Musicals

When I was a young lad, too many years ago to count, Musicals were looked on askance by manly young men. There was just something distasteful about them.

After all, how often, in real life, do folks, walking in the streets or at their jobs, suddenly break into song and highly choreographed dances. That actually would be fun, but it rarely happens.

As I got older, I still did not like most Musicals, but there have been a few, and if you get a chance to see their film versions, or better still, a live production, rake advantage. The better ones are wonderful.

Recommended ones include, The West Side Story, Sound of Music, Camelot, The Man of La Mancha, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum and Damn Yankees.

The two best are:

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This Musical movie is delightful. It manages to be darly, very darkly funny, and touchingly sweet at the same time and the recently deceased Gene Wilder is amazing.

Second, Cabaret. Based on Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Diaries, this tale of a very odd romantic triangle. present a picture of Germany in the 1920s, as The Weimar Republic was fading and the Nazi Party was just beginning to rear its hideous head. The movie very clearly shows the decadence that had become the cultural norm at that time and place. I look around at America's current culture and see striking similarities and urge you to watch this film. History can, and usually does, repeat itself.