Singin’ in the Rain Study Guide - Varieur Film Studies



Abilene Christian University

Singin’ in the Rain Study Guide!

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Table of Contents

Synopsis………………………………………….Page 1

Director’s Concept……………………………….Page 2

The Creation of Singin’ in the Rain………………Page 3

Slang of the 1920’………………………………..Page 6

History of the 1920’………………………..…..Page 8

1920’s Hollywood Stars….………………………….Page 12

Singin’ in the Rain in YOUR class…………………Page 14

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Synopsis:

Main Characters:

Don Lockwood, Hollywood Star

Lina Lamont, Hollywood Star

Cosmo Brown, Don’ best friend, plays piano for silent films

Kathy Seldon, Aspiring Actress

R. F. Simpson, Head of Monumental Pictures

Roscoe Dexter, Hollywood Director

It is 1927 and Monumental Pictures’ actors, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the greatest silent-film stars of their generation – all the fans flock to see their films and read about their budding romance in the fan magazines.  The truth behind the glamorous “Lockwood and Lamont” façade, however, is a burnt-out actor and an oblivious actress with a squeaky voice.  Their world is turned upside down, and their fame threatened, when the talkies, or movies that record sound, take over Hollywood.  The grand and gentile persona of Lockwood and Lamont is endangered when Lina speaks on screen and reveals her true and rather unappealing nature.  Enter Kathy, an up-and-coming actress who has caught Monumental Pictures’ – and Don Lockwood’s – eye.  She has a beautiful voice and secretly dubs over Lina’s voice for the final cut of the first Lockwood and Lamont Talkie.  When Lina finds out that Kathy has not only been dubbing her voice, but also kissing Don, she uses all her power as a big star to ruin Kathy’s career.  Will Monumental Pictures stand up to Lina’s fury or will the pressure to produce “what the public wants” crush the love between Don and Kathy?  Will “Hurricane Lina” wash away the love between Don and Kathy, or can they toss off their umbrellas and go Singin’ in the Rain? 

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Director’s Concept:

            Mike Fernandez, the director of Singin’ in the Rain has approached this show as a

Factory of Illusions – a concept inspired by Stanley Donen, director of the original film.  It is the story of a group of people trying to put on a production – it just so happens to be one of the first talking movies ever made.    Exotic film sets and performers in dazzling costumes move about like fireflies at night.   Hollywood of the 1920s was a place of extreme glitz and glamour.  Stars were beautifully crafted by their production companies and expected to maintain a very particular persona.  This is the land of Hollywood magic.  But Fernandez did not wish to remain in the mysterious and awe-inspiring realm of the Hollywood mystique; rather he has chosen to look beyond the façade and see the chaos that lies just below the surface.  Taking his cue from Don Lockwood’s opening monologue – and his obvious twisting of the truth – Fernandez has sculpted the production to showcase the drastic difference between what individuals and communities put forth (in life and in shows) and reality.  The idea of madness underneath seeming calm is found throughout the script and our particular production, but can be especially noted in Lina’s character, Monumental Pictures’ usage of Kathy’s talent and the end of our Beautiful Girls number.  Fernandez challenges us to look beyond our own glitz and glamour, raise the curtain and present the truth.  

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The Creation of Singin’ in the Rain

Singin’:

[pic]While the musical Singin’ in the Rain was written in the 1950s, most of the songs you hear in the show were written in the 1920s, most by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. In fact, they provided the basis for the entire show. In 1950, Arthur Freed approached Betty Comden and Adolph Green and asked them to write a story around his songs. Because Freed had originally written the songs for early talkie films Comden and Green based their production around Hollywood of the 1920s and the transition from silent films to talkies.

And Dancin’:

Gene Kelly, who also stared in and directed the original Singin’ in the Rain, created the original choreography.  Kelly’s is known and revered as the quintessential film musical choreography.  Both in his heyday and for years after, Kelly was known as the expert musical tap dancer.  He was a taskmaster who demanded hard work, but it paid off.  In part because of his bright, energetic and original dancing, Kelly served as a fantastic escape for a society fresh from World War II and sinking into a Cold War of their own. 

