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Thank you for the musicals: What’s your favourite musical movie?

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IT was a ray of sunshine that lit up box offices around the world.

Now, with the original having raked in over half a billion pounds, a sequel to Mamma Mia! has just been announced.

Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried will all be back in July 2018, exactly 10 years on from getting toes tapping to a host of ABBA tunes.

With smash-hit La La Land just released on DVD, we asked a selection of Sunday Post writers, readers and a few famous faces to tell us their most magical musical.

 

Lorraine Kelly

Singin’ In The Rain

It’s quite simply one of the finest movies ever made.

Gene Kelly was at the peak of his powers showing that musicals can be funny, sexy, entertaining and uplifting.

He took a teenage Debbie Reynolds and worked her so hard blood oozed out of her shoes, but the result is magic.

Kevin Duala, The One Show presenter

Dreamgirls

This was a Broadway show that went to the big screen with Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Beyonce and launched the magnificent career of Jennifer Hudson.

There are amazing dance scenes and unbelievable singing, leaving you humming the hits And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, Listen and One Night Only.

Ross King, Sunday Post columnist

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I first saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show on an old battered VHS back in the 1980s and loved it. Of course, I never thought that in 1999 I’d be sitting in the audience at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh watching Jason Donovan as Dr Frank-N-Furter.

What I also never thought was that I’d be there having been asked to take over the role. I vividly remember sitting in the crowd.

Paul Cooney, who was there with me, turned and said, “Do you really think you can do this?” I looked him in the eye and said “Of course… I can’t!”

The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music

Sally McDonald, Aberdeen

The Sound Of Music

This was the most magical musical of all time and I love it as much today as I did when it came out in 1965.

Back then I couldn’t understand why the audience chuckled when Captain Von Trapp used a whistle to order his children around. My naval officer dad did the same thing to me – with a Bosun’s Call.

Stevie Gallacher, Glasgow

The Blues Brothers

Nothing says musical quite like bar-room brawls, villainous neo-Nazis and the most ridiculous car chases ever committed to film.

Forget the nonsense plot and listen to the triumphant sounds of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker. Everybody needs some Blues Brothers.

Gillian Furmage, Glasgow

Les Misérables

When it was announced this was getting the Hollywood treatment, I was nervous.

As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. We were treated to a raw, Oscar-winning turn from Anne Hathaway as Fantine, a heart-breaking performance from Samantha Barks and an earnest, un-showy songbird in Eddie Redmayne. The entire spectacle is carried by Hugh Jackman with a confidence that can only come from years of musical theatre experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFEkErGUjCU

Cressida McLaughlin, Author

Calamity Jane

I was shown Doris Day’s western musical at a young age and fell in love immediately, watching it over and over again.

The songs lie dormant but word-perfect in my head, coming out to surprise me whenever someone mentions Chicago. It has so many magical moments.

Jean Johansson, The One Show presenter

West Side Story

My favourite film musical is without a doubt West Side Story. The rivalry between the Sharks and the Jets, the love story of Tony and Maria and the New York setting gets me every time.

Murray Scougall, Airdrie

Little Shop Of Horrors

I’ve never been a lover of musicals – but the one I’ll make an exception for is Little Shop Of Horrors. I couldn’t have been any older than 10 the first time I saw the 1986 movie and I was immediately hooked. It had horror, dread, a monster, genuine belly laughs – everything I wouldn’t have expected to see in a musical.

Patricia-Ann Young, Cumbernauld

Chicago

You won’t find any heart wrenching ballads here – every song in Chicago has a dark side. But while I love it for all its scheming and woman scorned fury, I also love it for its desperate hope.

In Chicago, you find inspiration in bleakness, which is uplifting.

Bill Gibb, Bishopbriggs

Mamma Mia!

It might, as Julie Walters said, be “very Greek” but who wouldn’t rejoice at more ABBA tunes belted out in the sunshine?

The first was full of delights, some intentional, some probably not so. The sheer exuberance of Meryl Streep and co leaping off the pier to Dancing Queen was balanced by Meryl and Amanda Seyfried’s wistful Slipping Through My Fingers. And then there was Pierce Brosnan’s SOS. Enough said. More joy – Mamma Mia, here we go again!

Natasha Radmehr, Glasgow

Calamity Jane

The song Windy City takes me back to being a little girl “cooried” in beside my gran on the couch, singing along with Calamity Jane.

As someone who was raised in denims and dungarees, I admired pistol-wielding tomboy Calam’. Doris Day’s performance as the feisty frontiers-woman is nothing short of exhilarating.

Laura Coventry, Giffnock

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

As a child, this was my favourite musical, and as an adult the love has never waned. The late, great Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka is an absolute marvel.

It’s packed with catchy songs. What’s not to love about The Candy Man Can, I’ve Got the Golden Ticket and Oompa Loompa Doo-Ba-Dee-Doo?

Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio, Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito, John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli and Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi in Warner Bros. Pictures' musical "Jersey Boys," (AP Photo/Courtesy Warner Bros., Keith Bernstein)
Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio, Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito, John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli and Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi in Warner Bros. Pictures’ musical Jersey Boys (AP Photo/Courtesy Warner Bros/Keith Bernstein)

Donna Hay, Dundee

ALL OF THE ABOVE!

Choosing a favourite musical is like picking a favourite child, or song, or film – practically impossible!

Who could choose between the soaring power of Wicked’s Defying Gravity and the mesmerising melodies of Jersey Boys? Or favour the gentle ballads of Blood Brothers over the catchy rock beats of Jesus Christ Superstar?

Or judge between Lion King’s rousing Circle Of Life and the roaring defiance of Do You Hear The People Sing from Les Miserables?

There is one for every mood, every emotion, every theme and every human story.

That’s the beauty and real joy of musicals.