Singing In The Rain (Gene Kelly)

I love this song! It makes me happy. :) xx

Meet Me In St. Louis 1944- The Trolley Song

I love this song. It makes me feel happy. xx

Song of the Day - The Boy Next Door from Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

Another song from one of my favourite musicals!! :) xx

High Society (1956)

Childhood friends Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven got married and quickly divorced.   Now Tracy is about to marry again, this time to a shrewd social-climbing businessman. Dexter still loves her.  Spy magazine blackmails Grace's family by threatening to reveal her playboy father's exploits if not allowed to cover the wedding.

I love Grace Kelly's clothes and my favourite songs are, 'Well, Did you Evah' and 'Samantha.'

Sit back, relax and enjoy! :) xx 



Oliver! (1968)

Oliver! is a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly man.

Oliver Twist is sold to a Dunstable undertaker after asking for more dinner at the orphanage. Escaping to London he is taken in by Fagin to join his gang of child pickpockets. Wrongly accused of a theft he meets a more kindly gentleman who takes him in, to the concern of one of Fagin's old pupils, the violent Bill Sykes. In the middle is Nancy, Sykes' girl whom Oliver has come to trust.
 

 

 

 

Love this musical and all the songs! :) xx

Top Hat on Stage ('11/'12'/13'/'14)

The film has been adapted into a stage musical that began touring the UK during late 2011. The Show opened at Milton Keynes Theatre on 19 August 2011 before touring to other UK regional theatres including Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh. The production is also scheduled to transfer to the West End's Aldwych Theatre on April 19, 2012 with an opening on May 9, 2012 and bookings ended on 26th October 2013. 

On Thursday 1st December 2011 I went to the Leeds Grand Theatre with my Mum to see Irving Berlin's Top Hat which is based on RKO's Motion Picture. It is Fred and Ginger's greatest Hollywood dance musical - live on stage for the very first time in 76 years!

 

Tom Chambers ('Strictly Come Dancing' winner and 'Holby City' heartthrob) plays Jerry Travers, the famous American tap dancer who arrives in London to appear in his first West End Show. Travers meets the irresistible Dale Tremont, the girl of him dreams, played by Summer Strallen (triple Olivier Award nominee and star of 'Love Never Dies', 'The Sound of Music' and Hollyoaks') and follows her across Europe in an attempt to win her heart with his wonderful song and dance routines.

Irving Berlin's celebrated score features such classics as 'Cheek to Cheek', 'Let's Face The Music and Dance', 'Isn't it a Lovely day to be caught in the Rain' and 'Top Hat, White Tie and Tails.'  It was also Black Tie and Tiara Night for one night only on the 1st December so I wore my ballgown and felt very special in it!   Top Hat was brilliant at the Leeds Grand Theatre! Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen are fantastic as Jerry Travers and Dale Tremont! The rest of the cast are great too. They sang some of Irving Berlin’s greatest hits, such as, 'Cheek to Cheek' and 'Top Hat', 'White Tie and Tails', 'The Piccolino', 'No Strings' (I'm Fancy Free) and 'Isn't This A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain?' which are all in the film 'Top Hat.' They also sang 'Let’s Face the Music and Dance' and 'I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket' which are from the film 'Follow The Fleet.'

The costumes, sets and dance routines were all wonderful and I loved every minute of it! I want to see it all over again! I had a lovely time!

 

 

If you are a fan of Fred and Ginger, you should definitely watch the film and then go see the show in the West End, you will love it!! :D xx  

 

Top Hat (1935)

The movie opens beautifully with Jerry Travers (Astaire) trying to silently fold his paper in a "silent" club while waiting for Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton), the producer of a show in which he's about to star. Horace sets Jerry up staying with him in his hotel and then tells Jerry that he wants Jerry to fly to Italy with him after the show to meet up with his wife Madge (Helen Broderick) and some girl Madge wants to fix Jerry up with. Jerry doesn't really want to go.
Jerry: "Is she expecting me for a weekend or a wedding?"
Horace: "You know how wives are...
Jerry: "No I don't. How are they?"

Horace: "...always have a scheme... It's time you found out for yourself."

 

 

 

Jerry especially doesn't want to go anywhere after he meets the beautiful Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers), another hotel guest. Jerry meets Dale when he tap dances in the room above her while she's trying to sleep, and she has to come upstairs and give him a piece of her mind. Jerry tells Dale that she can help cure him of the dancing with a good hug, to which she replies, "Well I'll call the house detective and tell him to put his arms around you." I'm choosing to think of the whole thing as a meet cute... Jerry woos Dale with flowers and then by paying off a handsome cab driver to give him the cab so that Jerry can drive Dale to the stables the next day. Dale discovers Jerry is her driver only when he starts to tap dance above her.

 

Dale starts to fall for Jerry at the stables when he dances with her in the rain.

Jerry: "May I rescue you?"

Dale: "...I prefer being in distress."

The thunder drives Dale to seek out Jerry for comfort in the gazebo in which they are both waiting out the storm, and pretty soon they are dancing and in love.

 

 

 

Happiness leads to mistaken identity and anger, though, when it turns out that Dale is Madge's friend. And Dale, never having met Madge's husband, thinks that Jerry is really Horace. She is suddenly horrified by his advances, slaps him, and gives him the motivation he needs to fly off to Italy to continue to woo her. He has no idea what he did to make her so mad.

The rest of the movie is all about mistaken identity and is, in my opinion, hilarious.

Dale tells Madge that Madge's husband is chasing her:

"Really, I didn't know he was capable of that much activity... Did he catch you?"

Jerry wants to propose to the still confused Dale:

"Alright, you go find all about her past, and I'll go find out about her future."

Jerry and Dale dance with a crazy dress Dale is being payed to model:

And Dale receives nutty advice from Madge about how to protect herself from further advances:"Here or there, as long as you remain a spinster you're fair game for any philandering male... You know um, what you really should have is a husband you can call your own."

I love 'Cheek to Cheek' and 'Isn't It A Lovely Day To Be Caught In The Rain.' I also love the style of the costumes and sets and the era that the film is set in. :) xx  

 

 

 

 



The Wizard of Oz (1939)

We click our heels in anticipation.  There's no place like home and no movie like this one.  From generation to generation, The Wizard of Oz brings us together - children, adults, families and friends.  The dazzling land of Oz, a dream-come-true world of enchanted forests, dancing scarecrows and singing lions, wraps us in its magic with one great song-filled adventure after another.  Based on L. Frank Baum's treasured book series, The Wizard of Oz was judged the best family film of all time by the American Film Institute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I invite you to embark for the Emerald City on the most famous road in movie history.  Dorothy (Judy Garland), Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tin Woodman (Jack Haley) and Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) await you on the Yellow Brick Road and Over the Rainbow. xx