47 Fun Facts About Movie Musical

Which 1927 film was the first feature with synchronized music and lip-synced speech?

The Jazz Singer: outside its songs it has barely two minutes of synchronized talking, and the rest of its dialogue still appears on title cards.

Which 1929 musical, advertised as 'All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing', won Best Picture?

The Broadway Melody: MGM followed it with three more Broadway Melody films, and its song 'You Were Meant for Me' later turned up in Singin' in the Rain.

Which song from The Wizard of Oz won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Over the Rainbow: the costly film needed re-releases in 1949 and 1955, then regular TV screenings, to become the favourite it is today.

Which actor was originally cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz before being replaced by Jack Haley?

Buddy Ebsen: aluminium dust in his make-up coated his lungs, and his recording of 'If I Only Had a Heart' never made the finished film.

Singin' in the Rain (1952) follows performers caught up in which Hollywood change?

The switch from silents to talkies: the plot turns on a silent star whose grating voice has to be secretly dubbed for her first talkie.

Who co-directed and co-choreographed Singin' in the Rain with Gene Kelly?

Stanley Donen: apart from two new numbers, every song in this classic had already been written for earlier pictures.

In MGM's 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz, what colour are Dorothy's magic slippers?

Ruby red: in L. Frank Baum's novel they are silver, but MGM changed the colour to show off its Technicolor.

Which musical won all nine of the Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture?

Gigi: Hollywood's censors had earlier ruled that its story of a girl raised to be a courtesan broke the Production Code.

Who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Anita in West Side Story (1961)?

Rita Moreno: Chita Rivera had created the role of Anita on Broadway, but the film gave the part to Moreno.

In West Side Story, the Jets fight which rival gang?

The Sharks: George Chakiris, who plays their leader Bernardo, had played Riff, leader of the rival Jets, in the London stage show.

Who provided Natalie Wood's singing voice as Maria in West Side Story?

Marni Nixon: Natalie Wood recorded the songs herself, not knowing that almost all of her singing would be replaced.

Who played Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 film of My Fair Lady, replacing the stage star Julie Andrews?

Audrey Hepburn: yet Julie Andrews, dropped because the studio wanted a bigger name, won that year's Best Actress Oscar, a race Hepburn wasn't even in.

Which song from Mary Poppins (1964) won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Chim Chim Cher-ee: the film came only after Walt Disney spent more than 20 years persuading author P. L. Travers to let him make it.

Which songwriting duo, under contract to Disney, wrote the songs for Mary Poppins?

The Sherman Brothers: Walt Disney loved their 'Feed the Birds' so much that he asked them to play it for him in his office.

The Sound of Music became the highest-grossing film in history in 1966, overtaking which movie?

Gone with the Wind: yet the real von Trapps saw little of the profits, having signed away the rights to their story to a German producer.

In which city is The Sound of Music set?

Salzburg: as in the film, the real von Trapps won a prize at a Salzburg singing competition in 1936, then toured Europe as a choir.

Which film became the next musical to win Best Picture, 34 years after Oliver!?

Chicago: most of its songs are staged as fantasies playing out inside Roxie Hart's imagination.

In Funny Girl (1968), Barbra Streisand won Best Actress playing which real-life comedian?

Fanny Brice: a publicity photo of Streisand kissing her Egyptian co-star, Omar Sharif, led Egypt's press to campaign to strip him of his citizenship.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971) follows Tevye, a poor Jewish man in what trade?

Milkman: director Norman Jewison cast Topol over Broadway's Zero Mostel, feeling Mostel's big stage persona would not work on film.

Cabaret (1972) won eight Oscars but lost Best Picture to which film?

The Godfather: yet Cabaret's Bob Fosse beat Francis Ford Coppola for Best Director that same night.

In Cabaret, which is the only musical number not performed inside the Kit Kat Klub?

Tomorrow Belongs to Me: a boy's sweet song in a country beer garden swells into a Nazi anthem as the crowd rises to join in.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) became a hit as what?

A midnight movie: it did only middling business at first, until late-night audiences began dressing up as the characters and joining in.

Who wrote The Rocky Horror Show and played Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Richard O'Brien: his show was a hit in London, yet its 1975 Broadway run closed after only about 50 performances.