Everyone loved him. 

Because of his standing as a significant choreographer, many stage productions choose to use Kelly’s choreography.   Our choreographer Dawne Swearingen, however, has decided to keep certain elements of Kelly choreography – the aspects the

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audience will be most familiar with – while allowing for new and collective creativity.  “Singin’ in the Rain is a thematic number” She said, “there must be rain, an umbrella and tap dancing”.  She hasn’t kept all the choreography, though.  Together with director Mike Fernandez, Swearingen has decided to play up their actor’s specific talents and showcase their strengths.  Swearingen and Fernandez were also concerned about including the entire cast in an enjoyable and challenging way.  Much of the choreography for the chorus in Kelly’s work is minimal, but Swearingen wanted to make sure the experience was an educational one for all involved and so changed much of the choreography to teach and stimulate her students.  In the end, she has found a great balance in her choreography, both serving the actor while still paying homage to Kelly.

In the Rain:

While it may appear that the original film version of Singin’ in the Rain is glamorous and easy, everyone involved worked very hard to make it so.

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They all encountered many bumps along the road to production. The following are a few examples:

▪ After they finished the "Good Morning" number, Debbie Reynolds had to be carried to her dressing room because she had burst some blood vessels in her feet. Despite her hard work on the "Good Morning" number, Gene Kelly decided that someone should dub her tap sounds, so he went into a dubbing room to dub the sound of her feet as well as his own.

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▪ Debbie Reynolds remarked many years later that making this movie and surviving childbirth were the two hardest things she's ever had to do.

▪ The original negative of this film was destroyed in a fire.

▪ Cyd Charisse had to be taught how to smoke for her vampy dance sequence.

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Singin’ in Reality:

The Story behind Singin’ in the Rain

Many characters in Singin’ in the Rain are purported to be based on real people and the events on real events.

“Singin' in the Rain was first conceived as a "catalogue" picture by Arthur Freed for MGM in 1949. He had written the song 20 years earlier with the composer Nacio Herb Brown for the Hollywood Music Box Revue in 1927, a stage show of showgirls and songs and spectacular sets of the type made famous by the Ziegfeld Follies. After the sound revolution swept through Hollywood in the wake of the 1927 Jazz Singer, Irving Thalberg hired Freed and Brown to write music for MGM's first revue musical, Broadway Melody, in 1929. Freed had worked as a mood pianist in silent films when he first moved from New York to Hollywood in 1925 (like Cosmo) and helped Thalberg (like R. F.) and the MGM studio (like Monumental Pictures) make the transition to sound. The characters of Lina Lamont (like Judy Holliday), director Roscoe Dexter (like Busby Berkeley), Dora Bailey (like Louella Parsons) were based on real people. The song "Singin' in the Rain" and other Freed-Brown songs would be used in repeatedly in many MGM pictures, starting with Hollywood Revue of 1929. Arthur Freed became a leading producer of musicals at MGM, putting together a talented group known as the Freed Unit after it made The Wizard of Oz in 1938.” ()

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Arthur Freed Betty Comden and Adolph Green

Slang of the 1920's

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Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing, idea; the ultimate. Dozens of "animal anatomy" variations existed: elephant's eyebrows, gnat's whistle, eel's hips, etc. 

Big Cheese - The most important or influential person; boss. Same as big shot

Bull - (1) a policeman or law-enforcement officer including FBI (2) nonsense (3) to chat idly, to exaggerate

Cat's Meow - Something splendid or stylish; similar to bee's knees; The best or greatest, wonderful.

