This month's guest speaker was Marilyn Shalks. In the first of her many excerpts from the silver screen, we saw how Marilyn and her husband greeted each other before breakfast every day. Not many of our members admitted that they too sang ‘Good mornin’ from the 1952 film ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ in which Gene Kelly memorably danced to the song while splashing through puddles during a rainstorm.
Before the many film musicals that we have enjoyed over the years, their forbears were live shows in theatres, which included operas. Operas began in Florence, Italy, around 1597, with ‘Dafne’ by Jacopo Peri.
The songs and plots of operas are still familiar to us all; an example we heard was the famous aria 'La donna è mobile' from Rigoletto, an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. This version was sung by Mario Lanzo. We are familiar with these names and titles, even if we’ve never been to an opera, as we’ve heard them so many times. Marilyn cited other tunes and songs that are used in films, advertisements and in many other ways that we recognise, such as ‘Nessun Dorma’ by Puccini and ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin.
She mentioned Billy Danvers: an English comedian and variety show performer, whose middle name was Mikado. His father had been a singer in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company that from the 1870s until 1982 staged Gilbert and Sullivan ‘Savoy’ operas nearly year-round.
Marilyn cited several relatively modern musicals that she, and possibly her audience, have enjoyed - Les Miserables, Fiddler On The Roof, Cabaret, The King and I, Matilda and Annie Get Your Gun. Yul Brynner might be remembered for his part in ‘The King and I’ film. Not many of the audience might have known that the actor appeared in the role onstage over five thousand times.
Another favourite is the Wizard of Oz. The book by Frank M. Baun was actually written in 1902. When the 1939 film starring Judy Garland was made, none of the songs from the original show were used.
Marilyn reminded us about some musicals that in a way reversed from the ‘Silver Screen’ back to the stage – one of these is the Lion King. This would have cost the Disney Company a huge amount of money for costumes, props and designs for the stage productions, but has been a tremendous success – with the British contribution of songs from Tim Rice and Elton John.
William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, inspired West Side Story, set in the mid-1950s in Manhattan, New York. This was a multiracial, blue-collar neighbourhood. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks. The two groups vie for dominance, while the police try to keep order. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang's leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria. She is the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks.
The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, tragic love story, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre. The original film from 1961 was remade sixty years later. One of Marilyn’s film clips showed how one of the song and dance routines in the 2021 production was faithfully replicated, almost imperceptible from the original. She said that the lyrics, written by Stephen Sondheim were amazing, given that they were only his second film score.
Musicals don’t always follow the route of stage productions and then films, and Marilyn cited one in particular – Calamity Jane. This was a film released in 1953 which first appeared on stage some eight years later: not on Broadway but in Fort Worth, Texas. A British production in 1974 featured Lynda La Plante, better known as an author, in the role, with Barbara Windsor and Toyah Wilcox in later stage versions. Doris Day and Howard Keele starred in the film version, and Marylin reminded us of some of the songs; Once I had a secret love, the Black Hills of Dakota and The Deadwood Stage. She also pointed out that the scenery seemed to move while the stagecoach stayed still, which didn’t detract from the film.
She mentioned the musical ‘Oliver!’ based on the Dickens novel, and the music written by Lionel Bart. It is frequently shown on television, and in stage productions but was his only real success. He subsequently became an alcoholic, dying in 1999. Oliver! is a stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, Southwest London in 1960 before opening in the West End, where it enjoyed a record-breaking run.
After showing a film clip from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ featuring the song ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, Marilyn reflected on why songs like that are so memorable for us; the lyrics including ‘Is this the little girl I carried’ and ‘Is this the little boy at play’, particularly as our own children, and grandchildren grow into adults – and especially at weddings. She recalled seeing a version of the musical onstage in New York – the songs were sung in Yiddish, but the lyrics were shown in English at both sides of the stage.
The director of that production was Joel Grey, who appeared in another very well-known musical – some of our audience might have remembered which one before she told us – Cabaret. He played the malevolent and sinister Master of Ceremonies of the Kit Kat Club in pre -war Berlin, alongside Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles. There are ‘showbiz’ family connections for Joel Grey; his daughter Jennifer played a part in the film ‘Dirty Dancing’, alongside Patrick Swayze while his father Meyer "Mickey" Katz was an American musician and comedian.
Marilyn said that the ‘golden age’ of musical movies were the 1940’s and 50’s, examples being ‘Anything Goes’, ‘High Society’ and ‘Cancan’ written by Cole Porter.
Musicals seem to provide a song for almost any occasion or circumstance, as we found out. Our speaker has a niece who parted company with a boyfriend, and told Auntie Marilyn all about it. She had just the thing to cheer her up: from the musical ‘South Pacific’ the song ‘"I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair". The niece’s reaction was not mentioned. Sean Connery was among the American Sailors in a 1954 stage production – as told by a previous audience member.
The musical ‘Carousel’ debuted on stage in New York in 1945 and featured the song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Some gentlemen, perhaps ladies too, in the audience might have linked this song with Liverpool Football Club. But Marilyn had other news – it was first known as a song relating to one of their rivals, Manchester United. This was in 1958, when Manchester United had lost several players, along with other casualties in the Munich Air Disaster. At the time, Carousel was playing at a theatre in Manchester, and crowds of people went to Old Trafford and sung the ubiquitous football anthem.
Well over an hour of information, music and memories from our speaker today, and the audience hope for an ‘encore’ in the future.