Singing in the Rain peony
A tribute to the movie musical of movie musicals!
Being a classic movie fan AND someone who does musical theatre for a living, I have several beds dedicated to classic movie musicals. Of course, one of the greatest of all movie musicals is MGM’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
Directed by Stanley Donen, the movie stars Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds.
The title song, and Kelly’s performance of that song, is iconic, and nearly everyone has seen at least a short clip of it.
Wonderful as that number is, there are many other gems in the movie, including O’Connor’s legendary, high-octane, scenery-chewing rendition of “Make ‘em Laugh.”
I always loved this movie, but I directed it several years ago with a group of very special students and that made me love it even more!
I will never forget the magical moment when the real water started pouring down onstage, or the first moment the elegant Lina opened her mouth to speak, or hearing Kathy sing, or watching Cosmo knock it out of the park with “Make ‘em Laugh”….it turns out that the magic is built into the script and music and is not limited to the movie.
With all that, I jumped at the chance to plant these in my garden. This is a Singin' in the Rain peony and a cosmo. If you are familiar with the movie, you know that the Donald O’Connor character is named Cosmo Brown (Note: I have ordered chocolate cosmos for next year, but this year, all that was available was this cosmo).
