How Judy Garland Shaped A Showtune Into a Holiday Classic

How Judy Garland Shaped A Showtune Into a Holiday Classic

Mark Robinson
Cinematters

If you love your movie musicals like I do, you have no doubt fallen in love with that special niche known as "The Judy Garland Musicals." Not many fans of classic Hollywood can get away with not having at least one Garland film amongst their favorites. In fact, many of us consider Judy Garland to be the premiere female star of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer years, with her tender and deeply felt interpretations of songs such as “You Made Me Love You”, "Over the Rainbow", "The Boy Next Door" and "The Man That Got Away". And yet, of all her great performances, arguably her most heartfelt and heartbreaking came from a song she herself helped to shape.

Remembering Jerry Herman’s Mrs. Santa Claus

Remembering Jerry Herman’s Mrs. Santa Claus

Mark Robinson
Tube Tied

We love Jerry Herman, especially his devotion to creating music and lyrics that make larger-than-life ladies shine: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, La Cage aux Folles. These are all sparkling examples of Herman's ability to create a pedestal for the great ladies of the musical stage to explode with verve and personality. It has always been what he has done best.

High Flying, Adored: Ranking the Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber

High Flying, Adored: Ranking the Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance

My piece ranking the musicals of Stephen Sondheim was very popular and it incited some great dialogue on how opinions differ depending on our experiences, emotions, and the criteria that draws us to musicals in the first place. Several of you wrote to me asking that I unleash my same ranking process on the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. I will gratefully oblige, though I must warn you that my opinions on Sir Andrew are more extreme than those I have for Sondheim. Webber tends to only be as good as his lyricist at the moment, an ever-changing array of collaborators who have come and gone. Stephen Ward aside (which I don't know enough about yet to weigh-in), here are my opinions of his work, from worst to the best.

Review: Hairspray Live!

Review: Hairspray Live!

Mark Robinson
Tube Tied, Music That Makes Me Dance

Well, Hairspray Live!, the eagerly anticipated live-television event of this December has come and gone and I am thrilled to report that this one was better than most. It hit many of its marks and remained true to the beloved stage production on which it is based, yet I still feel like there were too many missteps to claim joyous rapture.

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