LibGuides: Musicals: Media

Featured Streaming Media

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Broadway Goes Hollywood: Musical Comedy in American Cinema (52:11) Beginning with the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, this program provides a detailed look inside that most distinctly American of film traditions, the musical comedy. Interviews with dancer Cyd Charisse, famous for her starring roles in MGM musicals, and Hermes Pan, renowned choreographer and collaborator with Fred Astaire, help to illuminate the advent and evolution of the genre. Excerpts and behind-the-scenes accounts from Singin’ in the Rain, 42nd Street, Second Chorus, Flying Down to Rio, The Wizard of Oz, and many other films are included. Specific topics include the impact of the Hays Code, the influence of African-American dance styles, and the decline of the musical during the 1960s.
Fanfare for America: The Composer Aaron Copland (59:00) Impressed with how European music could have a "German sound," a "French sound," and so on, Aaron Copland returned from his years in Paris to New York City, intent on capturing the essence of the "American sound." This documentary presents an artful blending of the life and music of one of America's great modern composers.
Musical Genre (03:30) Robert Altman's Hollywood satire "The Player" illustrates genre convention and the tendency among studios to duplicate successful formulas. View a clip of Fred Astaire and Jane Powell in "Royal Wedding" from 1951.
Musical Theater (02:43) See examples of various elements in the traditional musical playbill. Women quickly change costumes while the principles perform.

Films on Demand Performances

Get high quality academic and archival streaming videos from sources like BBC, National Geographic, PBS, TED and more.

Want more on FOD? Go to the How to Use Films on Demand (FOD) Guide. Must access on campus or login with your COM account for off campus access.

H.M.S. Pinafore: Stratford Festival Classics (01:27:48) Earning rave reviews during its run at Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival, this unforgettable Gilbert and Sullivan operetta takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to British class structure, the admiralty, and the ruling classes. It’s also a love story with a multitude of permutations. Josephine (Katherine Terrell) plans to elope with sailor Ralph Rackstraw (James McLean), but their plans are spoiled by villainous Dick Deadeye (Eric Donkin). In the meantime, Josephine’s father has promised her hand in marriage to the pompous and elderly Sir Joseph Porter. Everyone is dissatisfied until Little Buttercup (Patricia Kern), a Portsmouth bumboat woman, discloses a startling, decade-old secret and enables love to triumph.
The Mikado: Stratford Festival Classics (02:19:20) The Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s stunning production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic comic opera was a blockbuster hit that went on to garner acclaim in Toronto, London, and New York. Cloaked in the guise of a Japanese musical drama, The Mikado is a spoof of Victorian English society. The plot involves the transformation of the dishonest Ko-Ko from lowly tailor and prisoner in a country jail to the rank of Lord High Executioner. While avoiding the particulars of his job, he must maneuver for the hand of his beloved Yum-Yum, who loves Nanki-Poo—a wandering minstrel and, secretly, the Imperial Prince.