Advertisement

The best musical movies of all time, from Mary Poppins to Grease

Since the golden age of Hollywood, musical films have been the pinnacle of popular entertainment.

There’s nothing better to express yourself than bursting suddenly into song, turning household chores into a masterpiece and an impassioned argument into a medley.

To keep us smiling (and singing) through the difficult times, we're revisiting some of the all-time favourites. We’ve made the decision not to include Disney animations in this list, because there are far too many and they’re nearly all fabulous (but anyone with sense can agree that Tangled beats Frozen any day).

So, in no particular order, here are the best movie musicals around:

The Wizard of Oz

Even with all the CGI you can muster these days, nothing beats that moment when the Wizard of Oz turns from black and white into technicolour. Judy Garland’s Dorothy takes a long journey down the yellow brick road to find her way back home, picking up unlikely friends along the way. Each – the cowardly lion, heartless tin man and scarecrow without a brain – show how you are in charge of your own destiny.

Chicago

Chicago was the first musical to win best picture at the Oscars since Oliver! in 1968 – for good reason, and that reason is its loyalty to Bob Fosse’s original. It may be a huge Hollywood picture, but it feels like you’re watching it on the stage. Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones are powerhouses, both in their own way selling the infectious glamour of life as a 1920s celebrity criminal, while Queen Latifah and Richard Gere perfectly satirise the corruption of the justice system. If you and your friends didn’t act out the Cell Block Tango during breaktimes at school, why are you even here?

My Fair Lady

Audrey Hepburn is arguably an unconvincing choice to play a poor Edwardian flower girl in the musical adaptation of Pygmalion (“the rine in spine stys minely in the pline”), but that has never seemed to matter. Alongside Rex Harrison who plays a wholly unlikeable character in almost every possible way, she holds her own and gives him everything he deserves, with the help of Marni Nixon’s singing (Hepburn couldn’t hold a tune). Plus, Eliza Doolittle’s outfit for Ascot is enough of an iconic move to make this a classic for the years.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Just goes to show how critics don’t always get it right. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with all of its brazen sexuality and gender fluidity, was panned when it was released in 1975 (“tasteless, plotless, pointless” according to Newsweek in 1978), but thanks to a loyal audience it has become more than a cult hit. American viewers dressed up and talked back to the screen; one theatre even had people in full costume acting out the entire show in mime at the front of the auditorium. It’s now a phenomenon the world over and has remained on limited release for four decades, making it the longest-running theatrical release in the history of film.

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music is still one of the most successful films of all time with its perfect formula of Julie Andrews, musical children and Nazi-defying nuns. Taking inspiration from the true story of the von Trapp family, who really did flee Austria (but actually had 10 children, whew), the story of a family playing music in the face of mortal peril is a tale as old as time. Maria, making clothes out of curtains and challenging the Captain’s military control over his kids, showed us how optimism can get you out of many scrapes – though admittedly this works more effectively for a thunderstorm than a fascist dictatorship.

Grease

The message of Grease might seem questionable by today’s standards (change everything about yourself for a guy) but there’s more to it than that. At the time of its release, teenagers talking explicitly about sex – particularly young women who exercised their rights to dress the way they liked – demonstrated a sort of rebellion against the constraints of American society that was rarely seen. Not to mention that the big songs are impossible not to sing along with, and Stockard Channing gives an unbeatable performance as Rizzo when she sings There Are Worse Things I Could Do.

The Wiz

Diana Ross as Dorothy? No way was this one going to slip through the net. Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz is set in an alternative reality New York City and told through the eyes of a kindergarten teacher who chases her dog into a snowstorm. It’s fantastically novel if you’ve never seen it: there’s a particularly scary sequence where a subway station comes to life, and the Wicked Witch of the West is a sweatshop tyrant. At its time of release, The Wiz was the most expensive movie musical ever made – just watch the huge Emerald City number, which includes 400 dancers with multiple costume changes, and you’ll find out why. Worth it? Absolutely.

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof, written by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein, hits so hard because you know it’s based on real life. It tells the story of a milkman, his family and the devout Jewish community of the village they live in. Tevye has five daughters, three of whom are nearing the marrying age. Against the backdrop of rumours of violence in nearby villages, the family try to negotiate moving forward while keeping hold of the old traditions that have kept them safe in the past. Joyous songs such as If I Were A Rich Man and To Life next to the heartbreak of Far from the Home I Love guarantee you’ll be silently weeping when the credits start to roll.

Singin’ In The Rain

Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor really worked hard on this one. Kelly filmed the title number with a fever, Reynolds had never danced before and, well, just look at O’Connor in the exhausting Make Em Laugh, which remains the gold-standard of physical comedy. It’s a Hollywood film about Hollywood that manages to share its enthusiasm for itself with the audience – something some have failed to do (cough, La La Land, cough). It’s utter bliss.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Is there any film so criminally underrated as the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella? As far as princess musicals go, this is at the top thanks to its wonderful cast. Whitney Houston plays the role she was born to as the Fairy Godmother, with Bernadette Peters equally well cast as the Stepmother and Whoopi Goldberg as the queen – all revolving around the charm of Brandy Norwood’s Cinderella. Originally written in the 1950s for Julie Andrews, there were two remakes after this – but the 1997 one is the best.

Dreamgirls

A career-defining performance for Jennifer Hudson as Effie White makes Dreamgirls a must-watch. With an only-slightly-less stratospheric Beyoncé playing Deena, this was Hudson’s movie, launching her from American Idol contestant to household name thanks to her rendition of And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going. The musical, taking strong inspiration from the history of the Motown record label and one of its acts, The Supremes, was written in 1981 and was a hit at the time, but it wasn’t until the movie in 2006 that it really became a musical reference point.

Mamma Mia!

This is the one that never fails to put a smile on your face. It’s all beaches and blue seas, and a suspicious amount of lithe young men for a remote Greek island. And, of course, ABBA. Saucy Meryl Streep’s daughter is getting married and wants her dad there but works out that it could be one of three guys: Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth or Stellan Skarsgard. No, the men may not be able to sing particularly well, but who cares? They’re all trying really, really hard (especially Pierce) and that’s what matters. And any film that makes room for Christine Baranski’s high kicks has to be given its proper dues.

Mary Poppins

P. L. Travers may not have cared for it, but Mary Poppins is the nation’s favourite classic musical film. Once again, Julie Andrews imbues her role with all the warmth and efficiency you’d wish for in a nanny – after all, she is practically perfect in every way. It’s wonderful to watch a film about the magic you see all around you every day as a child, and be reminded of it as an adult. It’s a testament to the power of imagination and a legacy that Emily Blunt continued with grace in the recent sequel.

Enchanted

We already worship at the altar of Amy Adams, but Enchanted is such an underrated classic Disney film. Adams plays Giselle a young woman who is tricked into leaving the perfect animated world where she is about to marry a prince for the harsh, faraway kingdom of New York. She meets a cynical businessman and single father and, through the power of music, kindness and optimism, shows him how great his life could be. Not only does it have some truly fantastic group numbers, it makes a water-tight case for why musicals themselves are so wonderful.

Rocketman

Nobody walking into the cinema when this Elton John biopic was released expected this. You think it'll be a serious biopic about the musician's life, albeit with some outrageous costumes, and then suddenly everyone's dancing in a fairground and it's a full-blown musical. His songs intertwines throughout the story to magnify the manic highs and catastrophic lows of his journey to global superstardom, and Taron Egerton's performance is uncanny right down to the last note.