Carousel film on DVD

Carousel has to be my favorite of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals; I've seen the film version many times and actually been involved with three stage productions of it. I am very biased, but I think it has the best score of any R&H show. The music really reaches a new level, and the way the book leads right into the lyrics is masterful. If the story is a bit far-fetched at times, I don't mind when I get to hear "If I Loved You" or the "Soliloquy." Even the character songs like "When I Marry Mister Snow" and "When the Children Are Asleep" are high and away better than your average show's best songs.

The filming in Cinemascope works well in this film, with blocking and sets designed to take advantage of the wide angle, allowing for two-shots that don't seem static. And it shows off more beautiful wooden sailboats in the harbor, which is almost as important to me as the show itself!

Dance again is a big part of this show, which was originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille. The dream ballet works the best, but the chorus dancing is demanding stuff for the musical's chorus.

Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones are paired again as they were in the film version of Oklahoma! Rather than a happy ending, as in their first film, Carousel has a much darker side to its love story. If the perennially perky Jones doesn't give the most nuanced performance, I'll forgive her because her singing has just the right balance of legato in the more lyrical portions of the score. And later in her career, Jones will prove her acting chops in Elmer Gantry, for which she won an Oscar. I like to think that her efforts in Carousel lead to a more successful result in the later film.

Robert Rounseville as Enoch Snow is an interesting performer, who played quite a bit on Broadway as well as on more "legit" stages. He originated the role of Candide in Bernstein's operetta, and well as being in the original casts of Babes in Arms (Rodgers & Hart), Knickerbocker Holiday (Weill), and Man of LaMancha (Mitch Leigh). Not a bad career by that list of credits, and this doesn't even count his New York City Opera performances. Do cross over performers like that exist today? Maybe Audra McDonald?

Carousel
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
20th Century Fox Film from 1956
Directed by Henry King
Cast: Shirley Jones, Gordon MacRae, Barbara Ruick, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Rounseville

The Unsinkable Molly Brown film on DVD

I didn't know Meredith Willson wrote a musical other than The Music Man! Well, The Unsinkable Molly Brown was his follow-up. The music for Molly doesn't reach the same level as Music Man. Mainly I miss the group numbers--not just chorus numbers, but also songs for smaller groups. And the leading lady doesn't even get a big 11 o'clock number for herself.

This 1964 film version of the 1960 stage musical stars perky Debbie Reynolds as the titular floater. Ms. Reynolds is not one of my favorite performers, but is the right balance of bubbly and brassy for this role. Harve Presnell makes his screen debut as John Brown, a role he originated on Broadway. Mr. Presnell has a robust and agile baritone voice that I very much like.

I was surprised by how much dance there is in this film. And it was choreographed by Peter Gennaro, a Broadway hoofer and choreographer from the 50s through the 70s. He danced in the original casts of Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, and Guys and Dolls. He choreographed Molly Brown on Broadway, Fiorello!, and won a Tony for Annie, as well as being co-choreographer for the original production of West Side Story. His choreography for Molly is lively, and appropriate for character/time/place/etc. without being over-the-top.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson
Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell

Strike Up The Band film on DVD

Well, this 1940 MGM film may share its title with the 1930 Gershwin musical, but that's about all Strike Up The Band has from the original. A follow-up to the box office bonanza Babes in Arms, this vehicle for Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland doesn't deserve the Gershwin name.

I've actually seen the original stage version performed in a Encores-like semi-staging. I can't recall a thing about it, but in comparing the song list of the stage and film versions, only the title song appears in both. This seems to be due to Roger Edens, who is credited with writing most of the music in the film. After butchering Bernstein in On The Town, and now Gershwin in Strike Up The Band, I'm starting to dislike Mr. Edens. Perhaps there is a back story that needs to be uncovered to understand what happened.

I have to say, I do like the fruit orchestra sequence. I wonder if this is one of the earliest examples of stop-action photography, or whatever film technique is used.

Strike Up The Band
One song by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin
The rest of the songs by Roger Edens
MGM film from 1940
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, June reisser, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, Larry Nunn, Ann Shoemaker

Ghost Light Monday--Chris and Don: A Love Story

Intriqued about Christopher Isherwood from my recent thinking about Cabaret, I went to see the film documentary Chris and Don: A Love Story about the 30+ year relationship between Isherwood and Don Bachardy.

The focus of the film is really on Bachardy as he reminisces about the life that Isherwood opened up to him. It deals very little with Isherwood as a literary figure, although does mention most of his significant works. Excerpts from Isherwood's diaries are read by Michael York, continuing his doppleganger position from Cabaret.

The film is enjoyable. While referring to the 30 year age difference between the two men, the film doesn't dwell on it. Nor does it make a big deal about the sexual intimacy of the relationship. But it serves up a big dose of the emotional intimacy between Isherwood and Bachardy, which included a father-and-son-like fostering of Bachardy in the early stages of the relationship, and a parent-child-like care-taking of Isherwood in the late stage of his life.

