The Best Musicals

Shortly after their 10th wedding anniversary, New York City theater producer Steven Hilliard (Leslie Nielsen) and his wife, former popular radio singer Kay Ashley Hilliard (June Allyson), are getting a Kay-initiated Reno divorce after Kay finds out about a marital indiscretion he had with Crystal Allen (Dame Joan Collins), a gold-digging chorus girl in one of his shows. News of the indiscretion made its way to Kay indirectly by her catty friend Sylvia Fowler (Dolores Gray). In getting the divorce, Kay's best friend, playwright Amanda Penrose (Ann Sheridan), believes Kay is playing right into the wants of Crystal, whose main goal is not to be happily married to Steven, but to get what such a marriage can bring her in material wealth and comfort. Amanda does not believe Steven loves Crystal and that he still really loves Kay. Kay proceeds with the divorce despite believing they'd had a happy, loving marriage before she learned of the indiscretion, and despite having adolescent daughter Debbie (Sandy Descher) to consider. But when Kay learns information of the goings-on within her social circle, she decides to take back control of her married status while exacting some revenge.

Two producers are putting together a Calvacade of Stars for a wartime charity show. Along with a list of well-knowns they promote the work of an unknown singer and songwriter.

A young navy lieutenant is brought in as techninical adviser on a song-dance-and-swim film being made by screen star Rosalind Reynolds. Having once done a number with her - and been kissed at the end - at a Forces show, the young lad somehow believes she should be his girl. Her boyfriend - and fellow co-star - is just one of those disagreeing.

Jimmy, the owner of a failed music shop, goes to work with his uncle, the owner of a food factory. Before he gets there, he befriends an Irish family who happens to be his uncle's worst enemy because of their love for music and in-house band who constantly practices. Soon, Jimmy finds himself trying to help the band by getting them gigs and trying to reconcile the family with his uncle, an avid music hater, all while winning the heart of the beautiful Molly.

Pretty Melinda Howard has been abroad singing with a musical troupe. She decides to return home to surprise her mother whom she thinks is a successful Broadway star with a mansion in Manhattan. She doesn't know that her mother is actually a burnt-out cabaret singer with a love for whiskey. When she arrives at the mansion, she is taken in by the two servants who are friends of her mother's The house actually belongs to Adolph Hubbell, a kind-hearted Broadway producer who also gets drawn into the charade. Hubbell takes a shine to Melinda and agrees to star her in his next show. Melinda also finds romance with a handsome hoofer who's also in the show. All is going well for Melinda except that she wants to see her mother who keeps putting off their reunion.

In 1922 New York City, Millie Dillmount (Dame Julie Andrews) and Miss Dorothy Brown (Mary Tyler Moore) are just two of the girls living at the Priscilla Hotel for Single Young Ladies run by Mrs. Meers (Beatrice Lillie). Orphaned, Miss Dorothy, just recently arrived, is a naive, old-fashioned girl from a seemingly privileged background who has aspirations to be a stage actress. From more modest means, Millie, in New York City for three months, used to be old-fashioned, but now has a new modern sensibility and look to match, complete with bobbed hair and dresses with hemlines above the knee. Included in this new modern sensibility is Millie's goal of getting a job as a stenographer, with a quick promotion to being her wealthy boss' "Mrs." Love is not to factor into the equation. She believes she's found the right employer in the form of chisel-jawed Trevor Graydon (John Gavin) of the Sincere Trust Insurance Company. Millie's pursuit of Mr. Graydon is despite the fact that Mr. Graydon sees her as one of the boys, he has old-fashioned sensibilities, and Millie has a mutual attraction to another boy named Jimmy Smith (James Fox). Although she likes Jimmy, Millie feels that Jimmy, as a paper clip salesman with an overwhelming happy-go-lucky attitude, is not driven enough to be husband material. That doesn't stop Jimmy's pursuit of Millie. In her association with Jimmy, Millie meets flamboyant wealthy Renaissance woman Muzzy Van Hossmere (Carol Channing). Jimmy's father once worked as Muzzy's gardener. Originally from humble means much like Millie, Muzzy tries to convince Millie that true love will lead to happiness, as that is what happened when she met the now deceased Mr. Van Hossmere, who she had no idea was rich. In other goings-on amongst this new circle of friends, Miss Dorothy leaves New York City without a word to anyone except Mrs. Meers. Thinking this situation rather odd, Millie connects Miss Dorothy's leaving with that of other girls previously living at the Priscilla Hotel. With Mr. Graydon's help, Jimmy and Millie try to find out what happened to Miss Dorothy.