Who plays Danny Zuko in Grease?

John Travolta: he had once toured in the stage show as Doody, a minor member of Danny's gang, before landing the lead.

Grease was 1978's second-best-selling US album, behind the soundtrack of which 1977 film?

Grease was the highest-grossing film of 1978 and the highest-grossing musical ever at the time.

Which film began the Disney Renaissance and won Oscars for Best Score and Best Song?

The Little Mermaid: Disney first turned the idea down because a sequel to the live-action mermaid film Splash was already in the works.

Which song, written specially for Madonna's 1996 Evita, won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

You Must Love Me: director Alan Parker persuaded Lloyd Webber and Rice, who had not written together for years, to create it.

Moulin Rouge! is the third and final entry in which Baz Luhrmann series?

It followed Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet, and won Oscars for production and costume design.

Which choreographer earned a Best Director Oscar nomination for their very first feature film, in 2002?

Rob Marshall: a herniated disc suffered while dancing in Cats on Broadway moved him from performing into choreography.

Dreamgirls, whose Dreams echo the Supremes, was the acting debut of which American Idol alum?

Jennifer Hudson: she had finished only seventh on American Idol, yet won an Oscar for her very first film role.

Which drag performer played Edna Turnblad in John Waters's original 1988 film Hairspray?

Divine: ever since, Edna has usually gone to a man, from Harvey Fierstein on Broadway to a Hollywood star in the 2007 film.

Mamma Mia! was filmed mainly on which Greek island?

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus composed the score, and it grossed $706 million on a $52 million budget.

How were the vocals recorded for the 2012 film of Les Misérables?

They were sung live on set: actors heard a piano through earpieces, and the film went on to win the Oscar for Sound Mixing.

In Les Misérables (2012), which actress had her real hair cut off on camera for her role as Fantine?

Anne Hathaway: as a young girl she watched her mother perform in Les Misérables on stage, and it left her stage-struck.

Frozen's 'Let It Go' won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Who wrote it?

The song reshaped Elsa into a sympathetic character and forced a rewrite of the first act.

Who won the Best Actress Oscar for La La Land (2016)?

Emma Stone: the film opens with a song-and-dance number in a freeway traffic jam, shot to play as one continuous take.

Which film beat La La Land to the Best Picture Oscar at the 2017 ceremony?

Moonlight: La La Land was announced as the winner by mistake, before the error was corrected on stage.

The Greatest Showman is a heavily fictionalised life of which real showman?

P. T. Barnum: the real Barnum made his name with his American Museum in New York and went into the circus only at about 60.

Who plays Elphaba in the 2024 film of Wicked?

Cynthia Erivo: the story was split into two films, partly because songwriter Stephen Schwartz felt nothing could follow 'Defying Gravity'.

Besides costumes, which other Oscar did Wicked (2024) win?

Best Production Design: director Jon M. Chu avoided heavy CGI, building real sets inspired by Spielberg's Hook, down to a muddy yellow brick road.

Which choreographer staged the kaleidoscopic production numbers of 42nd Street (1933)?

Busby Berkeley: he shot his numbers with one camera instead of the usual four, so no editor could choose different shots.

Which producer headed the MGM unit behind Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris?

Arthur Freed: before producing, he was a lyricist, and Singin' in the Rain was built around old songs he had written with Nacio Herb Brown.

Which 1931 film, directed by Ardeshir Irani, was India's first sound film?

Alam Ara: Irani first chose newcomer Mehboob Khan as its hero, then swapped him for star Master Vithal to get a bigger name.

The Sound of Music shows the von Trapps hiking to Switzerland; which country did the real family reach by train?

Italy: Georg von Trapp was born in Zadar, which later became Italian, so the whole family held Italian citizenship.

The Sound of Music's Captain von Trapp was based on a real naval officer who commanded what in World War I?

Submarines: after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Georg von Trapp turned down a naval command from the new regime.

Which Happy Days star turned down the role of Danny in Grease for fear of being typecast?

Henry Winkler: he later called the decision stupid, since he ended up typecast anyway and struggled to find roles for years after Happy Days.

Who sang the title song of the 1978 film Grease, despite having no other role in it?

Frankie Valli: his manager at the time, Allan Carr, was also one of the film's producers.