My Ten Favorite Musicals -- 2025 Update

I shared my original list of ten favorite musicals a whole decade ago!  I've definitely got some slightly different favorites now, though many of the same dear favorites are still tops.  Here is my current list!  As usual, all titles are linked to my reviews if I have reviewed a particular movie.

(Random note, but I find it amusing how this graphic color-coordinated itself.  I didn't try to arrange the movies so they would have white posters all in a block and colorful ones in another block!  So funny.)

1. Guys and Dolls (1955)

Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) bets Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't get social reformer Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons) to go on a date with him. This movie made me fall in love with the stories and writing style of Damon Runyon, which the musical is based on. Personally (and that means in person), I adore the odd patter the characters speak. 

2. An American in Paris (1951)

An ex-GI painter (Gene Kelly) falls in love with a girl (Leslie Caron), not knowing she's engaged to his night club singer friend (Georges Guetary). The whole movie is an excuse to sing and dance to Gershwin tunes, which is one of the best reasons for making a musical I've ever heard. 

3. White Christmas (1954) 

A team of showbiz stars (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) try to rescue a retired general (Dean Jagger) from bankruptcy by staging a show at his ski lodge. Why yes, this heads up my list of favorite Christmas movies too. 

4. The Greatest Showman (2017) 

P. T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) gathers up the misfits of the world and gives them jobs, friendship, and a purpose.  And that includes his protégé Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), who falls in love with a trapeze artist (Zendaya).  The message of everyone deserving friendship and love and a place to belong, no matter what they look like, really resonates with me.

5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

A talented young singer (Emmy Rossum) is mentored and stalked and abducted and generally haunted by a disfigured man (Gerard Butler) who lives under the Paris Opera House.  Thank goodness for her childhood friend Raoul (Patrick Wilson), who stands by her and helps her however he can, and eventually falls in love with her as well.  This production is overwhelmingly lavish and opulent and everything it ought to be.  I'm particularly taken with Patrick Wilson's portrayal of Raoul as a brave and manly young fellow who protects and defends and is generally awesome.  And his voice is like butterscotch.  I wish Wilson made more musicals.

6. State Fair (1945) 

A family spends a week at the Iowa state fair, where the daughter (Jeanne Crain) falls in love with a newspaper man (Dana Andrews), the son falls in love with an entertainer, and the parents take home prizes for their mincemeat and hog. There's a 1960s remake that stars Bobby Darin in the Dana Andrews role, but aside from dearest Bobby, that version lacks the charm of this one. 

7.  Hello, Dolly! (1969)

A fairy-godmother-like matchmaker (Barbra Streisand) finds love matches for two store clerks (Michael Crawford, Danny Lockin), two milliners (Marianne McAndrew, E. J. Peaker), an irascible businessman (Walter Matthau) and his niece (Joyce Ames)... and herself.  I have a penchant for fairy godmothers, and Dolly Levi has been an inspiration to me since I was in single digits. 

8.  West Side Story (1961) 

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1960s NYC, with rival street gangs taking the place of rival families. So heartbreaking and beautiful, with some of the coolest dancing ever -- I much prefer it to Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack was one of the first CDs I ever bought, and I know all the words to every song. 

9.  Brigadoon (1954) 

Two hunters (Gene Kelly and Van Johnson) stumble on an enchanted Scottish village that only exists one day out of every hundred years, whereupon one of them falls in love with a local girl (Cyd Charisse).  I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. 

10. Oklahoma! (1999) 

A cowboy (Hugh Jackman) tries to win the heart of a girl who claims she hates him. Yes, you read that correctly: Hugh Jackman. This is the London stage version, not the famous Hollywood one, and I prefer it because, well, Hugh Jackman!

This post is one of my contributions to We Love Musicals Week.  I hope you've been enjoying the fun so far!

"An American in Paris" (1951)

An American in Paris (1951) is a meditation on artistic and personal integrity.  Can a creative person make a living with their creative accomplishments without "selling out?"  And what constitutes selling out?  The five main characters showcase different approaches to this issue.

