With cinema currently bashing us over the head with epic amounts of darkness and thoughtful storylines, not to mention powerhouse performances (one thinks of Naomi Watts in The Impossible, Hathaway and Co in Les Miserables, Day-Lewis in Lincoln and films with titles such as Zero Dark Thirty and Gangster Squad), you could be forgiven for growing a little tired of the worthiness of cinema right now. This is all due to awards season, obviously; come the summer the mindless popcorn fodder of Blockbuster Season will take its turn with the hammer to our noggins.
But, if you're looking for something happy and entertaining, and you're willing to perhaps spend a little more money, you could do worse things than take a trip to the West End. Right now there are two classic song and dance musicals, Singin' In The Rain and Top Hat, whose sole purpose is to make you smile. These are the kind of shows that the plot doesn't really matter, where the antagonists are really epic comic creations, and it's all about the song and dance numbers; exactly the kind of shows that audiences would have expected from the 1920s up to about 1943. This was the year that Musical Theatre changed forever with Oklahoma. 'Nuff said.
Singin' In The Rain, in particular, does have the title moment where Adam Cooper, the incredibly talented leading man, does exactly what it says on the tin and...well, sings and dances in the rain. Literally. The rain comes down and down and if you pay an expensive price for an excellent seat just make sure you are aware that you will get wet. If Cooper doesn't get you, the rest of the company will in the curtain call. Of course, the show is about a lot more than one of the most famous numbers in musical history; ironically, it's actually a very slight tale about the transition in Hollywood from silent films to talkies. But it's a tale of good humour, romance and manages to get it right - it's a happy show and you can't get away from the theatre without one of the songs stuck in your head.
And good humoured, honest shows are coming thick and fast to the bright lights of London's Theatreland, with two Best Musical Tony Winners - The Book Of Mormon, already sold out till June, and Once, based on the gorgeous film that won an Oscar for Best Original Song with "Falling Slowly". Not to mention the return of Spamalot, the continuing success of Wicked and Matilda, and the enduring classic romance of Phantom.You could even go and see the original Les Mis. The best thing about these shows too is, whereas all these worthy films will only be around for a few months in the cinema, these shows are going to be around for a lot longer; and every night is a different performance. That's the magic of theatre; a living, breathing creature that needs to be fed. It's highly addictive, and doesn't it just make you want to dance?
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