This film is very faithful to Colette’s original short story in both humor and spirit. It was a popular Broadway play starring Audrey Hepburn, who turned down the offer to play Gigi in this movie, so Leslie Caron played her role, and Vincente Minnelli directed it. “Gigi” became a big success, winning 9 Oscars, including best picture. Lerner and Loewe already had a big hit with “My Fair Lady” on Broadway, and were at the height of their powers when they created the classic songs and screenplay for this film.

Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long. Gaston, the scion of a wealthy Parisian family finds emotional refuge from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society with the former mistress of his uncle and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi. When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt, who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man’s mistress, urge the pair to act out their roles but love adds a surprise twist to this delightful turn-of-the 20th century Cinderella story.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XoLoQE7Ig&list=HL132854432

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Director/writer/ actress Barbra Streisand really impressed me, back then woman were not known as directors or producers, so she was one of the first to show, she can do it just as good as her fellow male colleagues. (The movie earned an Oscar for best music). The story is about Yentl, a Jewish girl who disguises herself as a boy to enter religious training.

Dramatization of “Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy,” by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991); originally published in Yiddish c. 1960, then in English c. 1983. The story: In an Ashkenazic shtetl in Poland, Yentl Mendel is the boyishly klutzy daughter and only child of long widowed Rebbe (“Talmud Teacher”) Mendel, who teaches Talmud (a codification of Jewish Law) to local boys - and to Yentl, but secretly because girls were not allowed to learn the law in those days. When her father dies, Yentl is all alone in the world. She takes the momentous decision to leave the village and - disguised as a boy and calling herself by the name of her late brother, Anshel - seeks and gets admitted to a Yeshiva, to study the texts, traditions, subtleties and complexities of Torah, Talmud, etc.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AVZ_j1tAQ

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This French musical also known as “The Young Girls of Rochefort” stars Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Perrin and Gene Kelly. Sadly it was the only movie where the Dorleac sisters (Catherine and Françoise) would appear together.

Plot:

Delphine and Solange are two sisters living in Rochefort. Delphine is a dancing teacher and Solange composes and teaches the piano. Maxence is a poet and a painter. He is doing his military service. Simon owns a music shop, he left Paris once month ago to come back where he fell in love 10 years ago. They are looking for love, looking for each other, without being aware that their ideal partner is very close… A film whose scenario is much less important than its feeling of euphory, according to the director Jacques Demy.

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2103378457/

This musical is really enjoyable, the songs and the dance scenes are quiet spectacular and funny at the same time. My favorite song is “Luck Be A Lady Tonight”. I’m surprised that Marlon Brando could sing that well (he’s not Sinatra but hes okay). Vivian Blaine, Johnny Silver, B.S. Pully and Stubby Kaye all came over from the original Broadway cast.

Plot:

All the hot gamblers are in town, and they’re all depending on Nathan Detroit to set up this week’s incarnation of “The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York”; the only problem is, he needs $1000 to get the place. Throw in Sarah Brown, who’s short on sinners at the mission she runs; Sky Masterson, who accepts Nathan’s $1000 bet that he can’t get Sarah Brown to go with him to Havana; Miss Adelaide, who wants Nathan to marry her; Police Lieutenant Brannigan, who always seems to appear at the wrong time; and the music/lyrics of Frank Loesser, and you’ve got quite a musical. Includes the songs: Fugue for Tinhorns, “Luck Be a Lady”, “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwGSTr1uEDE

A performer and gambler travels to New York City to raise the $25,000 he needs to marry his fiancée, only to become entangled with a beautiful aspiring dancer. With the great Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (marks the sixth screen teaming of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and I think their best collaboration together). Great music and dance scenes as always.

“Listen. No one could teach you to dance in a million years. Take my advice and save your money!”

Won Oscar

Plot:

Lucky is tricked into missing his wedding to Margaret by the other members of Pop’s magic and dance act, and has to make $25000 to be allowed to marry her. He and Pop go to New York where they run into Penny, a dancing instructor. She and Lucky form a successful dance partnership, but romance is blighted (till the end of the film at least!) by his old attachment to Margaret and hers for Ricardo, the band leader who won’t play for them to dance together.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_usa_VQLGs

A city boy comes to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned. Yeah, doesn’t sound that spectacular but this movie simply rocks. The music and the dancing is great, Kevin Bacon is hilarious! (John Travolta was offered the role of Ren, but turned it down)

I heard a remake will come out, I don know why, but I know it’s never gonna beat the original one.

