November 17th, 2006 | 
Author: They really don’t make musicals like they used to. While I’m not a fan of all musicals, or even most musicals, I can certainly appreciate the talent, skill, and effort that goes into making them.
Some musicals I’m not a fan of: The Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge, Cats. Some musicals that I am a fan of: The Producers, South Park movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
I was never much a fan of Fred Astaire, but it’s hard to not to appreciate his talent and showmanship after watching this classic piece:
By the way, in case you hadn’t figured it out, the cane flying up at him is a trick that was triggered from below the stage.
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I watched about 12 hours of this one weekend with my wife…some of the singer/dancers from the early/mid 20th century were very talented. I believe MGM had their MGM “Dream Studios” or some such, which was almost exclusively acts like this…pretty interesting.
Best performance of Puttin’ On The Ritz? Peter Boyle in Son of Frankenstein.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2aa3oQRM