Henri Baurel (Georges Guetary) is a successful singer and entertainer.  He sings what audiences like, he enjoys entertaining, and he makes good money this way.  

Henri possesses not only artistic integrity -- he does what he enjoys -- but personal integrity too.  As the story progresses, we learn that he was involved in the French Resistance during WWII, and we see him put someone else's needs and desires ahead of his own.  Henri has found the perfect balance of artistic and personal integrity, and he's such a wholesome character.

Adam Cook (Oscar Levant) has spent years and years living off a succession of grants while he writes a symphony.  The same symphony.  He never finishes it.  It's as if he's decided that, if he never finishes the symphony, it can't be performed, and he can't fail.  Adam thinks he's preserving his music and his talent by never allowing himself to fail, but he actually has lost his artistic integrity because he's betraying his music by never sharing it.  

Adam has some personal integrity, though, as he's loyal to his friends and helps them out when he can.  But he's been putting safety ahead of success for too long.  He's squandering his talent and his abilities, and he makes me sad.

Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) wants to sell his paintings and make a living with his art, but his work hasn't gotten much attention.  He's had a lot of artistic integrity simply because nobody has given him any chance to "sell out."  But then, he meets Milo Roberts (Nina Foch).  

Milo not only buys a couple of Jerry's paintings, she also offers to be his patroness by talking him up to various art critics and dealers and even arranging an art show for him.  That's all well and good, but, in return, she clearly wants... Jerry himself.  Jerry has to decide if his personal integrity is worth trading for getting his art noticed, and if trading himself for success will tarnish his artistic integrity in the process.

Milo does not value herself very highly.  She thinks the best way to get what she wants is by buying it, whether it's artwork or clothing or male companionship.  Milo is a classic "poor little rich girl" who has grown up believing that her wealth is the most important thing about her, and that everyone must be just as fascinated by it as she is.  She kids herself that she uses her money to help others, but she's really just trying to buy herself the next boyfriend, over and over.  

Poor Milo has no personal or artistic integrity, and she doesn't seem to learn anything about them by the end of the film.  All she learns is that some men can't be bought.

Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron) is a young, innocent dancer who doesn't even try to earn money with her dancing.  Her dancing is just for her, not something she wants to monetize.  She works at a perfume store.  But she has plenty of personal integrity to begin with -- she stands up for herself repeatedly when Jerry somewhat overbearingly pursues her.  Eventually, she realizes he's actually a nice guy who just happens to have poor interpersonal skills, he's not actually a bullying womanizer.  Then she starts to lose her hold on her personal integrity -- although she's falling in love with Jerry, she keeps company with Henri too, out of a sense of obligation.  

When Henri asks her to marry him, she accepts without telling him about Jerry, then keeps seeing Jerry without telling him about Henri.  Lise's abandonment of her personal integrity eventually causes a great deal of heartache not only for her, but for others as well.  Not everyone in this movie gets a happy ending, and that's largely because of Lise's hesitating to be honest with both of the men in her life.

Now, if that all sounds like heavy, depressing, boring stuff... it's not!  This is actually a frolicsome musical filled with joy and light and hope.  But all this very serious stuff is going on underneath the Parisian sunshine.  I think that blending of cheerful and serious is a big part of why I fell in love with this movie when I was in my early teens, and why it's remained one of my absolute favorite musicals ever since.  The musings on what it means to be true to yourself and your abilities were very important to me when I was in my teens, as I'm sure they are for many people.

This movie made me fall in love with both George Gershwin's music and Gene Kelly's dancing.  And I haven't ever stopped loving them.  They're both so full of energy and life -- I don't think I have ever seen Kelly's dancing style so perfectly accompanied as it is by Gershwin's songs.  

Is this movie family friendly?  Pretty much.  There's some kissing.  Milo clearly wants Jerry, physically, but it's pretty obvious she only ever gets a kiss or two out of him.  There's no cussing, there's no violence, and there's no smut, though the "artist's ball" toward the end gets almost bacchanalian... but not quite.   

