On Musicals

So, I finally saw Les Miserables last night...and again this morning.  Thing is, both blogs that I follow have already done extensive coverage of it, so I'm not going to just copy them and tread on their turf.  No, instead, I will discuss, in alphabetical order, my favorite musicals.

"Why in alphabetical order?  What's wrong with numerical order?"

Because it would end up in about a three-way-tie, and I'd feel bad rating one above the other.  So, here it goes, some of Katrina's absolute favoritest musicals of all time.  Well, the real life ones, at least.  The animated ones get covered when I do my favorite Disney animated features list.

Annie--Okay, first confession is that most of these made the list because I absolutely love the music, so that goes without saying.  The problem is that after you cover that, you don't really have many reasons to talk about why you like a musical.  I mean, what am I supposed to say, "I like it because of the warm fuzzies I get when Daddy Warbucks warms up to her and decides to adopt her and then also marries his secretary?"  No, duh, I'm going to be tell you this movie/musical (I have watched two film versions and two stage versions.) rocks because of "It's a Hard Knock Life," "Little Girls," "Easy Street," "Maybe," "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile," and "Tomorrow."  And also because Annie's an awesome redhead.  Because redheads are awesome.  I know that was circular reasoning, but oh well.

The King and I--So, one Sunday afternoon, my brothers were watching Disney Channel, and they ended up watching the animated version.  We liked it, so since we were sick enough we had to skip church that night anyway (which probably meant we were really sick), my mom had us watch the live action version.  Of course, at least one brother was aghast at the ending of the non-animated version because in the animated one he apparently lives.  But, no, I'm like, "I'm over here with the real life version with the dying and stuff."  And also the really long symbolic play-within-a-film about Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Then they also decided to include the fact that the king offers to send Abraham Lincoln bull elephants to aid in the Civil War (That part of the film is true!  Lincoln did in fact receive an offer of war elephants from the King of Siam, which he refused.).  I actually only have one favorite song, "Shall We Dance," but that's because I'm more in love with the whole theme of the movie.  I guess I can just sympathize with Anna trying to understand the Siamese culture and trying to also "fit" her English ways in.  And the King of Siam is such a hilarious character, etc., etc. etc.

Les Misérables--So, maybe I only watched this twice (last night and this morning), but I kind of already fell in love quickly, which normally happens with musicals and me.  I don't normally gradually start out "meh" and turn to "like" and then "love."  No, for me it's more of an instant "OH YES THIS IS AWESOME!" sort of thing.  I mean, the movie starts out with "Look Down," and that kind of sucks you in immediately.  I'll admit I got lost in the middle for a bit there, and thanks to Susan Boyle, "I Dreamed a Dream" kind of is boring to me, but I own it because it's a good song.  Also, I was well prepared for everyone dying at the end, but, come on, like the French would think of doing anyone else.  My favorite songs are "Look Down," "Red and Black," "On My Own," "Can You Hear the People Sing?," and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables."  And then of course there's that epilogue where it's like, "YES!"  And I almost cried, which, as I've stated before, is significant for me.  I mean, the French are probably the only people who can leave you nearly/actually in tears and wanting to start a revolution all at once.

Newsies--So, the reason I checked this movie out from the library was 1) because people at college kept telling me it was awesome and 2) because I was checking out Batman Begins from the library but The Dark Knight wasn't in.  I didn't know about the whole Christian Bale being in both thing.  And as soon as I watched the movie, I was instantly in some sort of love thing with it.  It had cute guys, inspired you to do something you probably actually didn't want to do, and had really catchy music.  Bonus:  The director/choreographer was Kenny Ortega, and since I was young enough at the time to like High School Musical, it made it pretty cool.  Anyway, nowadays, I like to pretend High School Musical was never a part of my life.  But Newsies is, and it is awesome.  I couldn't get the songs out of my head, so I got the CD for my birthday, and basically almost every song that Medda didn't sing was my favorite.  This means my favorites are "Carrying the Banner," "Santa Fe," "The World Will Know," "Seize the Day," "King of New York," and "Once and For All."  And, yes, the historicalness of it all is very skewed, but if a musical doesn't mess with history, something's wrong with the musical.  Because sadly, real people don't just break out into song and dance on the streets.  Even though I really wish we did.  Which is why Improv Everywhere are my heroes (watch their YouTube videos; awesome stuff).

The Phantom of the Opera--I mean, come on, why wouldn't you love the film that's based on the longest running Broadway play ever?  Okay, my friend Micah has some reasons, and I do see his points, but let's cover a couple things here:  awesome organ music (DUH-DUH-DUH-DUUUH!), underground lair with water entrance, and a falling chandelier.  Remind me again how this movie isn't cool?  Okay, yeah, there's that really lame swordfight, I'll give Micah that, and, yes, Christine should've been smart enough to figure out the fact that the Phantom isn't her dead father, but, come on, doesn't the music outweigh those minor details.  "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Masquerade" are definitely my two favorites.  Come on, "The Phantom of the Opera" song is so epic, it in itself cancels out all bad arguments.  In fact, next time someone tells me they don't like this movie, I'm just going to blast the title song over their talking to show how much I care. :P

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers--Okay, I didn't see this movie until college.  And as soon as I saw it, I loved it.  I mean, how many movies start with a guy coming to town being like, "I'm getting a woman" and then all six of his brothers are simultaneously like, "We want women!"  And then there's men singing and dancing and an avalanche and the kidnapping and everyone happily gets married in a shotgun wedding ceremony over a baby that actually was the spawn of the married couple.  Favorite Songs:  "Bless Your Beautiful Hide," "Goin' Courtin'," and "Sobbin' Women."  And also the barn dance-off.  And, come on, someone invented a hick, lumberjack musical.  It's like they took two theoretically conflicting concepts and combined them into one of the most epic musicals of all time.

The Sound of Music--So, this was probably the first real musical I saw.  I mean, not that Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King aren't real musicals, but it was the first live action musical I saw.  I was maybe six at the time, and at first I kind of fell in love with the absolutely pointless goat puppet show, but overall I loved this film.  I mean, even when you're six, you simply understand something about this film is awesome.  Maybe it's the way it opens, the dancing, the singing, the everything.  And when you're little, you don't quite understand everything.  In fact, after the wedding, most of what you see doesn't make much sense to you aside from the music festival.  And then eventually you grow up, and you learn more about history, and you watch History Channel specials, and you read the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, and your first time watching it in over a year when you're sixteen (Probably the first time watching it since I read the book), you cry because you finally understand what the Nazis are about.  You finally understand how they're leaving Austria forever.  Maybe Rodgers and Hammerstein condensed some things, and maybe it is, in the words of Maria von Trapp, "a nice story but not my story," but it's still powerful.  Because I started on this journey so young, my favorite songs have changed over time, but as an adult, my favorites are "The Sound of Music," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," and "Climb Every Mountain."  In the past, "Do-Re-Mi;" So Long, Farewell;" and "The Lonely Goatherd" have also been favorites.

Anyway, that wraps up my top seven live action musicals.  I think they're pretty awesome, and if you haven't seen any of them, GO TO YOUR LIBRARY AND CHECK THEM OUT!

Also, this isn't saying I don't like any other musicals.  There's some I haven't seen yet, and I haven't seen The Fiddler on the Roof for such a long time, and even then only once, I can't remember how favorite it is.  The Phantom of the Opera had that same problem for a while.  This is probably an indication I need to go check out Fiddler again, because I know it is pretty stinking cool.