The Duke (Richard Roxburgh) arrives and finds Christian and Satine together. Christian’s quick wit and Satine’s charm fool the Duke into believing that they were rehearsing “Spectacular Spectacular.” The main cast improvises the plot of the show on the spot: a beautiful Indian courtesan has her kingdom invaded by an “evil maharaja.” She sets out to seduce him to save her kingdom, but accidentally seduces and then falls in love with a penniless sitar player. The two must hide their love and evade the maharaja, though it is implied that one of them may die at the end of the story. (It is soon realized that the theme of their play foreshadows what happens in the film’s plot.)
The Jets mock the kinds of excuses authorities use to rationalize the existence of hooligums like themselves.Sondheim’s lyrics are so witty, and Russ Tamblyn is wonderful as Riff—I am not anti-social, I am only anti-work!
In the famous dance routine in which Gene Kelly sings the title song while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin, he was actually dancing in water with a little bit of milk added, so that the water puddles and raindrops would show up in the filming. Kelly was sick with a 103-degree fever at the time.
Gene Kelly and Judy Garland From the 1948 musical “The Pirate”. Aurthur Freed allegedly plagiarized this classic Cole Porter song for “Singing in the Rain”…he called it “Make em laugh“. Whilst Irving Berlin was visiting the set, he told author Freed:”Who wrote that song?” very sarcastically.
UPDATE From StraightDope.com:
The finale of The Pirate (1947), with a score by Cole Porter, is a number performed by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland called “Be a Clown.” In Singin’ in the Rain (1952) Donald O’Connor does a famous routine to a song called “Make ‘Em Laugh,” whose music is identical to that of the earlier song and its lyric nearly so. Its authors, however, are listed as Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, who wrote the rest of the movie’s score. How come? Were there any lawsuits? Both movies were produced by Arthur Freed, which may mean something. –Elizabeth B., Chicago
Dear Elizabeth:
Arthur Freed, the producer responsible for most of the MGM musicals of the 40s and 50s, began his career as a songwriter. “Singin’ in the Rain” was part of Brown and Freed’s score for MGM’s first “all talking, all singing, all dancing” musical, The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (the song has since been used in five other films, counting A Clockwork Orange).
In 1952, Freed decided to use his songbook as the basis for an original musical, as he had done with Jerome Kern’s songs in 1946 (Till the Clouds Roll By) and George Gershwin’s in 1951 (An American in Paris). Freed assigned Betty Comden and Adolph Green to build a screenplay around the available material, with Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly to direct. When the time came to shoot, Donen decided that Donald O’Connor needed a solo number, and couldn’t find anything that worked in the Freed catalog. Donen suggested that Brown and Freed write a new song, pointing to Porter’s “Be a Clown” as the sort of thing he thought would fit in at that point in the script. Brown and Freed obliged–maybe too well–with “Make ‘Em Laugh.” Donen called it “100 percent plagiarism,” but Freed was the boss and the song went into the film. Cole Porter never sued, although he obviously had grounds enough. Apparently he was still grateful to Freed for giving him the assignment for The Pirate at a time when Porter’s career was suffering from two consecutive Broadway flops (Mexican Hayride and Around the World in Eighty Days).
From the mid 90’s. I watched this cast do a segment on the Rosie O’Donnel show and liked it. Didn’t become familiar with he musical until my high school did it the year after I graduated.
Video from the 53rd TONY AWARDS YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN with KRISTIN CHENOWETH, B.D. WONG,ANTHONY RAPP. MY NEW PHILOSOPHY & HAPPINESS