Ok so given that I haven’t been able to stop raging against Les Miserables since the unfortunate movie came out, I thought maybe I should be a little positive and talk about the movie musicals I actually LIKE. (But for those of you who love hearing me rant and rave about Les Miz, worry not, I have a review coming soon)

So I have a couple of lists going here. One is a list of movie musicals that I grew up with and still think are great. Most of the obvious ones are on this list. The other list is my countdown of movie musicals of recent years…mostly since Chicago won the academy award…you know, when movie musicals suddenly became cool again.

When I started to do some research on this I was surprised to find how many movies were actually listed as movie musicals – so let me lay out some parameters:

First of all the characters in the story must actually sing. Footloose doesn’t count. Neither does Fame, Flashdance or All That Jazz. I am also just going to automatically exclude all things Disney and Muppets. If I add those two mega-musical-geniuses in to this we’ll be here all day. And after all, they belong in a category all their own. Ditto to all rock-group style musicals. This includes HELP, Walk the Line and my favorite: That Thing You Do. It has to be a musical that was turned into a movie…or vise versa. Oh and High School Musical is also out. Because I hate it and at one point some ridiculous reviewer had the audacity to suggest it was the next Grease!

Ok, now I’m ready.

WAIT! One more thing: If I don’t like the musical in the first place, then it also will not make this list. No Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (ugh!) or Hello Dolly. I hate these shows so it doesn’t matter how good they are or were – they aren’t on the list.

Ok, drum roll…..

#1: Singing in the Rain. Of course. Do I even need an explanation here? This is one of those musicals I am glad my parents made me watch and one of the only ones from the fifty’s I really adore. I know that’s wrong. As a dancer there is a whole long list of Fred Astaire films I should adore but honestly they all run together for me and I can’t tell one from the other. I am happy to see Fred in clips just doing his Fred thing….but for a whole movie? Gimme Gene Kelly any day.

The rest are in no particular order.

#2: 1776 – I don’t know why I love this one so much. There is not a stitch of dancing in it and its all guys but I think it’s just brilliant and I love anything with history in it. And besides that guy that was the voice of Kitt in Knightrider is in it!

#3: West Side Story — Obviously.

#4: Fiddler on the Roof – it’s a bit too long and the singing is not great, but Topol is amazing and Jerome Robbins choreography and filming is genius.

#5: Damn Yankees and Sweet Charity – I put these two together cause they are both Fosse, both awesome.

#6: Grease – Grew up on this one. Saw it before I even understood all the naughty stuff I was watching. Watch it every time it’s on TV and it’s still great.

#7: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas – This one flies under people’s radar I bet. But give it a look if you haven’t. I love it. Dolly Parton is gorgeous and Bert Reynolds and Dom DeLuise are hilarious. The governor’s song, done brilliantly by Charles Durning, is my personal favorite. I did the show years later and was pleased to find that the girls have much more to do in the show than the movie…but I still love how the movie is put together much better.

#8: Little Shop of Horrors – Who even knew Rick Moranis could sing? And there are muppets in this!! I frigging love this movie. The plant voiced by Levi Stubbs is the best.

#9: Annie – 1982. I saw this movie long before I ever saw the play. I wanted to be Pepper in this movie when I was a kid. She kicks ass. Then I saw the show. BOO!! First of all, Punjab and the Asp aren’t even in it!! It’s charming where the show is just annoying. Carol Burnett rules. There is this extra song with her and Albert Finney that is my absolute favorite called “Sign”. And then you get to watch Carol, Bernadette Peters and Tim Curry dance all over the orphanage. What more could you want?

Ok picking a tenth was tough. There is nothing left I really love. I can’t use King and I or Music Man or My Fair Lady, because while they were all great movies and I definitely enjoy watching them still, I just don’t love the music in them at all.

The opposite holds true for The Wiz, Godspell and A Chorus Line. Love the music but the movies were just not that good. Oliver won a ton of awards didn’t it? I appreciate it. I think it’s well done in every way. But again, music doesn’t really do much for me. I kinda wanna put in Finian’s Rainbow just for Fred and for Tommy Steele but it’s an out of date story that is only really fun because I’m Irish and I like the whole leprechaun thing.

I think I gotta go with Superstar. Sort of a cop-out since I did the show a hundred times and I feel some sort of loyalty to it. But honestly it really is a good movie. Weird and sort of hippy like, but the concept of a bunch of actors busing it out to the desert to put on the show and then leaving after Jesus is dead, without their lead, was kinda cool.

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Ok, that’s it for the old school list. I bet I won’t get much disagreement from my age group and younger out there and I am sure anyone older than me would certainly add King and I to their list but that’s ok.

