{"id":2040,"date":"2020-04-28T08:33:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T07:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=2040"},"modified":"2020-04-28T10:49:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T09:49:22","slug":"singin-in-the-rain-lockdown-theatre-club-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2020\/04\/singin-in-the-rain-lockdown-theatre-club-7.html","title":{"rendered":"Singin\u2019 in the Rain | Lockdown Theatre Club 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"785\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2-785x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2041\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2-785x1024.jpg 785w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2-768x1001.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2-1178x1536.jpg 1178w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/singin-poster-2.jpg 1534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch <em>Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em> with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 28 April. <em>Singin\u2019 in the Rain <\/em>is available to rent on the <a href=\"https:\/\/player.bfi.org.uk\/rentals\/film\/watch-singin-in-the-rain-1951-online\">BFI Player<\/a>. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we&#8217;re all part of an audience together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is <em>Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em>?<\/strong> <br>One of the most joyous of MGM musicals, from 1951. Gene Kelly (who directs with Stanley Donen) plays a silent-movie star threatened with being made obsolete when the talkies come to Hollywood \u2013 so returns to his vaudeville beginnings to find inspiration for reinvention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who else is involved?<\/strong> <br>A constellation of talents: screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Debbie Reynolds\u2019 heroine. And two unique dancers alongside Kelly: the imperious Cyd Charisse and irrepressibly bouncy Donald O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Listen out for?<\/strong> <br>Jean Hagen\u2019s vowel-mangling screen beauty flailing in this brave new world of talking movies. Every line is a marvel. My favourite? \u2018I am a \u201cshimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament.\u201d It says so \u2013 right there.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Trailer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New trailer for Singin&#039; in the Rain - back in cinemas 18 October | BFI\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KYkL518Knm0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Frockwatch<\/strong><br><strong>Veronica Horwell <\/strong>on Walter Plunkett\u2019s \u2018unsurpassably spiffy\u2019 costumes for <em>Singin\u2019 in the Rain.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lina_lamont001-1024x743.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2044\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lina_lamont001-1024x743.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lina_lamont001-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lina_lamont001-768x557.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Lina_lamont001.jpg 1488w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Betty Comden and Adolph Green researched plot and scenes\nby gathering anecdotes from Angelenos who lived through the transition to\nsound, but Walter Plunkett already had all the research material he could\npossibly use; he usually did. Plunkett had the curiosity of a curator plus old\nmagazines, scraps of fabric and trimmings from the right place and time &#8212; he\nliked to work outwards from precise details with period costume. Moreover, he&#8217;d\nactually started in the movies in 1925, as a dress extra, maybe bit part\nplayer, before his interest in clothes put him into the wardrobe department of\nwhat became RKO, around 1927, the year <em>Singin&#8217;<\/em> begins, when he dressed\nhis first pic, <em>Hard Boiled Haggerty<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For nearly a decade, he was RKO&#8217;s glamour guy, doing full fashion with delicious detailing  \u2013  painted deco designs on the Carioca outfits for <em>Flying Down To Rio<\/em>, Fay Wray&#8217;s big-buttoned screamwear in <em>King Kong<\/em>. But he decided that he would get less grief from actresses and studio chiefs&#8217; wives if he went freelance and stuck to his favourite genres: period costume, especially the mid-19th century (he toured museums of the south and read stacks of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessible-archives.com\/collections\/godeys-ladys-book\/\">Godey&#8217;s Lady&#8217;s Book<\/a><\/em> for <em>Gone With The Wind<\/em>); westerns, from <em>Stagecoach<\/em> to <em>How The West Was Won<\/em> \u2013 his is still the best of wests, especially the vintage patchwork quilts bought from the LA Salvation Army to make the wedding dresses in <em>Seven Brides For Seven Brothers<\/em>. And musicals, of course, for Arthur Freed&#8217;s unit at MGM<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His Oscar-winning clothes for <em>Singin&#8217;<\/em> are frank\npastiche, which keeps them always fresh. They&#8217;re cut to conform to the 1951\nshape, curving in to fit under the bust as 1920s clothes never did, and with\nstronger than 20s shoulders for both men and women, but all the details have\nbeen transposed over from the past and exaggerated just enough to enhance the\nmovie&#8217;s comic-nostalgic tone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two big fashion parade sequences \u2013 the premiere that opens the movie and the Beautiful Girls number (&#8216;If you must wear fox to the opera\/Dame Fashion says dye it&#8217;) \u2013 take a broad approach to the era, with the maddest, vampiest, outfits, Nita Naldi style, well pre-dating 1927, and Don Lockwood&#8217;s unsurpassably spiffy<a> <\/a>steamer coat (&#8216;Dignity, always dignity&#8217;), whiter than his teeth, borrowed from an off-duty publicity pic. Lina Lamont&#8217;s wardrobe leans towards Gloria Swanson&#8217;s mid-20s lop-sided bandeaux and pouffy collared furs: did she end up rich and unhappy in a forgotten mansion on Sunset Boulevard? While Cathy Seldon&#8217;s sweet little frocks, especially the jazz-print green one for Would You, are very nearly the real thing, give or take side-seam shaping to the easy-falling crepe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To see just how Plunkett took his own remembered past and reworked it, look at this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sweetheart we need each other - Rio Rita - Technicolor\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cVV2A_ssPuE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a novelty number from his first musical, <em>Rio Rita<\/em>\n(1929), and that dance frock is cleverly cut from a painted silk shawl so the\nfringe translates her slightest toe tap into tremors. Clearly no bra, but white\npanties surprisingly visible in the acrobatics. Naively sexy in a pre Hayes\ncode way, let it all hang out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gry8mj8Zql8\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there&#8217;s the entrance of Cyd Charisse in <em>Broadway\nRhythm<\/em>. Strips of cloth add extra motion to the choreography, just as the\nfringe does in <em>Rio Rita<\/em>, but that&#8217;s a very knowing shimmy dress, cut\ntight as an underslip, selling the sex hard, And you can bet her knickers\nmatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Veronica Horwell<\/strong> writes for publications including the <em>Guardian<\/em> and <em>Dance Gazette<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/veronicahorwell\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/veronicahorwell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch Singin\u2019 in the Rain with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 28 April. Singin\u2019 in the Rain is available to rent on the BFI Player. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we&#8217;re all part of an audience together. What is Singin\u2019 in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[797,796,791,29,757,792,790,753,542,795,793,798],"class_list":{"0":"post-2040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-adolph-green","9":"tag-betty-comden","10":"tag-cyd-charisse","11":"tag-dance","12":"tag-film","13":"tag-frockwatch","14":"tag-gene-kelly","15":"tag-lockdown-theatre-club","16":"tag-musical","17":"tag-stanley-donen","18":"tag-veronica-horwell","19":"tag-walter-plunkett","20":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2045,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions\/2045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}