Ciggy – cigarette

Dewdropper - a young man who sleeps all day and doesn't have a job 

Doll - an attractive woman

Don't know from nothing - don't have any information

Dry up - shut up, get lost

Ducky - very good

Earful – enough

Fish -(1) a college freshman (2) a first timer in prison

Flapper - A stylish, brash, hedonistic young woman with short skirts & shorter hair

Floorflusher - an insatiable dancer 

Gay - happy or lively

Get-up – an outfit

Giggle Water - An intoxicating beverage; alcohol

Goods – the right material or the person who has it, the facts, the truth

Glad rags - "going out on the town" clothes

Hip to the Jive – trendy, cool

Hoofer – Dancer

Hot dawg! - Great!; also: "Hot socks!"  Rarely spelled as shown outside of flapper circles until popularized by 1940s comic strips. 

Joint – a club, usually selling alcohol

Keen –attractive or appealing

Kisser - Mouth

Lay off –cut the crap

Mind your potatoes – mind your own business

Neck – kissing with passion

Oh yeah! - I doubt it! 

Petting pantry - movie theater

Pos-i-lute-ly – affirmative, also ‘pos-i-tive-ly’ 

Rain pitchforks - a downpour 

Rhatz! – how disappointing

So's your old man - a reply of irritation 

Sugar daddy - older boyfriend who showers girlfriend with gifts

What’s eating you? – what’s wrong

Whoopee – to have a good time

Pretend you are living in the 1920s. Pick a type of person to be – are you very trendy, or are you still a bit old fashioned, wealthy or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps? Use the 1920s vocabulary list to interact with the others in your class according to the status in society they’ve chosen.

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Historical Timeline of 1920s

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|Year |Humanities |Technology |Government |Health |Economy |

|1920 |*Harlem Renaissance |*First commercial radio |*League of Nations |*Bubonic Plague in India | |

| |begins |broadcast aired |Established | | |

| | | |*Pancho Villa Retures | | |

| |[pic] | | | | |

| | | |[pic]*Women granted the | | |

| | | |right to vote in the U.S. | | |

|1921 |*Roscoe “Fatty” |*Lie detector invented |*Irish Free State | |*Extreme inflation in |

| |Arbunkle Scandal | |proclaimed | |Germany |

|1922 |*Tomb of King Tut |[pic] |*Kemal Ataturk founds | | |

| |discovered | |modern Turkey | | |

| |*The Reader’s Digest| |*Michael Collins killed in | | |

| |is published | |ambush | | |

| | | |*Mussolini marches on Rome | | |

|1923 |*Charleston dance | |*Hitler jailed after failed| | |

| |becomes popular | |coup | | |

| |[pic] | |*Ruhr occupied by French | | |

| | | |and Belgian forces | | |

| |*Talking movies | | | | |

| |invented | | | | |

| |*Time magazine | | | | |

| |founded | | | | |

|1924 |*First Olympic | |*J. Edgar Hoover appointed | | |

| |Winter Games | |Director of the FBI | | |

| |*Leopold and Loeb | |*V.I. Lenin dies | | |

| |murder a neighbor | | | | |

| |our of boredom | | | | |

|1925 |*Flapper dresses in |[pic] |*Hitler published Mein | | |

| |style | |Kampf | | |

| | | |*The Scopes (Monkey) Trial | | |

|1925 |*A.A.Milne published|Robert Goddard fires his first| | | |

| |Winnie-the-Pooh |liquid-fuel rocket | | | |

| |*Houdini dies | | | | |

|1927 |*Babe Ruth makes | | | | |

| |home-run record | | | | |

| |*BBC founded | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| |*First talkie, The | | | | |

| |Jazz Singer is | | | | |

| |produced | | | | |

| |[pic] | | | | |

| |*Lindbergh flies | | | | |

| |solo across the | | | | |

| |Atlantic | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| |*Sacco and Vanzetti | | | | |

| |are executed amidst | | | | |

| |anti-Italian | | | | |

| |propaganda. | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

| | |[pic] | | | |

|1928 |*Bubble gum Invented|*Penicillin discovered |*Kellogg-Briand treaty | | |

| | | |outlaws war | | |

| |*First Mickey Mouse | | | | |

| |Cartoon produced | | |[pic] | |

| | | | | | |

| |*Oxford English | | | | |

| |Dictionary published| | | | |

|1929 |*Byrd and Bennett |*Car radio is invented | | |*New York Stock Market |

| |fly over South Pole |*St. Valentines Day Massacre | | |crashes |

| |*First Academy | | | | |

| |Awards | | | | |

Use History to Create a Character:

