All tagged Hermione Gingold
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe created intoxicating scores for the musical classics Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot. The songs from these musicals will sweep you off their feel with their theatricality, emotional sweep, and revealing character pieces. Lerner and Loewe also produced the score for the "Best Picture" winner of 1958, Gigi, also picking up an Oscar for the the title song. Vincente Minnelli directed the elegant musical (based on the story by Colette) about a young french girl groomed for courtesanship by her aunt and grandmother in the hopes of securing Gigi's future by pimping her out to the rich playboy Gaston. Apparently, being a "kept woman" is a family trade, passed down through the generations.
The Music Man is a marvel for many reasons and I'm tired of all of the arguments that West Side Story was robbed of the "Best Musical" Tony that year (1957-58 season). I'm not knocking West Side Story. It's a special show full of artistry and it was certainly groundbreaking for its use of dance in telling the story. The Music Man, however, is a tightly constructed piece of original musical theatre, combining nostalgia, humor, musical pastiche, sentiment and a terrific concept. At the turn-of-the-twentieth-century, a con man masquerading as a traveling salesman sweeps into a small, uptight, midwestern town to sell the folks on the idea that they need a boys marching band. He hangs around just long enough to collect money for instruments and uniforms and plans to skip town. Along the way, he brings the town together, falls in love with the emotionally stunted librarian, and becomes a father figure to her little brother.
