Musicals

All posts in the Musicals category

Music To Make Horror Movies By: Ann Sothern

Published July 29, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

 

ann sothern

In a career spanning 60 years, the magnetic Ann Sothern mastered everything from the pratfalls of delightful physical comedy to the art of pulling heartstrings, subtly, in the form of classic musicals. As many Pre-Code beauties before her, Sothern also dabbled in the darker avenues offered by such Gothic outings as Lady in a Cage, The Killing Kind and The Manitou. ann sothern lady in a cage

 

1948’s Words and Music, nicely, gave Sothern a justifiably deserved Technicolor moment as she, feelingly, asked Where’s That Rainbow?

the manitou poster

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Fred Astaire

Published June 24, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

 

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The essence of cool suave in an every man’s persona, Fred Astaire lit up dozens of enjoyable musicals for a stretch of over twenty years.

His final role in the film adaptation of Peter Straub’s powerful Ghost Story, meanwhile, saw him adding a nice helping of contemplative sorrow to the spooky proceedings.

Of course, this celluloid ease was put to grand display in The Gay Divorcee, one of the classics that he made with Ginger Rogers, his most notable dancing partner. Cole Porter’s Night and Day may have been sung better by others, but it never looked more grandly elegant.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Dorothy Lamour

Published May 20, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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The glorious Dorothy Lamour was probably best known for the multiple Road pictures that she did with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (and for the vibrant wraparound dresses that she wore in them) in Hollywood’s golden age. There, and in other brightly filmed projects, she often burst into inventive song. Anthology buffs, though, probably know her best as the doomed Martha Spruce in the Old Chief Wooden’head episode of Creepshow 2. Thankfully, she had a much more colorful (and happier) role in Cecil DeMille’s grandiose The Greatest Show on Earth.

Lamour, who also appeared in the fun  1975 television terror Death at Love House also showed some new generation teens how to sell a production number in 1964’s Pajama Party.

Saying sarong…and until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Horror Mash-up: Maureen O’Hara and Maria Ouspenskaya

Published April 28, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

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The scarlet streaked Maureen O’Hara began her career in such gothic offerings as Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and the classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame, both featuring her mentor Charles Laughton. Famed as an acting teacher, the luminescent Maria Ouspenskaya is best remembered for the spooky warnings that she gave to the unfortunate Lon Chaney, Jr. in the original The Wolf Man. Reprising that favored role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Ouspenskaya also gave a humorously vibrant performance in the Universal shocker The Mystery of Marie Roget. Dance 2

Thankfully, these two dynamic forces met face-to-face in the 1940 romantic-comedy musical Dance, Girl, Dance. Here, O’Hara is the strong willed Judy O’Brien. Longing for a career as a professional dancer, O’Brien’s extreme pride finds her turning a blind eye to true offers of help while establishing herself as a joke act in burlesque – setting up her rival, Bubbles, played with sharp intent by Lucille Ball, for applause.

Ouspenskaya, meanwhile, plays O’Hara’s loving movement mentor, Madame Lydia Basilova. They two have a tender and affectionate relationship, one that is cut short when tragedy removes Basilova from the scene…just as she is about to help launch O’Brien on a true artistic journey.

lucille danceDirected by Dorothy Arzner, one of the few female directors working in Hollywood’s Golden Age, this truly enjoyable outing, nicely, has several moments of feminist intent. The last act, in particular, features a truly fiery O’Hara, excelling as O’Brien blasts society’s double standards with pointed fervor.

But, overall, this is simply just a fun romp wherein,  unsurprisingly, Ball nearly steals the show here with her snappy demeanor. But , importantly, it is O’Hara and Ouspenskaya  who decorate it with visual significance and real heart.

Dance 1

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Portia Nelson

Published April 8, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

portiaFor generations of children the scariest thing about the distinguished Portia Nelson was probably the fact that her decisive Sister Berthe didn’t like Julie Andrews’ lovable Maria in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music. But Nelson’s friendship with author Tom Tryon actually resulted in a role with even more haunting consequences. Cast as Mrs. Rowe in the atmospheric film version of Tryon’s The Other, this eclectic artist found herself as a part of the cinematic universe of one of the most popular horror novels of the early ‘70s.

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But Nelson, who was also an influential author and songwriter, was perhaps best known for her work in the cabaret. Her beautiful soprano voice, which deepened adroitly with age, was nimble enough to find subtle meanings in the songs she sang, allowing listeners to, as her most popular lyrical composition attested, “make a rainbow” in their minds.

Nelson, whose poem Autobiography in Five Chapters is a notable tool for those in recovery, also battled cancer for many years. Ever the warrior, she, ultimately, lost her life to the disease, at the age of 80, in 2001.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Alexis Smith

Published December 18, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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Not many can say that they were romanced by Humphrey Bogart and killed by Jodie Foster, but the classically beautiful, smoky voiced Alexis Smith can wear both of those cinematic crowns with pride.  As the proud Cecily Latham in The Two Mrs. Carrolls and the even prouder Mrs. Hallett in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, she truly helped create celluloid magic.

And while her death by cellar door in the twisted and macabre Little Girl is certainly memorable, fans of a certain set will surely find her take on Stephen Sondheim’s Could I Leave You from Follies much more compelling by far.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Jackson Headlines Musical Horror Story

Published December 15, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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There is nothing that a gay dude loves more than a diva. Well, maybe there’s…but s-h-h-h…I can’t talk about that here. Anyhow, in my book, if anyone could take on Jessica Lange in the Chicago theater community, it’s the divinely eclectic Caitlin Jackson. Nicely, she seems to be doing just that with her role of Reverend Mother in The Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company’s Ryan Murphy send-up Musical Horror Story Exorcism.

