a clear understanding

When we think of the great musicals -- tunes, and familiar fun words flow through our minds:  wind comes sweepin' down-the-plain...there is nothin' like a dame...raindrops on roses, & whiskers on kittens...If I were a rich MAN! -- ba-da-
Da-da-da-da-


Da-da-da-da-


Da-da-da-da-


DOHM!


All day long I'd --
(ya-da-yada-ya...)


The middle part of the 20th Century was, for some reason, a fertile time for big musicals on the Big Screen (most of them began as Broadway stage shows, I think...)


So stylized that they seemed already old-fashioned (in a classic, rollicking, beauteous way) when they first came out, ("The RAIN in SPAIN stays mainly in the -- PLAIN!"...) they're timeless:  you could watch it in 1962, or 2015, or anytime, and, I think, it's the same effect.


It was a "bumper crop" of musicals, and every child should experience, during his growing-up years, the pleasure of the Core-Quality-Short-List:


Oklahoma!


South Pacific


The King And I


The Sound Of Music


My Fair Lady


Fiddler On The Roof.


-------------------------------

Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, in the 1956 film, The King And I


Shall we dance?
On a bright cloud of music,
Shall we fly?


Shall we dance?
Shall we then say good-night
And mean good-bye?


Or perchance --
When the last little star
Has left the sky...


Shall we still be together
With our arms around each other
And shall you be my new romance?


On the clear understanding
That this kind of thing can happen
Shall we dance?
Shall we dance?
Shall we dance?


{Google, type in
"shall we dance, the king and I"
>>> You Tube}


-----------------------




Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence in the 1951 Broadway musical play, "The King And I."


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