I had never heard of Bachardy prior to seeing this film, and knew nothing of Isherwood's personal life beyond his early days with W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender in England and Germany. Perhaps I'll now read some of Isherwood's later diaries (if they are published) or his seminal Christopher and His Kind.

Chris and Don: A Love Story
Documentary Film by Tina Mascara and Guido Santi
In limited release currently
Cast: Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, Michael York, Leslie Caron, Liza Minnelli

On The Town film on DVD

New York, New York, it's a Wonderful Town. And this is a Wonderful Film! Deservedly a classic musical picture with a star-studded cast. The stage show of On The Town has some music that didn't make it to the film, most notably for me is "Lonely Town", a ballad which Gabey sang in the original Broadway production. It's a great song and I miss it. I also miss "I Can Cook, Too" which Nancy Walker sang in the stage version as cabby Hildy. The songs that Roger Edens wrote for the film, aren't all that special when compared with Bernstein.

With Gene Kelly as star and co-director, it's not surprising that dance plays a big role in this film, as it must do in the stage version, too, since the show originated as an idea for a Jerome Robbins ballet with music by Bernstein. As the theatrical trailer, which is about the only DVD extra, states--"It's twice as gay as 'Anchors Aweigh' " and boasts "A Torrent of Talent and Tunes."

I wonder if there is a more accurate version of On the Town on film, perhaps a taping of a stage production.

On The Town
Music by Leondard Bernstein
Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Screenplay by Comden and Green based on their stage play
Additional music by Roger Edens
Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen.

Cabaret film on DVD

My Year now has two musical films in a row directed by Bob Fosse. Let's compare and contrast Sweet Charity with Cabaret.

Both films feature standout performances by lead women.

Both lead female characters are alone and searching for something.

Charity is looking for a quiet life with a husband and baby.

Sally is looking or the wild life of fame and fortune and avoids getting a husband and baby.

Both leading characters are eternal optimists.

Both feature a chorus line of women from the wrong side of the rail.

Clearly, the Mr. Fosse of Cabaret owes a lot to the Mr. Fosse of Sweet Charity. In Sweet Charity he was trying out various cinematic techniques; with Cabaret, Mr. Fosse has a much stronger sense of his cinematic vision for telling the story. The camera tricks are used much more sparingly and don't get in the way of the story, but help us see it more clearly. In Charity there was an Overture and Intermission, mimicking how people experienced the stage version of musical. With Cabaret, that convention is thrown out.

Fosse's choreography seems to have evolved as well. The isolation moves are still there, but they are much less constraining--perhaps fitting in the looser environment of Weimar Berlin.

The movie loses some of the music of the stage show and really only presents musical numbers that are in the setting of the Cabaret. So Brian and Fritz and Natalia and Fraulein Schneider don't sing. I think this probably heightens the contrast between the cabaret-world and the "real" world of fascism, hate crimes, and violence. However, it prevents us from knowing some of the inner thoughts of the characters, which a good ballad would give us. I've never seen the show on stage, so I don't know for certain what's missing.

Michael York seems the perfect embodiment of Christopher Isherwood, on whose Berlin Stories this stage show and film are based--young, thin, beautiful, blond, with a swoop of blond hair that makes him look like he just left the campus of Eaton.

There is an independent film out right now called Chris and Don: A Love Story, that is about Isherwood in Hollywood. Perhaps it will soon add some insight to my musical thinking.

Cabaret
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Book by Joel Masteroff
Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen
(a woman, who is also the playwright of Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Tru)
Directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Helmut Griem, Marisa Berenson.

Sweet Charity film on DVD

I seem to be in a DVD rut at this point in my Year. But if they are all as good as Bob Fosse's film version of his stage production of Sweet Charity, then I'm fine by it. Shirley MacLaine has exactly the right balance of bravado and vulnerability, eternal optimist and perennial victim. And she is the perfect embodiment of Fosse's choreography. The music is at the same time bubbly and specific to time/place/character.

This was Bob Fosse's first job directing a film and there is an interesting DVD extra about his efforts to translate his stage production to film. He uses a lot of various cinematic techniques in telling the story and presenting the music and dance. Sometimes they feel a little dated and slow down the story-telling, but I give him points for looking outside the box.

The men get short-changed in terms of musical numbers in this film, which cuts several of the songs from the stage show. But there is a good ol' fashioned Stubby Kaye chorus number.

I found myself mesmerized by the portrayals by some notable musical theater performers in smaller roles in the film, which I think is a positive comment on their watch ability. Chita Rivera is front and center on the rail during the "Big Spender" number, and finally gets the dance on the roof she was denied when Rita Moreno was cast in the film of West Side Story. The afore-mentioned Stubby Kaye is the dance hall manager. Ben Vereen appears in the night club dance scene. And I think I can totally get behind any religion that has Sammy Davis Jr. as its apostle!

Sweet Charity
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Screenplay by Peter Stone (of 1776?) based on the book of the stage musical by Neil Simon
Directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse
Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera, Ricardo Montalban, Stubby Kaye, Sammy Davis Jr., John McMartin