The QC Weekender – Musicals

This time, the QC Weekender gives you a handful of musical numbers to keep your toes tapping and a smile on your face into the new week.
Chicago – They Both Reached For The Gun
What goes better with murder than media manipulation? In Chicago, Renée Zellweger plays Roxie Hart, a jealous lover who shoots down her man in the opening act. It’ll be lights out for Roxy unless she plays her cards right. Luckily, she’s got her lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) to help her get her story straight—wicked fun!

Bugsy Malone – So You Wanna Be A Boxer…
By odd chance, we find ourselves in Chicago again, this time in the company of children. This 1976 musical follows the exploits of child gangsters who duel using custard pies and “splurge guns” that shoot out cream. The gangster subject matter was toned down for a “G” rating, but there’s still lots of crime and conniving. It also featured a young Jodie Foster (fresh from Taxi Driver) playing a speakeasy chanteuse.

My Fair Lady – Wouldn’t It Be Loverly
Huh, it seems like every song in the QC Weekender takes place in a city. This time, the divine Audrey Hepburn plays the “squashed cabbage leaf,” Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl in London who dreams of a better life. The song is similar to “Somewhere That’s Green” from Little Shop of Horrors. You gotta love Hepburn. What she longs for sounds so very simple, yet so wistfully far away…

Newsies – Carrying the Banner
Newsies is a 1992 Disney film based on the true story of the 1899 Newsboys Strike of New York City. It ranks among the highest-costing and lowest-grossing Disney live-action films in the studio’s history, but it’s a cult classic nowadays. What’s best is that it
stars a young Christian Bale, or as you may know him, Batman. Who knew the Dark Knight could dance and sing with such energy?