"what became of class?"

( in which i do a rambling and not very good review of 'chicago' )

other things: for some reason rocky's on right now at random on ITV. i can't be bothered, though. :) i taped the first half of the 100 greatest musicals thing and will doubtless be ranting about that once i've watched both it and the second bit tomorrow night. 'dead like me' is truly fantastic and Must Be Watched by everyone.

new season of 'frasier' starts in the new year! hurrah! more delovely niles/daphneness and hopefully roz/frasier if they bloody rectify That Situation. bastards... however, i trust the 'frasier' team WAY more than i trust joss whedon and david kemper, so they may actually deliver.

want 'scape miniseries NOW. :(

nothing else, i don't think. hope everyone watched 'amélie' and joined in the fabulousness!

ho-hum.

well, this was going to be a proper rant on the 100 greatest musicals thing, but since channel four doesn't have the list up on the site yet (bah!) it won't be. therefore, for the moment:

1) grease is, in no way, the greatest musical of all time. it's good, granted, but it's not the greatest. when the wizard of oz and the sound of music came in at 3 and 2 respectively, eyebrows were raised... with the latter, no matter what you may think of it, it is the best musical ever made ever, and grease has no right being at the top...
2) everything i voted for came in the top 40, so i guess that's something. from what i remember, nightmare before xmas was number 38, and once more, with feeling was 23. however, phantom and cats were both beaten by bugsy malone, for which there is just no excuse...
3) the top ten i think i can remember... hang on.

10 - moulin rouge!
9 - something i don't remember
8 - chicago
7 - the rocky horror picture show
6 - something else i don't remember...
5 - singin' in the rain
4 - west side story
3 - the wizard of oz
2 - the sound of music
1 - grease

okay, maybe not. but i do recall saying originally that if chicago came anywhere above number 20 i was going to hurt someone. at least having now seen the tour, i can see why the film was staged the way it was - it doesn't mean i agree with the direction, though. the trouble with these 100 greatest... lists is they make me continually want to slaughter the general public. there should be a rule - you are not allowed to vote in this poll unless you have seen at least 3 stage musicals. when it's pitched at a modern, movie-going public, it's inevitable that the greats get shoved to the sidelines...
4) someone complained that moulin rouge! was 'too claustrophobic'. um, duh. that's what the moulin rouge would have been like at the time... *rolls eyes* some people... although i did agree with most of the comments made - the fact that 8 mile is not a musical depite its getting into the list...
5) miss saigon came in at number 99, but i'll attribute that to the fact that most people probably saw the nominees and went 'miss who?' since it's not that well known.
6) something that continually annoys me: disney laying claim to nightmare as one of their productions. the truth of the matter is, they didn't want it! when burton pitched the idea, disney wanted to cutesify it and then didn't want it because there weren't cuddly talking animals and it was too 'dark' (just like all the stuff tim did for the black cauldron got cut...) but then, when they see the merchandising potential, it's suddenly theirs! it was by touchstone and buena vista! it's not a sodding walt disney film! gah!

my fingers are too cold to continue. but my wrath is great. 100 greatest musicals, my arse... i knew i should have voted more than once...