A Musical I Liked

The Sound of Music, of course. Everybody likes The Sound of Music. It has everything: gorgeous landscapes, songs that are fun to sing, adorable children, Nazis who are scary because they're Nazis but, considered as men, the type who probably lined up to surrender because they suspected your grandfather was going to be more humane than the other Nazis were, and Julie Andrews. The real Maria von Trapp was a very easy writer to like, but liking Julie Andrews is obligatory. 

(Most of the songs are free to watch on Youtube at 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLycQGoRl0aEwbg3fEx27AdWtISMz8oH_V .)

Camelot, which also had the Grandmother of All Sweetie-Pies in it, didn't have the advantage of starting with a nice, cute, likable story. The original story of Camelot was about how Arthur lost what he'd won. Instead of being a happy hero story in which Arthur always knocks friendly competitors off their horses and kills real enemies, the story called "The Death of Arthur" was a classic tragedy. His marriage to Guinevere was a political arrangement; they never fell in love with each other. Arthur loved England. Guinevere found another man  In some ancient monarchies the king's right to rule depended on his marriage, and although people still respected Arthur he lost respect for himself. He was defeated in a fight, and his body was taken to Avalon, the apple tree island, where for a long time some people believed that he was only resting and recovering. It was a useful myth anyway. The original script for Camelot followed the traditional story. Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, however, being nice people, decided the characters would have respected Arthur too much to commit physical adultery. They kept the romantic attraction but portrayed the characters not acting it out. This makes Camelot a story about how self-control is what makes niceness possible...which is more true than most things that came out of Hollywood. It also gave our language "Camelot" as a word for the nice, or honeymoon, stage of a relationship to a person or job.

(It's not free on Youtube. It may be free on Plex, or free with a purchase. No link to Plex here.)

There were some classic early twentieth century musicals from which I've sung songs, but which I've never watched performed. There were some musicals I watched, and liked, that aren't considered classics; a version of Huckleberry Finn stands out in memory. There are some literary classics that were clearly written to be musical plays, including some of Shakespeare's as well as Moliere's and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz's, that might or might not be great musicals by today's standards but I've always wanted to see them done, and never have

So, to fulfill the Rule of Three...Some consider Gilbert & Sullivan works as operettas, a separate genre from musicals. The distinction has never been clear and I don't think it's useful. I like G&S, although and because their plots border on pure nonsense. I'll say The Pirates of Penzance, any version not performed by the college drama club in prep schools from New Jersey to Ohio, because I still remember all the words to all the songs. 

(This sounds as if it might be another school group, or community group...at least this version does not have your Auntie Pris in it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaem0R05xbU .)