This has been my contribution to the Great Muppet Guest Star Caper hosted by Taking Up Room and Realweegiemidget Reviews.  I hope you've enjoyed it!

And, if you're a fan of classic Hollywood, I invite you to sign up for my Shades of Shane blogathon that I'll be hosting in April :-)

Movie Music: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "Brigadoon" (1954)

I used to listen to this soundtrack all the time as a teen. In fact, I still have most of the songs memorized, even the minor ones. I'd listen to this while I was doing schoolwork or writing, and hearing it always makes me think of my little corner in the basement where I had my desk, not far from the family computer, which was a 486 and so cool because it played CDs! (Does anyone here even know what a 486 is?) 

Okay, anyway, this is the soundtrack for Brigadoon, a musical about a very unusual town in Scotland: it only exists on earth once every hundred years. Two American hunters, Tommy (Gene Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson), stumble into the town on that one day, and Gene's character quickly falls in love with a Brigadoon woman, Fiona (Cyd Charisse). Most of the movie takes place during that one day they have together. 

"Once in the Highlands" is a lovely, haunting song that tells you the basics of the story before the movie even begins. I guess the show's writers audiences to have extra help wrapping their heads around this kind of odd story. "And this is what happened... the strange thing that happened... to two weary hunters who lost their way..." I like the use of chorus here because it ends up sounding sombre and eerie, and really setting the mood for the story. 

"The Heather on the Hill" is the big romance number. Tommy is fascinated by Fiona, mostly because she's not trying to get him to marry her, but also because she's quiet and intelligent and sincere. He's got a girl back in America who is loud and bossy and wants to marry him, you see, and the contrast kind of hooks him. So here, he asks if he can join her in gathering flowers. 

After that song, they dance this dance, which I love, partly because it's very different from Gene Kelly's typical jaunty, peppy dancing. Fiona hasn't told Tommy yet that Brigadoon is magical, and in the dance, she's trying to keep herself from liking him because she knows it can't last, but gradually she finds she can't help falling for him. (Her dress has the weirdest neckline ever, though -- it's always bugged me.) 

And after dancing together, she leaves, and he sings my favorite song from the whole movie, "Almost Like Being in Love." And dances a much more typical dance, for him. He says "almost," but we can all tell there's no "almost" about him being in love by this point. I'm just going ahead and including the movie clip for this song, partly because I love watching Gene Kelly dance and partly because Van Johnson is so grumpy and fed up through the whole thing that he makes me chuckle. But if you'd rather just listen to the music, you can do that too -- you don't *have* to watch it if you're not all that into musicals or whatever. 

That's all for today! But if you want a gently haunting movie to watch this Halloween, I definitely recommend trying Brigadoon for yourself.

(This review originally appeared here at J and J Productions on October 28, 2015.)

Our Favorite Parts of "Singin' in the Rain"

My kids all enjoy Singin' in the Rain (1952) and we got to go see it on the big screen this past weekend, so I thought it would be fun to invite them to join me in sharing our favorite parts of it with you, in honor of its 70th anniversary.

My 14-yr-old son:

Sooooooooo, my favorite part of the movie was the song "Make 'Em Laugh". I think it's fairly obvious why I like that part: it made me laugh. Other than that, if I'm honest the movie takes about half again as long as it should (even with all the unnecessary silly parts factored into the "it should" part, because silliness is always appreciated if you're me, which you aren't, but you should still appreciate silliness).

My 12-yr-old daughter:

To be honest, my favorite part is kind of the guy with the shirt that says 'Eat at Joe's' during the song "Gotta Dance" because I've been to Joe's seafood restaurant or whatever it's called, and it said that all over the place. So when I saw that, I was like, "Aaaaah that's hilarious!"

My 10-yr-old daughter:

I can't really decide which part is my favorite, because it's always really been a tie between the time that Don Lockwood danced with Kathy Selden in the shed (especially since the door said, Do Not Open or something in that range), or when Don's best friend Cosmo sings "Make 'Em Laugh." They're both great fun.