Now – on to today. There have been about 12 movie musicals made in the last ten years or so (one was in 1996) and I am going to rank them how I see fit. Now remember….I am heavily influenced by whether or not I actually like the musical so many of you may choose to put these in a different order and I would love to hear from you. I am also influenced by choreography, staging and filming in general. Singing actually comes last on my list….the vocals gotta be pretty bad for me to hate the movie.

Some of these shows I never actually saw until I saw the movie. That fact will also skew my opinion. (I know I liked Sweeney waaaay more than a lot of my friends for example)

Ok, starting from the bottom….

# 12… Les Miserables – did you even have to ask? (full review explaining why coming this summer)

#11: Nine. Ok I’m not gonna lie….I didn’t even see this. Did anyone?

#10: Mama Mia – Boy this was a disappointment. Everyone kinda sucked vocally and the film was so grainy looking that poor Meryl Streep looked like she was a hundred years old. But the water shots were beautiful! Can’t put that in the musical.

#9: Phantom of the Opera – This is one of those musicals I love and hate. The story is cheesy and makes me roll my eyes and I don’t even really love the songs….but that big booming sound of 80’s synthesizers just gives me the chills. My mom had to drag me to Toronto to see this when I was 18, but I’ll tell you, when that first note hit and that giant chandelier started to rise, I broke down and cried like a baby for the rest of the show. I didn’t expect much from the movie, and I didn’t get much. But it sure was pretty to look at.

#8: Rock of Ages – This was fun. I didn’t see the show. Heard it was hilarious. But it was fun to watch a bunch of actors play goofy 80’s stereotypes. Love him or hate him Tom Cruise was awesome.

#7: The Producers – I wanted to like this more than I did. I hadn’t seen the show yet (the national tour came thru the next year I think) I mean it was good. Wil Farrell was especially funny. The dancing was good, the filming was good. I was impressed that the movie kept the Broadway show’s stars in it. But I was surprised that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick sort of fell flat for me. I didn’t laugh as much as I thought I would. Maybe this is the kind of show that is better performed live.

#6: Rent – Ok I liked this one. I can’t watch it ever again because all I do is cry through the whole thing. I hate to admit this but I was never Rent head. I just couldn’t get into it when it first came out. And I spent my first time seeing the live show trying to figure out what the hell everyone was saying! And since I am quite a literal person I didn’t really appreciate the scaffolding set pieces. I was already having a hard time figuring out what the singers were talking about without having to imagine where the hell the whole story was taking place! The movie solved that problem for me and I loved it more than most people did as a result.

#5: Evita – I think everyone forgets this one because it came out in 1996, six years before Chicago. I love Evita. I blasted that sound track in my living room the entire year I was at OCC pretending to be an art major. I’d spend whole afternoons painting at my kitchen table listening to Patti LuPone scream her head off. It was my heavy metal inspiration music and I got a lot of work done to that soundtrack. The movie was not as good as the show I remember seeing once upon a time at Salt City Playhouse but I thought it was a very entertaining effort.

#4: Hairspray – Never saw the show. Loved the movie. The singing is stellar and the dancing is WAY better than anything the stage version could have pulled off.

#3: Sweeny Todd – Frigging Tim Burton. I actually got my younger brother to go see this. Also one of best friend’s horror movie expert husband. They both loved it. This is another show I never saw. Mom actually wouldn’t let me see it when it played at Salt City. I know that a ton of choral music is missing but I don’t care. I know that Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and much of the cast are not the most brilliant singers ever and I still don’t care. They pull it off. (Maybe that’s what happens when you record in a studio. You end up making a good sound!) This movie was gorgeous and horrible at the same time. I found myself almost laughing every time Johnny slit a throat and the body slid down to the basement in a bloody heap. I own this one and I watch it often.

#2: Chicago – Are you surprised this wasn’t my number one? I have nothing bad to say about this. (Except that I find Renee Zellweger a little bit annoying now). It’s awesome – and pretty much responsible for all the movie musicals that have come after. Thank god for Rob Marshall.

#1: Dreamgirls – It’s my favorite and it deserved better reviews and more awards than it got. Jennifer Hudson, pre Weight Watchers spokes-person is absolutely incredible. And she is pretty much the reason I am so bothered by all of the self-indulged back patting from the cast of Les Miserables. How dare any one of them suggest for an instant that you cannot act to the play back of your own voice…that you can make much better acting choices if you are constantly singing live. Did they even see Dreamgirls? If Anne Hathaway can win an academy award for sobbing her off-key way through “I Dreamed a Dream” then Jennifer Hudson did it by singing well and acting THE CRAP out of one of the longest, heart wrenching, most difficult songs in musical theatre history “I Am Telling You…” I U-tubed Jennifer Holliday the original Effie and watched her sing that song and got a whole new appreciation for how jaw-droppingly difficult it is. Jennifer Hudson did it justice…and she does it while crying AND singing in tune.