Director: Bob Fosse
Starring: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Cliff Gorman
Genre: Musical
Studio: 20th Century Fox   Theatrical: 1979   Rated: R
Languages (Country): English, Spanish, French ()
Summary: Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse ("Cabaret", "Lenny") turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also cowrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure.
Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps, and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death), Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both "onstage" and off.
Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer clues into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualized style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best--as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of "On Broadway," which fuses music, dance, and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation--"All That Jazz" offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers, hard-edged, caustic, and joyously physical. "--Sam Sutherland"

Director: Bob Fosse
Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper
Genre: Musical
Studio: Warner Home Video   Theatrical: 1972   Rated: PG
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Liza Minnelli), and Best Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), "Cabaret" would also have taken Best Picture if it hadn't been competing against "The Godfather" as the most acclaimed film of 1972. (Francis Ford Coppola would have to wait two years before winning Best Director, for "The Godfather, Part II".) Brilliantly adapted from the acclaimed stage production, which was in turn inspired by Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" and the play and movie "I Am a Camera", this remarkable musical turns the pre-war Berlin of 1931 into a sexually charged haven of decadence. Minnelli commands the screen as nightclub entertainer Sally Bowles, who radiantly goes on with the show as the Nazis rise to power, holding her many male admirers (including Michael York and Helmut Griem) at a distance that keeps her from having to bother with genuinely deep emotions. Joel Grey is the master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub who will guarantee a great show night after night as a way of staving off the inevitable effects of war and dictatorship. They're all living in a morally ambiguous vacuum of desperate anxiety, determined to keep up appearances as the real world--the world outside the comfortable sanctuary of the cabaret--prepares for the nightmarish chaos of war. Director-choreographer Fosse achieves a finely tuned combination of devastating drama and ebullient entertainment, and the result is one of the most substantial screen musicals ever made. The dual-layered Special Edition widescreen DVD includes an exclusive 25th-anniversary documentary, "Cabaret: A Legend in the Making", a 1972 promotional featurette, a photo gallery, production notes, the theatrical trailer, and more. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Randal Kleiser
Starring: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl
Genre: Musical
Studio: Paramount Home Video   Theatrical: 1978   Rated: PG
Languages (Country): English, Spanish ()
Summary: Riding the strange '50s nostalgia wave that swept through America during the late 1970s (caused by TV shows like "Happy Days" and films like "American Graffiti"), "Grease" became not only the word in 1978, but also a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon. Twenty years later, this entertaining film adaptation of the Broadway musical received another successful theatrical release, which included visual remastering and a shiny new Dolby soundtrack. In this 2002 DVD release, "Grease" lovers can also now see it in the correct 2:35 to 1 Panavision aspect ratio, and see retrospective interviews with cast members and director Randal Kleiser. All these stylistic touches are essential to the film's success. Without the vibrant colors, unforgettably campy and catchy tunes (like "Greased Lightning," "Summer Nights," and "You're the One That I Want"), and fabulously choreographed, widescreen musical numbers, the film would have to rely on a silly, cliché-filled plot that we've seen hundreds of times. As it is, the episodic story about the romantic dilemmas experienced by a group of graduating high school seniors remains fresh, fun, and incredibly imaginative.
The young, animated cast also deserves a lot of credit, bringing chemistry and energy to otherwise bland material. John Travolta, straight from his success in "Saturday Night Fever", knows his sexual star power and struts, swaggers, sings, and dances appropriately, while Olivia Newton-John's portrayal of virgin innocence is the only decent acting she's ever done. And then there's Stockard Channing, spouting sexual double-entendres as Rizzo, the bitchy, raunchy leader of the Pink Ladies, who steals the film from both of its stars. Ignore the sequel at all costs. "--Dave McCoy"

Director: Morton DaCosta, Scott Benson
Starring: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford
Genre: Musical
Studio: Warner Home Video   Theatrical: 1962   Rated: G
Languages (Country): ()
Summary: "The Music Man" was one of the last great movie musicals from any studio, and it proved to be that rarest of events: a Broadway show that was measurably improved by its transition to the screen. Robert Preston made his musical debut--both live and on film--as "Professor" Harold Hill, the upbeat charlatan who promises to teach a small-town boys band by the "think system." But it's the part Preston was born to play and the one for which he will always be best remembered. Composer Meredith Willson based "The Music Man" on his own small-town Midwestern boyhood, circa 1912, a quasi-mythical place where the old-maid librarian looks and sings like Shirley Jones. The boy himself is an adorable Ron Howard, lisp-singing "Gary, Indiana." Willson's entire score, featuring a combination of what are now standards, such as "Goodnight My Someone" and "Till There Was You" and show-specific numbers ("Trouble," "76 Trombones"), is never less than infectious. This dazzling special edition is also as bright and sunny as any 4th of July in Iowa could ever hope to be. "--Robert Windeler"

Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Andrews, Evadne Baker, Angela Cartwright, Charmian Carr, Duane Chase
Genre: Musical
Studio: 20th Century Fox   Theatrical: 1965   Rated: G
Languages (Country): English, French ()
Summary: Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even fascinating as Maria, who sheds her tomboyish ways as a novice nun to accept the mantle of adulthood, becoming matron of the motherless von Trapp clan. Plummer is matinee-idol handsome and gives a smart performance to boot, and the cast of young people and kids who make up the singing von Trapp children make a strong impression. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, the score includes such winners as "Maria" and the future John Coltrane hit "My Favorite Things." "--Tom Keogh"