Musicals! (Part 1)

I’ve always loved musicals, but last year for my Drama exam I’ve had to study The American Musical and I was suddenly reminded about why I loved them so much. Musicals involve high energy performances by very skilled and talented performers who can act, sing and dance. Most musicals contain some kind of moral message and end on an uplifting or inspirational note. And most of them just encourage you to sing along. 

Here is a list of some of my favourite musical moments:

Oklahoma!

In high school a preformed in a Showtime variety show, in which we did numerous songs from different famous musicals. One of the more memorable ones was the main song of the American staple musical Oklahoma! A song about strong values in a time of strife. Despite it's quite clumsy race and gender relations this musical started the musical trend of the 1950s by being the first musical of its kind that involved music and a story. A perfect example of show tune cheesy-ness:

Moulin Rouge!

Almost every Theatre kid that I know is completely obsessed with Moulin Rouge. How can you not be?! The Can-Can, the costumes, the love story. (Ewan McGregor!) In High School my friends did a re-enactment of some of the movie’s best scenes for our Theatre class. I fell in love with the Tango because of this scene:

 

Cell Block Tango for Chicago

Another fixture of all Musical buffs. The women in prison discuss the various way in which they murdered their lovers. Even if you haven't seen this movie, you've heard this song: 

Rent

Even if you haven’t watched this play, this song is a huge part of everyone’s musical repertoire:

Funny girl

I’ve never seen Funny Girl, but one cannot delve into the world of musicals without stumbling on Barbra Striesand’s stunning performance of “Funny Girl” and “Don’t Rain on my Parade.”

Lea Michelle's Glee version was also very powerful:

 

Look out for Part 2