{"id":2048,"date":"2020-04-29T18:23:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T17:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2020-04-29T18:23:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T17:23:45","slug":"lockdown-lessons-singin-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2020\/04\/lockdown-lessons-singin-in-the-rain.html","title":{"rendered":"Lockdown lessons: Singin\u2019 in the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We learned a lot about Singin\u2019 in the Rain <\/em>during the Lockdown Theatre Club<\/a> group watch. There was a lot of adoration for this film, and a lot of good facts flying around. It made me think about why I love it so much \u2013 although I\u2019ve always been more of an Astaire boy than a Kelly fan. But what I love about the film and its hero, Don Lockwood \u2013 the silent star played by Kelly who reinvents himself for the talkies \u2013 is that Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em> is about someone recognising that they must rethink everything they’ve done and everything they know. Don must find the guts and humility to remake himself, stepping beyond comfort and risking humiliation. It\u2019s about a kind of courage, and I find it immensely stirring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also\nimpossible to forget Kelly\u2019s own biography \u2013 a left-leaning artist who left the\nUS at the height of the Macarthyite witchhunt. Many of his close collaborators \u2013\nincluding Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the Singin<\/em>\u2019 screenwriters, and the\nactor Judy Holliday \u2013 were also targeted by the investigation. Kelly\u2019s wife\nBetsy Blair was blacklisted and her career derailed for several years. Does\nthat history shadow a story about resolve, principle and survival? I feel it\ndoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, here are 20 things we learned about Singin\u2019 in the Rain <\/em>\u2013 from dubbing the dubbers to Kelly\u2019s buttock-framing trousers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Singin\u2019 In the Rain <\/em>might have cast Howard Keel as Don and Judy Holliday as Lina. Born Yesterday <\/em>made her too famous, so Jean Hagen played the role \u2013 having previously understudied Holliday in Born Yesterday<\/em> on Broadway.
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  2. Like Don, Kelly\u2019s career began in a dance double act with his brother. They too played working men’s clubs and vaudeville, but Kelly also studied ballet with Nijinska’s husband. His first Broadway success was as Harry the Hoofer in William Saroyan’s barfly drama The Time of Your Life<\/em>.
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  3. Betty Comden and Adolph Green initially struggled with the screenplay. \u2018When Comden’s husband saw three abandoned false starts,\u2019 writes David Benedict, \u2018about silent pictures, vaudeville and talkies, he suggested meshing them together. They later described it as \u201cour Eureka moment\u201d.\u2019
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  4. There was a lot of love for Donald O\u2019Connor\u2019s bravura hoofing as well as for his character\u2019s wit and sense. We\u2019ve been pointed towards his other musicals like I Love Melvin<\/em> and Are You With It<\/em>.
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  5. Donald O’Connor devised Make \u2019Em Laugh with Kelly, using what he called a compendium of gags and shtick from his vaudeville days. Bruised and shattered after filming the number, he needed a few days off \u2013 only to learn that they hadn’t quite got it, so he had to do it all over again.
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  6. Cosmo (O\u2019Connor) chats up a woman at a party early in the film (\u2018Oh Mr Brown,\u2019 she asks, \u2018do you really think you could get me in the movies?\u2019) is Gwen Carter, aka Mrs Donald O’Connor.
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  7. The film\u2019s sexual politics are still\u2026 problematic. Exacerbated by casting 19-year-old Reynolds opposite Kelly (39).
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  8. Gene Kelly\u2019s vanity came in for some ribbing. We heard that in his first duet with Reynolds, she left her chewing gum on the ladder and Kelly’s toup\u00e9e got stuck and they had to reshoot. More remarkably, we learned that Kelly always wore trousers a size too small to show off his tight buttocks \u2013 and had his fellow performers\u2019 trousers made a bit larger.
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  9. Don\u2019s vocal coach is played by Bobby Watson. A light comic in British 1930s films, he also went on to play Hitler in several films.
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  10. The last shot of the sofa tumbling over in Good Morning required 40 takes. Reynolds\u2019 feet were bleeding by the end. \u2018Singin’ in the Rain<\/em> and childbirth were the hardest things I ever had to do in my life,\u2019 she said.
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  11. Film critic David Thomson believes the title number resonates because it gives us \u2018a chance of mercy or delight when times were hard and the rain seemed toxic.\u2019 Still resonant.
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  12. The passer-by who takes Kelly’s umbrella was himself a silent comedy star laid low by the talkies: ‘Snub’ Pollard, a bit of a Stan Laurel type with a droopy moustache.
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  13. When Tommy Steele starred in Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/em> at the London Palladium, the crew disliked him so much they used to piss in the water tank that provided the rain.
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  14. The Broadway Melody ballet cost $600,000 to film.
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  15. Broadway Rhythm is Charisse\u2019s first prominent screen role. Marianka Swain said \u2018Cyd Charisse lucked out here. Debbie [Reynolds] was considered too inexperienced for the dream ballet. First choice was Leslie Caron, but she was pregnant. Then Kelly remembered admiring Cyd in the Ziegfeld Follies<\/em>.\u2019
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  16. There\u2019s supposedly a cut during Charisse\u2019s duet, said Marianka Swain, \u2018because the studio considered a move too racy \u2013 Cyd throwing her legs around Kelly’s waist, I think? TBH it’s all pure filth, in the most glamorous way.\u2019
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  17. Aeroplane motors were pointed at Charisse to get her 50ft silk scarf to float properly. She said she struggled to stay standing.
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  18. Zelda \u2013 Lina\u2019s friend who snitches on the pals\u2019 plan to have her dubbed \u2013 is played by Rita Moreno (who would later play Anita in West Side Story <\/em>\u2013 in which she was dubbed).
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  19. There was a lot of dubbing in a movie all about dubbing. Kate Maltby summed it up nicely: \u2018we watch Debbie Reynolds supposedly dubbing Jean Hagen’s voice. In fact, what you hear is Hagan, dubbing Reynolds, dubbing Hagen. Because really, Jean Hagen had a gorgeous, deep voice, just perfect for an idealised 20s talkie star.\u2019
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  20. Lina Lamont is the most unexpectedly tantalising figure \u2013 what becomes of her after the story ends? Everyone felt she was a survivor, imagining futures for her that included marrying an ageing senator and gaining political influence, investing in television and Californian real estate and becoming oil rich. Don\u2019t worry about Lina.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    With thanks\nto David Benedict, Sarah Breeden, Phil Chan, Rebecca Dougall, Poly Giannaba, Melinda\nHall, Robert Hanks, Veronica Horwell, Victor Jays, Kate Maltby, Louise Penn, Marianka\nSwain, @misssfitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We learned a lot about Singin\u2019 in the Rain during the Lockdown Theatre Club group watch. There was a lot of adoration for this film, and a lot of good facts flying around. It made me think about why I love it so much \u2013 although I\u2019ve always been more of an Astaire boy than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2050,"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":[791,29,757,790,753,799],"class_list":{"0":"post-2048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-cyd-charisse","9":"tag-dance","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-gene-kelly","12":"tag-lockdown-theatre-club","13":"tag-singin-in-the-rain","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","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=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2051,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions\/2051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}