A blast from the past

[vanillafluffy]

Saw the movie-musical "Oklahoma" tonight for the first time in...oh, a couple decades, at least. I didn't remember, for instance, that Eddie Albert is in it as the fast-talking womanizing peddlar---and I don't think I've ever seen him so young! Seeing Shirley Jones (more than a decade before she was Mama Partridge was a bit jarring. And I'd completely forgotten about that lengthy, drug-induced dream sequence in the middle.

I knew more of the songs than I expected I would, although I hadn't realized that it's the source of "People Will Say We're in Love". (My prior fandom predilictions have that imutably cross-referenced to "The Silence of the Lambs". Yeah....)

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Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

I also did not know that line in SotL came from "Oklahoma." Now I've got this brain-itch image of a young Hannibal Lector in a movie house raptly watching musicals. :D

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

He was a classical music buff in the book---I fancy musicalswould've been a guilty pleasure.

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[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

A complete random comment - saw a Corgi running along this evening and thought of you...

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Aren't they wonderful when they run? They're so fast for something so short-legged, and our dog occasionally breaks into piggy-hops and just sails along with all four feet off the ground. :D

[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

They are absolute delight to watch! This particular one was not yet galopping but trotting proudly. Very cute and very funny!

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

That's called the corgi strut. :) I love how they trot so evenly. I think you could balance a water glass on their backs and it wouldn't spill.

[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

And it would also stay there due to the wide smooth back!
Corgi strut! I have to remember that one!

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

When i was a kid I did little theater for YEARS and the people who ran it did "Oklahoma" waaaay too much so I never want to see it again.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I was cast as Aunt Eller in the production our summer camp had planned. It got cancelled a couple weeks into production, though, so I was relieved of having to shuffle my way through any dance numbers. I suspect the prospect of three hours of hearing all our little falsetto voices warbling was what really sunk the production.

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[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

i was Ado Annie once and an unnamed chorus member twelve million times. feh.

[thru-the-blinds.livejournal.com]

I saw a stage production in Akron with Dirk Benedict (then starring in Battlestar Galactica) as Curly when I was 14 years old. My favorite version, though, is the one Hugh Jackman starred in back in 1999, in London.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Dirk as Curly?! 'Scuse me while I swoon! Granted, he's looking a little rough these days, but oh! He was IT as Face, and IMO he's the REAL Starbuck.


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[thru-the-blinds.livejournal.com]

Yes, ma'am! I still have the autographed program in a scrapbook (stored in the basement). Not only could that boy fill out a pair of chaps, he could really sing, too!

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

It still amazes me that it's considered "wholesome family entertainment" considering how dark the Curly plot is and EXACTLY what Ado Annie "cain't" say no to.

Also...while not as bad as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tifanny's (SHUDDER) isn't that peddler a caricature of an Armenian or some other ethnic group?

But the music is gorgeous, and damn they did great things during the heyday of tecnicolor.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

He kept saying "Persian", which as I understand it would be Iranian these days, but the whole thing is a product of its times. Remember Dick VanDyke doing Cockney?! *shudder*

Yup, it was all eye-candy, and the letter-box format really enhanced it. I know some people find it irritating, but on a big enough screen, it really is the premier way to watch.

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[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

Our local Oklahoma cast a great actor as the peddler who actually WAS of the ethnic group they are making a caricature out of. He specialized in comedy, so I think he took it as an opportunity. Alas, he is now dead already, killed in a car crash.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to know "Oklahoma" has jumped the pond. That one in particular of Rodgers and Hammerstein is so very American...although I don't know why I'm surprised. "My Fair Lady" is oh-so-British, and it's certainly gotten around.

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[kukkurkurat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one has been here, too. For couple of productions, at least!