthau, Katherine Hepburn - I love them all. Mum and I used to watch all the oldies on TV on Saturday afternoons while my Dad was out fishing.
Musicals?...I'm not so sure about those...Love Kelly and Astaire though.

 

Total Pageviews