Posted 6:03 PM by Gene

If we could wish one thing back it would be the Busby Berkeley musical. One of our favorite recordings is John McGlinn's superlative (and, sadly, long out of print) album of some immortal Harry Warren/Al Dubin songs, complete with Ray Heindorf's brilliant orchestrations, and every time we hear them we think, if only somebody could do those old films up anew with widescreen and DOLBY! And if a Peter Jackson could go to such idiotic lengths to recreate a lost New York merely to bludgeon the senseless masses for another tiresome CGI-sci-fi-fantasy tentpole, why couldn't he do it in the service of outstanding music? (Although we wouldn't want Jackson doing a musical; we suspect he's better at directing pixels than people.) Alas, such spectacle is meant for the old times, for Roxys and roadshows; and people immovably think the musical a GAY thing (WHY?!?!?), and the movie biz' last two guesses at musicals bombed (especially KERNGERSHWIN HAMMERSTEIN's masterpiece). I wonder too if we understand Berkeley; his last Warners extravaganza was about seventy years ago, and we view him nowadays as an inspiration for Stan Freberg. But KERNGERSHWIN's stupid goosestep gag and the undiscriminating audience's hyena-bark of recognition show there might be a place again, however tenuous, for Busbyian surrealism, and for great songs getting a new life.