Plot:

Classic tale of teen rebellion and repression features a delightful combination of dance choreography and realistic and touching performances. When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he’s in for a real case of culture shock. Though he tries hard to fit in, the streetwise Ren can’t quite believe he’s living in a place where rock music and dancing are illegal. There is one small pleasure, however: Ariel, a troubled but lovely blonde with a jealous boyfriend. and a Bible-thumping minister, who is responsible for keeping the town dance-free. Ren and his classmates want to do away with this ordinance, especially since the senior prom is around the corner, but only Ren has the courage to initiate a battle to abolish the outmoded ban and revitalize the spirit of the repressed townspeople. Fast-paced drama is filled with such now-famous hit songs as the title track and “Let’s Hear It for the Boy.”

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaaYU-lZ3ac

One of the best and funniest musicals ever. The songs are classic earworms like “Singin’ in the Rain” and the dance parts are just beautiful to look at. With Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse and Debbie Reynolds.

Plot:

In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today, with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina’s latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs. But Lina - well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden is brought in, an aspiring actress, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her. Will Kathy continue to “aspire”, or will she get the break she deserves ?

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2086470681/

A gangster movie where all the gangsters are children. Instead of real bullets they use “splurge guns” that cover the victim in cream. The story tells of the rise of “Bugsy Malone” and the battle for power between “Fat Sam” and “Dandy Dan”.

FULL MOVIE:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2544817728959240414#

Johnny Depp, Ricki Lake and Amy Locane are playing rebellious teenagers in the 50s. It tells the story of Cry-Baby (Depp) a teenage orphan with the ability to make women swoon by shedding a single tear.

Plus hearing Depp sing and looking like Elvis is better than anything else in this movie! I think you can call this a good and original musical.

Plot:

Allison is a “square” good girl who has decided she wants to be bad and falls hard for Cry-Baby Walker, a Greaser (or “Drape” in John Waters parlance). Spoofing Elvis movies and Juvenile Delinquency scare films of the ’50s, this movie follows the adventures of Cry-Baby who, though he is sent to juvie, is determined to cross class (and taste) boundaries to get Allison back.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiRa7qrL5rY

Great musical. Fine songs, especially the one scene with the medleys. The acting, the costumes, the dances…very beautiful film by Baz Luhrmann.

Won 2 Oscars

Plot:

The year is 1899, and Christian, a young English writer, has come to Paris to follow the Bohemian revolution taking hold of the city’s drug and prostitute infested underworld. And nowhere is the thrill of the underworld more alive than at the Moulin Rouge, a night club where the rich and poor men alike come to be entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. But her affections are also coveted by the club’s patron: the Duke. A dangerous love triangle ensues as Satine and Christian attempt to fight all odds to stay together but a force that not even love can conquer is taking its toll on Satine…

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1821835545/

Beautiful music! I love the story of of Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman in the tiny Russian village of Anatevka, who has to marry off his three daughters while antisemitic sentiment threatens his home.

Won 3 Oscars

Plot:

Film version of the stage musical, based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem. Tevye the Milkman is a Jewish peasant in pre-Revolutionary Russia, coping with the day-to-day problems of ‘shtetl’ life, his Jewish traditions, his family (wife and daughters), and state-sanctioned pogroms.

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi45980953/

The film works so well because of the charismatic performance of Yul Brynner and the terrific chemistry he and Ms. Kerr projected in the film.
All the elements of a Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical are in place. The music serves the story being told. “The King and I” will charm its viewers because of the amazing impact Yul Brynner made in it.

Won 5 Oscars

Plot:

Mrs. Anna Leonowens and her son Louis arrive in Bangkok, where she has contracted to teach English to the children of the royal household. She threatens to leave when the house she had been promised is not available, but falls in love with the children. A new slave, a gift of a vassal king, translates “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” into a Siamese ballet, expressing her unhappiness at being with the King. She attempts to escape with her lover. Anna and the King fall in love, but her British upbringing inhibits her from joining his harem. She is just about to leave Siam when she hears of the King’s imminent death, and returns to help his son, her favorite pupil, rule his people.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvbZNxZFn-g