Son of the SDMB Musicals Group

Cafe Society
1

Back in 2005, we had a musicals discussion group; two, actually. These kind of petered out when people got busy, so we were left with three really cool lists of films that Archive Guy, Lamia (who’s no longer around, I don’t think), and I put together.

The discussion on Singin’ in the Rain elsewhere in this forum reminded me of the group, and I thought I’d see if there’s any interest in resurrecting it.

So you know what you’re getting into, here are the three lists from three years ago, somewhat tweaked and prodded by yours truly to reflect current Netflix availability and to throw in a couple of new favorites:

I. Politics of Transformation (male protagonists forced to take stock in their lives and the changes in themselves they’ve witnessed):
*All That Jazz
Cabaret
Cabin in the Sky
Guys and Dolls
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
It’s Always Fair Weather
The Music Man
The Pirate
Shall We Dance? *(1995 Japanese original, not the Richard Gere-JLo remake)

II. The Vagaries of Love:
*Bride and Prejudice
Bye Bye Birdie
Oklahoma!
Shall We Dance *(Astaire-Rogers)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
**Note: **This list is obviously shorter than the other two – if you’d like to nominate additional films for it, please do!

III. Period and Nostalgia:
Chicago
Meet Me in St. Louis
Moulin Rouge!
New York, New York
Pennies from Heaven
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1776
Stormy Weather

The idea would be that we’d pick one of these lists, announce when each would be discussed (I’m thinking two a month), then have a thread on each movie in turn. I’ll be happy to write OPs, even though I don’t know anything about actual movie criticism, so my comments tend to be scattered and impressionistic – but if anyone else wants to write an OP for a particular film, or just in general, please let me know! Archive Guy will probably be active, though he’s on his way to Europe at the moment – and I hope lissener and some of the other film buffs would be interested as well.

As suggested above, I just checked Netflix, and all of these are available through there, with several available for instant view. It’s possible that a couple of the films I added today had been discussed in one of the earlier incarnations of this group, but I don’t see that being a disqualification for discussing them again.

If you’re interested, please post, including a vote for which of the three lists you’d like to see us tackle first.

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I’d love to participate. Last time around, my hiatus began just as my nomination was up. And no, it’s still not available on DVD. Though I know have the capability to make copies of it on a DVR. But even absent that title, I’d like to participate. I’d like to maybe nominate a movie or two that is not a traditional musical, but still uses music as a primary device for storytelling. Also, many movies that aren’t considered musicals but that actually are: *The Blues Brothers, 8 Mile, Walk the Line, Flashdance, *etc.

3

I had in mind to use one of the three theme lists to start – if you wanted to suggest something that would work particularly well in one of those themes, that would be great.

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Personally, I vote for any list that contains Meet Me in St. Louis first.

5

I’m in.

6

Of course I’m in anything that combines the SDMB and Musicals!

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Not in. I am supportive of the idea, but now is not a good time for me. I reserve the right to view and comment on any of the musicals that it turns out to be convenient for me to access (no access to Netflix, now is not a good time to begin for me).

A lot could happen in a couple of months, but don’t count on my involvement.

8

Yay! Sigmagirl, Annie-Xmas, which of the three lists would you like to see us do first?

Eureka – naturally, “membership” is a loose and fluid notion – the idea is just to provide a schedule of particular films to watch, so that we’ve got at least 5 or 10 people who have all watched any given film pretty recently. Obviously anyone who’s ever seen the film is welcome to join in, and people are welcome to pick and choose which films they want to watch, based on their schedules and interests. It’s not like you have to sign up here in order to ever participate in any of the threads!

Also, I checked Netflix as a kind of general indication of how readily available the films are. Most public libraries have DVD collections – my little neighborhood branch probably has at least a third of the movies listed here (just off the top off my head). Plus us fans undoubtedly have several in our own collections already – I personally have (scans up and counts) ten of them, and my collection isn’t huge (though it is very, very musical-heavy).

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twickster,
Yeah, I get that Netflix availability is just a way of estimating avilability of the movies, not a prerequisite for group involvement. Really, my problem is much more of the “not sure I’ll have time to watch a movie if I get access to it” variety, for reasons I’m not interested in posting on-line.

I’m just disappointed in the timing, that’s all, even though if the group sticks better than the Classics Reading Group does, it should still be around when my life stabilizes.

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Gotcha. Hope you can participate from time to time as things allow – and also hope that we keep going through all three of these lists and into three new lists! I loves me some movie musicals!

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Could the Politics of Transformation list be expanded to include female protagonists as well, or are they set?

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Sounds like fun! I remember the first time I watched Singing in the Rain. I thought Gene Kelly looked okay. But when that slow smile blossomed across his face when Debbie popped out of the cake I realized he was hot! And I’ve since noticed the same thing with other actors, the transformation a smile or a wicked grin can make!

13

Ten films seems like a good number for a set, just to keep things more or less focussed – it would be cool to set up a “sister” set for that, though. Any suggestions for what to include?

14

Well, Grace Kelly/Tracy Lord got transformed from an ivory goddess into a real woman in High Society. She doesn’t sing, but everybody else does.

15

Yanno what might be fun for female transformation? Enchanted.

16

I am in and vote for transformation list #1.

I also support Enchanted as a film for viewing. It is a wonderful example of what can be done with the modern movie musical.

17

I’ll watch along.

18

Ditto.

Total aside, but on the subject of musicals, and having a sentimental softspot for cranky bitter old women anyway, I love Grandma’s Song from Billy Elliot; rest of the soundtrack is pretty good too. Favorite lines: “…and we were free for an hour or three/from the people we had to be… but in the mornin’/we were sober”.

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Great – glad we’re getting some interest – but how come no one wants to indicate a preference for which set to start with? I’m seeing lissener’s vote for Nostalgia, and NAF’s for Transformation – does anyone else care? I don’t want to be highhanded and arbitrary, but I’m capable of it if it will get things moving along.

Sheesh. Dealing with Dopers is like herding ADD cats.

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Damn but it’s hot when you talk all authoritative and commanding and butch like that [about musicals].:wink:

I vote Nostalgia & Period. (Two of my favs are 1776 and RAGTIME after all.)