But I also really love this part of the ballet.  I've always wanted to have that big swoopy cape thing.

Hamlette:

My favorite moment is when Gene Kelly jumps flat-footed all around in a big puddle at the end of his  magnificent "Singin' in the Rain" routine.  It's such an exuberant, joyous moment, and I can't believe he filmed that whole number with a fever of 103F!!!

Singin' in the Rain is actually the first movie our family of five ever saw all together on the big screen, back in 2017.  You can read about that experience here.

This post has been my (our) contribution to the Singin' in the Rain Blogathon hosted by Classic Movie Muse this weekend.  Check it out to bask in all the joy!

Answers to Which Pirate is Which?

Here be the answers to the game I posted earlier this week, and everyone's scores at the bottom.  

In the comments on the game, I agreed to award an extra half point for every actor's name you got correct, even if you didn't know the character's name or the movie, so now you understand the half points some people are getting here.  So the scoring was 1 point for every correct character name, 1 point for every correct movie title, and 1/2 point for every correct actor name.

1. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)
from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

2. Jamie Waring (Tyrone Power)
from The Black Swan (1942)

3. Peter Blood (Errol Flynn)
from Captain Blood (1935)

4. Roberts (Cary Elwes)
from The Princess Bride (1987)

5. Blackbeard (Peter Ustinov)
from Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)

6. Henry Morgan (Laird Cregar)
from The Black Swan (1942)

7. Macoco (Gene Kelly)
from The Pirate (1948)

8. Long John Silver (Robert Newton)
from Treasure Island (1950

9. Vallo (Burt Lancaster)
from The Crimson Pirate (1952)

10. Davey Crandall (Donald O'Connor)
from Double Crossbones (1951)

11. Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)
from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

12. Hook (Dustin Hoffman)
from Hook (1991)

SCORES:

Andrea -- 29

Caftan Woman -- 23

MovieCritic -- 18

Cordy -- 10

Heidi -- 7.5

Skye -- 5

"The Three Musketeers" (1948)

This is not my favorite movie version of The Three Musketeers.  My favorite is the 1993 version that I spent my teen years swooning over, as detailed in my review of it.  However!  This is my other favorite, and it has the bonus of being child-friendly, which the '93 isn't entirely.

To prepare for this review, I watched this movie with my kids (who are 9, 11, and 13), which was enormously fun.  This movie does NOT take itself seriously, and so I feel perfectly fine not taking it seriously either.  All three of my kids have read both an abridged version of Alexandre Dumas' book and a graphic novel retelling, so they were already familiar with the characters and basic plot, which was definitely helpful.  I've read the original myself, but that was 20 years ago, and I probably should re-read it.  Because it's been so long since I read it, I'll only be commenting in a couple places on things they changed from the book, and why I like those changes.

So, this movie starts with young d'Artagnan (Gene Kelly) taking leave of his father and going Paris to see if he can become a Musketeer, aka one of the king's personal guards.

Yes, that's Gene Kelly.  No, this isn't a musical.

His first day in Paris, d'Artagnan ends up accidentally falling afoul of three men and arranging duels with them.  The first is Athos (Van Heflin).

The second is Porthos (Gig Young).

The third is Aramis (Robert Coote).

Not knowing they're all actually Musketeers, d'Artagnan thinks he will handle three duels in one day with no problem at all.  And they all agree, he's VERY good.  He's also the most athletic d'Artagnan you've ever imagined, leaping and jumping and climbing and cavorting all over the place.

The duels get interrupted by some enemies of the Three Musketeers, and d'Artagnan helps them fight off their foes.  Obviously, they will be best buddies forever more.  Also, aren't those fantastic costumes?  Everyone in this is wildly colorful.  Not very period-correct, but extremely fun to watch.

The sets are lavish too, and this whole film is a feast for the eyes.  Here's part of the royal palace.

