Thu 5/6 @ 7PM
The 1952 musical film Hans Christian Anderson is pretty obscure to modern audiences, although 19th–century Danish writer Anderson is still well known as the writer of popular, endlessly pertinent fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and The Emperor’s New Clothes. His 156 stories have appeared in more than 100 languages and been turned into films, ballets, plays and operas.
The film was created by some heavy-hitters though. The popular playwright Moss Hart (You Can’t Take It With You, The Man Who Came to Dinner) wrote the screenplay; Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” “Heart and Soul,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “On a Slow Boat to China”) wrote the songs. It starred actor/comedian/vocalist Danny Kaye, a huge star at the time. The musical film took liberties with Anderson’s complex, fraught life to be something of a fairy tale itself, and a film suitable for family viewing.
Get more familiar with this forgotten work when it’s the topic of The Music Theater Project’s next Movies at Home segment. These segments include a video intro by TMTP’s artistic director Bill Rudman, after which you watch the film on Amazon Prime or YouTube, and then join Rudman for a discussion, this one on Thursday May 7.
“Last week I watched this film, the 78th produced by Samuel Goldwyn, for the first time in years, and I’d forgotten what a gem it is,” says Rudman. “You’ll agree with Frank Loesser’s song for Hans, addressed to a caterpillar who needs to gain some perspective on life: ‘Inchworm, inchworm, measuring the marigolds, seems to me you’d stop and see how beautiful they are.’”
Watch the intro here. Join the Zoom discussion here.
musicaltheaterproject.org/moviesathome