Classic Movie Musicals Essentials

Classic Movie Musicals Essentials

Movie musicals are home to magically charmed moments of magnificent song. Singin' in the Rain set the gold standard in 1952 with exuberant reimaginings of earlier film tunes. No musical, however, marked pop culture as colorfully or tunefully as The Wizard of Oz, which spun off The Wiz, a soulful all-Black reimagining set in the inner, rather than Emerald, city. Latin American culture, meanwhile, enjoyed its first prime-time musical moment with West Side Story. Rock inevitably became part of the musical's palette, first in the orgiastic Rocky Horror Picture Show and later in the softer, more surreal songs of Popeye.

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