Singin’ In the Rain, What a Glorious Feeling!

Last night I went to see Singin’ in the Rain at Birmingham Hippodrome with my lovely Sister-in-law. It was a truly delightful evening.

Someone of my age will probably have parents who loved the film with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds back in 1952. I’ve seen it recently when I was browsing the channels and it was on. Such a funny, fabulous film and I was excited to see the stage show.

The Songs from Singin’ In the Rain

Of course most people will have heard of ‘Singin in the rain’ and the fantastic tap dancing routine that went along with it. It was updated in 2017 with a bit of CGI to make it more modern (Gene Kelly doing a bit of break dancing and such like!) I didn’t like it, but at least it gave the younger generation a blast of something traditional mixed with something new.

Another song you may be familiar with is ‘Good Morning’ no?

Good Morning
Good Morning
We’ve talked the whole night through
Good Morning
Good Morning to you

Maybe you recall ‘Make Them Laugh’ or ‘You were meant for me.’ Perhaps you’ve heard of ‘You Are My Lucky Star’ or ‘All I do is Dream of You.’

Maybe you don’t but I can remember my Mum singing them while doing the washing up and jobs around the house. Pure classic tunes.

Then there is the ridiculous song Moses.

Moses supposes his toeses are Roses,
But Moses supposes Erroneously,
Moses he knowses his toeses aren’t roses,
As Moses supposes his toeses to be!

Moses supposes his toeses are Roses,
But Moses supposes Erroneously,
A mose is a mose!
A rose is a rose!
A toes a toes!

The comedy of the performance is often subtle but it springs to life in many of the songs.

The Dancing

The main style of dancing in Singing in the Rain is, of course tap dancing. The show takes it to a whole new level though with the use of props like ladders and benches. Some of the dances of full of fun and laughter, some are more gentle and romantic. Every single dance sequence has it’s distinct part to play and brings so much pleasure to watch.

The most famous dance scene of course is ‘Singin in the Rain’ where the main character, Don Lockwood, has just realised he is in love with Kathy Selden. Everyone who has ever fallen in love and experienced that first kiss, or first romantic encounter can relate to the joy of dancing down the street (maybe not with the skill of Gene Kelly or even Sam Lips) but nevertheless, the pure thrill. And not even a huge downpour of rain can dampen that joy. There was a warning before the show that some of the audience may get wet and they certainly did. The whole scene was just perfection.

Singin in the Rain reprise at the end of the show with all of the cast was also brilliant and I felt sorry for those who got up out of their seats and ran off quickly thinking the show was over.

The Story Behind Singin’ in the Rain

The story begins in the 1920s where movies were filmed without sound and had subtitles with a musical background. Then came talking movies and the famous couple Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont had to do their new movie with sound. The problem was that Lina’s voice was really grating and so they decided to get a newcomer actress, Kathy Selden, to ‘voice over’ her parts. The movie was a disaster though, poor Lina could not get to grips with her microphone and some of the scenes were out of sinc, leaving the audience laughing at them all.

This gave them an idea, they would make a musical instead and make it funny to give the audience a purposeful laugh.

It worked much better and Lina was happy to step into the spotlight where it is revealed that she is not actually the voice behind the actress in the film.

The story has it all, fun, romance, sadness, dancing, singing and more dancing.

It was a totally enjoyable experience.

Doctors

What does the BBC soap Doctors have to do with this performance? Well, one of the nurses from the show. Luca (Ross Mclaren) played Cosmo Brown, Don Lockwood’s best friend and sidekick. We saw a few cast members at the performance who had come along to support their co-star. As a big fan of Doctors I was thrilled to see some of the cast members waiting to go in. And Ross McLaren was brilliant, such amazing talent.

My Next Theatre Visit

I asked Boo what she would like to see at the theatre and she said ‘Six.’ It’s quite sad because I’d promised to take them to see Six just before the pandemic and then when it came back afterwards, the tickets were sold out in record time. We didn’t get to see it, but we will one day no doubt. So we had a look at other performances and she said she wanted to see ‘Les Miserables.’ We listened to some of the songs together and she said she really wants to go and see it. I think I may need hankies for that one.

If you want to see some West End Musicals for Children Organised by Roo has some great suggestions.

Have you been to the theatre recently? What would you like to see?

My last visit was to see Don Quixote.

You can book most tickets for London based shows from Theatre Tickets Direct. (affiliate Link)