King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan) is very annoyed with the Musketeers for dueling and so on, but he spends most of his time scolding d'Artagnan for not having any decent clothes.

So d'Artagnan and his three friends set off to get him some decent clothes, plus a manservant named Planchet (Keenan Wynn), who is very handy to have around at all times, especially in a fight.

Now, I'm used to seeing Keenan Wynn as a scheming baddie (like in The Absent-Minded Professor) or an irascible Army officer (like in Combat! episode "The Prisoner") or a villainous old creep (like in The War Wagon).  I am not used to seeing him as a capable, albeit somewhat comic, sidekick.  It's cool, he does well, and I like it.

Of course, the next thing d'Artagnan needs is a girlfriend, so he quickly falls in love with Constance (June Allyson), the girl downstairs.  Here's something they changed from the book that I am a total fan of: in this, Constance is his landlord's daughter, not his landlord's wife.  SO MUCH BETTER, PEOPLE.  Also, because she's played by June Allyson, she is as sweet and innocent and lovable as possible.

Constance is a lady-in-waiting for Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury).  

Queen Anne is in love with the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton), an Englishman, even though she's married to King Louis XIII.  Most of the plot revolves around Queen Anne giving the Duke of Buckingham a set of giant diamonds that King Louis had given to her, and then Richelieu scheming to disgrace her by making her reveal to the King that she gave them away.

Ahhh, yes, Richelieu (Vincent Price).  Here's another change they made that I rather like.  In the book, he's Cardinal Richelieu, head of the Roman Catholic church in France.  But in this, he's not a clergyman, he's just the king's most trusted advisor.  That means he can be totally despicable without casting slurs on the name of clergymen everywhere.  And it makes his liason with Milady de Winter slightly less... unpalatable.

Speaking of Milady de Winter (Lana Turner), here she is.  Richelieu trusts her to get at least some of those diamonds from the Duke of Buckingham to confront Queen Anne it.  It's implied that she sleeps with Buckingham to get them, but implied so obliquely that my kids never caught of a whiff of that.

Milady also catches d'Artagnan in her snares for a while, and it's also implied that they do more than kiss, given how repentant he is when he apologizes to Constance about it.  

My kids spent a lot of time discussing the way Milady's beauty mark was in a different place in different scenes, which they found both fascinating and funny.

Anyway, there's lots and lots of derring do, many sword fights, a lot of brawling, and some cunning plotting before the movie is over, but all's mostly well that ends well.  A few characters do die, but nobody seems to be overly upset about it for more than a couple of minutes.  By the end, as you can see, everyone is very pleased with themselves, and ready for many rollicking adventures to come.

My kids got a huge kick out of this, especially my son because he's taking fencing lessons right now.  He thinks maybe he should take acrobatics too so he could incorporate a few of d'Artagnan's moves into his own fighting style, hee.

Is this movie family friendly?  Yeah, it pretty much is.  My 9-yr-old was a little upset by Milady killing a couple of people because there was one shot of a dead body with blood all over its shirt, and she had to be reassured it was all pretend.  There's quite a bit of kissing and swashbuckling violence, but it's very light-hearted overall.

Since this post is for a Period Drama Blog Party (more on that below), I will just mention a few things about costumes.  The above is my favorite outfit for d'Artagnan.

Here you see some of the Musketeer cloaks, which I love.

Most of the dresses were kind of low-cut, but then had big broaches over their, shall we say, lower décolletage?  I'm wondering if this was an actual style in the time of Louis XIII, or if the Hays Code objected to their costumes for being too low-cut, so they just stuck broaches on the front of any problematic dresses.  I rather suspect the latter possibility to be the correct on.

I did not screencap most of the dresses, I'm afraid.  Sorry.  They're very swooshy and pretty, and I'll let them be surprises for you when you see this yourself!

I wrote this specifically for the Valentine's Day Period Drama Blog Party hosted by Heidi at Along the Brandywine.  Click here for the kick-off post, tag, etc!