It's the early 1900's. The Wonder Circus is a traveling circus owned and operated by Anthony Wonder - who performs as a clown - and his daughter Kitty Wonder - who performs as an aerialist and trick rider. Although Kitty loves her Pop as she and all the other circus performers call her father, she hates his gambling addiction which is placing the circus deep in debt. They and their employees treat the circus like one big family, especially Lulu the fortune teller who wants to be Mrs. Wonder, but the employees may only be so loyal if they aren't getting paid. As such, many of the performers leave or threaten to leave to join the Wonder Circus' main competitor, the Noble Circus owned by the power and money hungry John Noble. Although Pop and Kitty don't want anyone to leave their employ, the only act that they will never let go is Jumbo, their trained elephant, who Noble had tried to buy in the past. As many performers leave, into their midst comes circus Jack-of-all-trades Sam Rawlins. Kitty is reluctant to hire Sam because she wants loyal people working for them instead of someone like Sam who she sees as a "sunshiner", a career circus employee who moves from gig to gig. Pop has no such reservation and hires him. Despite still being somewhat suspicious of Sam's motivations since she figures he could get more money working for Noble with his vast array of circus skills, Kitty starts to fall in love with Sam, and he with her, despite his attempts to feign disinterest. Indeed, Sam is hiding a secret about himself and his reason for being with the show. That secret may jeopardize his standing with the Wonders if they ever found out - even if Sam begins to have second thoughts about his reasons for joining them - and jeopardize the entire Wonder Circus itself which includes Jumbo's life.

The three Craig sisters, in Switzerland with their ten-years-divorced mother, run away to New York to prevent their father from marrying calculating socialite Donna Lyons. The overpowering vivacity of the Smart Girls (nominal ages 14-20) sweeps all before it, but a romantic complication between middle sister Kay and their accidental ally, Lord Michael Stuart, threatens shipwreck to their schemes...

Socialite Elvira Kent suspects her husband of fooling around with other women. When he announces he can't join her on their scheduled ocean voyage, she hires a nightclub singer, Georgia Garrett, to pose as her on the cruise. Elvira stays at a hotel near home so she can spy on her husband. She's unaware, however, that her husband has hired a detective, Peter Virgil, to keep an eye on her at sea. Of course, Peter doesn't realize that Georgia is not Mrs. Kent...

The Robinson family are spending two weeks of summer vacation at a resort in the Catskills. Older daughter Patti vies with her friend, Valeria, for the affections of Demi Armendez but Patti is at a disadvantage because her parents think she is too young for boys. But with Patti singing at an amateur show and a dance, her adventures in quest of Armendez ends happily.

Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos. Melvin wants to marry Judy, but her father would rather she marry dull and dependable Harry Black. As a last resort, Melvin promises to get Judy's photo on the cover of the next issue of Look, a task easier said than done.

The star of an upcoming Broadway production, Janet Hallson, walks out during rehersals. The producers of the show, Ted Sturgis, Leo Belney and Bob Dowdy begin to search a replacement. After a quick audition, each favors someone else: Madelyn Corlane, Joanna Moss, Suzie Doolittle. The rest of the movie tells in a series of musical and dance scenes how they finally pick ...

Fred and Lilly are a divorced pair of actors who are brought together by Cole Porter who has written a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. Of course, the couple seem to act a great deal like the characters they play. A fight on the opening night threatens the production, as well as two thugs who have the mistaken idea that Fred owes their boss money and insist on staying next to him all night.

Miss Ethel 'Dynamite' Jackson is a chorus girl who mistakenly receives an invitation from the State Department to represent the American theatre at an arts exposition in Paris, France. There's only one problem: the invitation was meant for Miss Ethel Barrymore. Meanwhile, S. Winthrop Putnam, the bureaucrat who made the mistake, tries unsuccessfully to correct his mix-up. It's too late, for Dynamite Jackson is off to Paris, where the two meet and marry, or so they think.

Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. Now she's leaving home to go into government service (not, as she fantasizes, to join the USO). On a side trip to New York, her vivid imagination leads her to True Love with naval hero Tommy Dooley; but increasingly involved Musical Comedy Complications follow.

Attorney, Purdom, and singer, Damone, romance two sisters, Reynolds and Powell, who live with and are strongly influenced by eccentric, health oriented and star gazing grandparents.

A musical remake of Ninotchka: After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to complete their mission and to retrieve them. She starts out condemning the decadent West, but gradually falls under its spell with the help of Steve Canfield, an American movie producer.

The upper-class Pringles and middle-class Fosters are two Santa Barbara families. Widowed businessman Lucien T. Pringle's (Leon Ames') interests, including a bank and a radio station, keep him absent from his children's lives. Melvin Colner Foster (Wallace Beery) owns and operates a seafood packing plant, an offshoot of his days as a fisherman. Unlike Lucien, Melvin is very present in his family's lives. Judy Foster (Jane Powell) and siblings Ogden "Oogie" Pringle (Scotty Beckett) and Carol Pringle (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) are seniors at the local high school and have known each other all of their lives. Judy, the school's songbird, and Oogie, conductor of the school's orchestra, are musical collaborators and consider themselves more than friends; Judy and Carol are best friends, although Judy and Oogie are oblivious to Carol's actions being in her best interest, often at their expense. Events before, during, and after the senior-class dance have major repercussions: on Carol's advice, Judy's last-minute escort is Stephen I. Andrews (Robert Stack), nephew of local druggist "Pop" Sam Scully (Lloyd Corrigan). Stephen, a war veteran in town for the summer earning college money as Pop's soda jerk, becomes Judy's new love interest, although she's unaware whether it's just to make Oogie jealous or if it's an idolization of an older man. Carol falls for him too and does whatever she can to "steal" him from Judy without Judy even knowing. But Stephen is aware of the rivalry and knows about Carol's entitled nature and the probable reason behind it. Oogie tries to win Judy back by following the advice of people he trusts. What happens amongst this quartet is complicated by a misunderstanding about Melvin's 20th Anniversary surprise for his wife Dora Foster (Selena Royle).