Essays: 5 Movie Musicals, From Best To Best

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Photo: 20th Century Fox

5. Sound of Music (1965)

Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein created the modern American musical with 1943's Oklahoma!, a Broadway production that combined catchy songs and dancing to tell a frontier love story. This legendary pair went on to write classic after classic: South Pacific, The King And I — to name a few — and the one that I think is their masterpiece, The Sound of Music. It’s not only their finest work but also the basis of the best movie based on one of their Broadway smashes. Robert Wise’s directorial vision was clear: cast a megawatt star in the lead as Maria, a nun in training who nannies a widower’s family in Austria during the early days of World War II. The star’s name was Julie Andrews, and her smooth, powerful voice fills every memorable song with charm and sunshine. The Sound of Music also stars Christopher Plummer as a taciturn Captain who can’t connect with his kids, and guess who helps? That’s right. Maria. This is a wholesomely horny movie about new beginnings, with a side of evil Nazis.

4. Hedwig And The Angry Inch (2001)

Hedwig is a genderqueer drag queen from Germany played by John Cameron Mitchell, critically lauded Off-Broadway in the late 90s in New York City and in a 2001 movie, which slightly improves on the stage show. With sharp, heartbreaking glam rock bangers by Stephen Trask, Hedwig is a tragicomic tornado of wigs, eyeshadow, and bitterly witty one-liners. The original production is loose and funny, but the movie gives Trask’s musical more narrative muscle. Directed by Hedwig herself, Mitchell, Hedwig, and the Angry Inch is a cult hit that deserves to be mainstream. Mitchell’s movie balances humor and pathos as he tells a story about love and self-discovery in middle-of-nowhere Kansas. He brilliantly visualizes melancholy hits like “The Origin of Love” and “Wicked Little Town.” Michael Pitt is raw and pouty as Hedwig’s lover and protege, a rising star who outshines his wounded mentor.

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Grief. Friendship. Jazz hands. My debut memoir, Theatre Kids, comes out on June 18th.

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3. Fiddler On The Roof (1971)

Director Norman Jewison’s Fiddler On The Roof is a gritty, grounded period movie about Russian Jews suffering oppression in 1905, starring Chaim Topol as a deeply religious, charismatic, desperately poor milkman with five daughters and a wife. The movie is more than just a historical drama; it’s a family portrait. There isn’t an uninspired or unnecessary song in the production; each tune is either rollicking, soulful, or both. The original writers — music and lyrics by Jerry Brock and Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein’s book — are helped by John Williams’ score and a cast of actors who look like humble peasants but sing like seraphim. The Oscar-winning movie preserved Jermoe Robbins’ original foot-stomping Broadway choreography. Fiddler On The Roof is a stirring look at a father whose world is changing faster than he can pray. The movie is warm and intimate… and heartbreaking.

2. Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)

Songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Little Shop Of Horror started life as a surprise doo-wop-inspired Off-Broadway musical comedy hit. In 1986, it was given the Hollywood treatment. The movie is a hilariously morbid send-up of 50s sci-fi horror that mixes camp, special effects, and celebrity cameos. Thanks to director Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and the man behind Yoda — Little Shop of Horrors is a wildly successful movie musical that turned superstar nerd Rick Moranis into a romantic lead. His character Seymour is a Skid Row flower shop schnook in love with the beautiful Audrey, played by Ellen Greene. Greene is funny and vulnerable, and she has pipes. The movie's star, though, is Audrey II, a giant man-eating plant puppet voiced by R&B singer Levi Stubbs. It’s an incredible prop, and Stubbs has fun laughing at mortals.

1. Cabaret (1972)

The characters in Cabaret don’t break into song on the street. The musical numbers all occur inside the seedy KitKat Club, on a small stage where scantily-clad dancers and sultry singers entertain Weimer Berlin’s night owls on the eve of Nazism’s rise. (Like Indiana Jones, musicals hate Nazis.) Legendary choreographer Bob Fosse directs Cabaret with a mix of grim realism and show business razzmatazz. Written by longtime collaborators John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cabaret tells the story of a pair of misfits with small dreams crushed by fascism. It is a bleak musical with darkly cynical songs about money, sex, and power. Fosse was a Broadway veteran and understood American musicals were shots of optimism, but he subverts the entire genre in Cabaret. This is a musical about doomed lovers. It's also the story of a society slowly poisoned by fear, one drip at a time. Cabaret turned Liza Minelli and Joel Grey into legends — her Sally Bowles is one of cinema’s greatest losers, and Joel’s emcee is an unforgettable demon, smiling for whoever is paying.

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