Musicals

So, last Friday night, there was a musicals night at Kohanga. I'm not normally a big fan of musicals, so when I was invited I didn't know if I was going to go or not. I ended up inviting a couple other people, so then I sort of had to go, because it'd be a little stink if I invited them, they showed up, but I wasn't there myself.

After a thoroughly democratic voting procedure conducted via email, the three musicals selected were Singing in the Rain, Grease and The Phantom of the Opera. I hadn't seen the former or the latter, but I had heard good things about them so was looking forward to them (I had actually voted for these two).

Due to some DVD zoning issues on people's laptops, we weren't able to watch Singing in the Rain first, so Grease it was. It was alright - well to be correct - what we watched of it was alright. But the video store that it was rented from had stuck this clear plastic sticker thing on top with their advertising, bar code, and can't walk out of the store with it things. However, as the DVD was evidently a bit old and knackered, this was coming off, and bubbles and things has formed under the surface so it would skip badly every now and again, and eventually froze - during the Grease Lightning bit.

Then out of the cold, dark night an apparition appeared, an apparition bearing a DVD player and a much nicer sound system. With this we managed to watch Singing in the Rain (and later The Phantom of the Opera). I thoroughly enjoyed these two, and it was really interesting watching them in succession because they are such different films.

Singing in the Rain was brilliant, so funny, and not a soppy love story as it would likely have become were it filmed in the last 10 years or so. I loved Cosmo, the way he was the guy behind the scenes, the guy out of the glory, but still loving every minute of it, and couldn't be happier with life. And these three lines deserve a mention:

Cosmo Brown: Talking pictures, that means I'm out of a job. At last I can start suffering and write that symphony.
R.F. Simpson: You're not out of job, we're putting you in as head of our new music department.
Cosmo Brown: Oh, thanks, R.F.! At last I can stop suffering and write that symphony.
[Courtesy of www.imdb.com as I wanted to get them right rather than rely on my memory]

Now The Phantom of the Opera was a whole different kettle of fish. Firstly, it was turned up rather loud which made it oh so much more impressive. I loved the contrast between the light voice of Raoul and the darker, almost rocky voice of the Phantom. Also I loved the scene where the Phantom takes Christine down to his lair for the first time (in the movie at least), and the candles came up out of the water! Looking on wikipedia [so it must be true] they apparently got this effect not from CGI, but using special candles that ignite when they come out of water. How awesome is that!

Anyways, I'm going to be a lot more open to seeing musicals now thanks to this great experience.