How is a society affected by current events (think of clothing/hair style, gender roles, what people do for fun etc.)? What do you as an actor need to know about the historical environment of your character’s lives as you begin to rehearse and build a character?

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Hollywood Stars of the 1920s:

All of the following Stars are mentioned in the Singin’ in the Rain Script:

Tom Mix:

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The First Western Star. Mix defined the silent-era western as the pursuit of the “bad guy”. He was most popular with a younger audience and influenced the western genre forever. Both John Wayne and Ronald Regan watched Tom Mix while growing up.

Mary Pickford:

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Pickford was known as “America’s Sweetheart”. She was a pioneer for strong women in Hollywood, creating gentile characters and demanding large sums of money to play them. She could ask for so much because she was so loved by the fans. Pickford is one of the first major celebrities.

Charlie Chaplin:

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The British comedian who brought laughs to his audience while challenging them to question their world. His signature character, The Tramp, provided comedic commentary on the modern world and great entertainment for his peers.

John Barrymore:

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Known for his strong profile (actually called “The Profile”) and celebrated for his Shakespearean roles, Barrymore was a part of a famous and powerful acting family. The family was respected for their serious approach to acting -- and ridiculed for their outlandish approach to partying.

Ethel Barrymore:

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John’s sister, and Academy Award winner, Ethel is most known for her strong Broadway roles in serious productions.

Now YOU’RE in Singin’ in the Rain:

Character Study:

Pretend you are one of the stars from the opening scene. How do you feel about Lina? You might fear her power, admire her beauty, or feel you should be in her place – after all, you have a normal voice. After you have chosen a character and a specific response to Lina, experiment how you might express that on stage – while still staying within the producer’s good graces

Different Styles of Acting:

Having to evoke and idea without sound is difficult. Take a scene with dialogue and try to present the scene to the rest of the class without ANY sound. What do you have to do to get the ideas/relationships/situations across? Now add sound. How does that change what you as an actor do? Is there anything new you need to be aware of?

If you have the resources, try this activity by making your our own silent film. You may wish to research a silent film and create a new one based on the original, or come up with your own plot idea. Use the above questions and have fun!

Many actors did not survive the switch from silent films to talkies, but some did. Discuss how the addition of sound must have affected actors of the late 1920s, and what one would have to do to make a successful transition. Is there any technological development in our age which might threaten actors as sound did in the 1920s? Discuss the growing use of computer generation in films. How will computers effect what is expected of actors in the future? Are there any other developments which might change what an actor does in the future?

Themes of Singin’ in the Rain:

There are many themes of Singin’ in the Rain which easily relate to a life in the theatre. The difference between Appearance and Reality is one of them. In what ways do we, in the theatre, still create this façade of ease and glamour -- and what is underneath that façade?

Another theme is one of high verses low art. In the first scene we see Kathy, she claims to be a real actress because she is going to New York, and that screen actors are just pantomiming. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all!” she says. Do we still have standards for “high” art and “low” art. What are they? How are both types important and useful within both the artistic and the general society? Cosmo’s song Make ‘Em Laugh suggests that the general public wants and enjoys watching a man slip on a banana peel more than they enjoy watching Shakespeare – is this true? How does this discussion affect you as a theatre artist? How would a vaudeville act be received today? Create a vaudeville act (perhaps based upon the lyrics of Make ‘Em Laugh) with a friend. What does such an act involve? How is it received?

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