From all glimpses, this production promises to offer a bit of blood, a lot of humor and, well, Ms. Jackson (pictured, right, in the photo)! There are only 3 performances left – Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 15-17th, at the Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton, in Chicago. So throw all of your bad habits onto the CTA (or however you get about in this unholy city) and head on over!

More information is available at: https://www.facebook.com/CSTCINC.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies by: Lauren Bacall

Published September 26, 2016 by biggayhorrorfan

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She had one of the most distinctive speaking voices of all time and the irreplaceable Lauren Bacall also used those smoky tones to subtle singing effect in such Broadway musicals as Applause and Woman of the Year.

Best known for her alluring performances in a series of noir classics with (her beloved, first husband) Humphrey Bogart, Bacall jumped on the early ‘80s slasher bandwagon by playing a theatrical diva whose life and limb (and sequin suits) were threatened by a smooth and menacing stalker (of the self loathing variety) in the underperforming (but twisted and enjoyable) The Fan. lauren-bacall-fan-2

Of course, here she is in complete control, singing I Wrote the Book (to a devoted Wayne Newton and others) from Woman of the Year, a role that won her a second Tony award.

 

…and if that doesn’t make you want to do a soft shoe, in the afterlife, with an old school diva…then nothing will.

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Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Carly Simon

Published April 26, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

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I once wore white socks with my business suit and my boss, the Dragon Lady, never let me forget it!

Thankfully, 30 years ago, the interstellar Carly Simon, along with director Jeremy “Dead Ringers” Irons, blended styles much more successfully with their video for Tired of Being Blonde.

Released as the first single off of Simon’s 1985 commercially aggressive pop offering Spoiled Girl, this visual bombshell contains moments of film noir rhapsody, science fiction glamour and exquisite Ingmar Bergman style angst – all wrapped in the sugary sheen of bubblegum goodness.

Carly Simon as Barbarella? Carly Simon as Bibi Andersson in a cocktail dress?!? Best video ever, no?!!!?

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Marcia Lewis: To the Edge of Night with Broadway’s Bloody Wonder!

Published April 29, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

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Brass Beds, Brass Monkeys, Brassy Dames! Big Gay Horror Fan will take the latter, thank you, especially if it is the grand, larger-than-life goddess of stage and screen, Marcia Lewis (1938-2010).

Lewis made her Broadway debut opposite such powerhouses as Phyllis Diller and Ethel Merman in a production of Hello, Dolly! Their combined magnificence obviously gave her a clue on which coat rack hook to hang her professional personality. Lewis became best known for belting out the goods as the comically evil Miss Hannigan in Annie (appearing with Jason Goes to Hell’s Allison Smith) in the 80’s and as a superior Big Mama Morton in the award winning 90’s revival of Chicago.

Ice Pirates

Ice Pirates

But, this saucy wonder also appeared in such science fiction efforts as the original Bionic Woman (as an aggressive wrestler on the second season episode ‘In This Corner, Jaime Sommers’) and 1984 goof-fest The Ice Pirates (whose jaw dropping supporting cast included Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, John Carradine and Bruce Vilanch).

Terror and thriller enthusiasts were also glazed over with happiness when Lewis appeared in a couple of horror influenced offerings in the late 70’s, as well.

nighttheytookmissbeautifulIn 1977 television film The Night They Took Miss Beautiful, a handful of glamorous pageant contestants are kidnapped by a group of ruthless, politically charged outlaws. Suffering from roulette style degradation and aggression, these pretty ladies (including genre regular Rosanne Katon, Dallas’ Victoria Principal and Karen Lamm from Ants, AKA It Happened at Lakewood Manor, and The Unseen) soon find their worst enemy just happens to be Lewis’ drippingly sweet, completely savage Mrs. Barrett. As mother to Lamm’s sweet Cindy Lou, Lewis is a wicked wonder. Lewis’ Barrett is so determined that her daughter escape with youth intact, that she offers her up, willingly, as a sexual conquest, to one of the amorous vigilantes. When Lamm/Cindy Lou finally rejects her mother in the telefilm’s final moments, Lewis shows shocked vulnerability yet a steely determination to go on – it is a bravura performance (worthy of a Tennessee Williams’ subplot or two) in an enjoyable yet unsubstantial suspense offering.

nightwarningIn 1982’s Night Warning (AKA Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker among others), which was filmed in the late 70’s, Lewis brings an appropriate yet over-the-top charm to her nosey Margie. As best friend to Susan Tyrell’s increasingly unhinged lead, Cheryl, Lewis radiates with personality. She hits the nail on the head as the much seen housewife who truly wears the pants in the family. It’s a theatrical performance, but one grounded in reality. Concerned yet sneaky, Margie soon faces down the psychotic Tyrell with an emotional resourcefulness brined in great fear. Incidentally, Night Warning has become a deserved cult classic due to it modern take on the Gothic esthetics of hag horror, it’s even keeled treatment of gay characters and subtle looks at the venomous effects of racism.

Here is a fun clip of Lewis trying to manipulate the legendary Phil Silvers in The Night They Took Miss Beautiful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzYVqk81KoA

Be sure to check back often as Big Gay Horror Fan (https://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan) frequently looks at the magical majesty of women in horror.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!