Bollywood anyone???

[ladywhizbee]

Okay, so I have a bit of an unusual request. My girls love musicals. LOVE them. Eric and I have seen a few Bollywood movies and really think that they would enjoy them. The color, the music, the dance numbers, the fantastical characters, and the classic--boy meets girl but something REALLY BIG stands between them getting together until the very end

Comments

[gabrielladusult]

Well, Singing in the Rain is my favorite movie of all time (not just musical). I first saw it when I was learning a dance to the title song in tap class when I was about 6 and my dad decided that I needed to put it in perspective or something and took me to see the movie at a local community college that had classic movie night or something.

After that, I would watch anything with Gene Kelly in it -- though some (Les Girls for example), might not be appropriate (there are affairs and scandals). On the Town, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and Anchors Aweigh are all great. An American in Paris is a classic, but also has some adult themes in it and in my opinion ends too abruptly.

I also think Sound of Music is a great one for kids, since kids singing feature so strongly in it, although there are some scary moments when the Nazis come after them (no worse than the witch in Wizard of Oz, though).

Oliver! is another good kid-related movie and (I can't believe I'm going to say this) more recently, Newsies. The latter has just been converted to a Broadway show, so it's getting something of a revival of interest.

Which brings me to my next recommendation, having been bitten by the musical bug as a very young child. Keep an eye out for what your local community theaters and High Schools are doing, and take them to see a show live. Once they get used to the concept of sitting still and quiet for a show, splurge on a Matinee of a touring Broadway show. My parents did this for me when I got to be about twelve or so, and I adored it.

[ladywhizbee]

Thank you so much for all the wonderful recommendations! I appreciate having all of your insight.

The girls have always enjoyed musicals but it really became more interesting to them when Sophie started to take acting and singing classes and was invited to audition for a kids production of 'Beauty and the Beast'. The production was for kids ages 10-18, but the Director encouraged Sophie to audition even though she was only 8. She did and she was cast as a part in the chorus (a villager and the salt shaker to be exact). Now she wants to see more and do more.

We've talked about watching 'The Sound of Music' for those very same reasons but have held off because we both remember being scared by it as kids. Eric's favorite book series from childhood was the "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" so he started reading them to the girls about a year ago and both wanted to see the movie. We started by watching the Muppets version first and then progressed to the Judy Garland version. Grace still got scared, but she knew how it would end and that made it better. :-) I still hate the flying monkeys, though.

The Gene Kelly recs are really great. I think the girls would really be enchanted. They both enjoy Fred Astaire so I know they would find Kelly just as engaging if not more so. We will definitely put those on our list.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this. I'm so glad that you posted. :-)