Жазғы акция: Музыкалық комедияның көрінісі

1950 film by Charles Walters
the theatre genre

Jane Falbury (Judy Garland) is a farm owner whose actress sister, Abigail (Gloria DeHaven), arrives at the family farm with her theater troupe. They need a place to rehearse, and Jane and her housekeeper, Esme (Marjorie Main), reluctantly agree to let them use their barn. The actors and actresses, including the director, Joe Ross (Gene Kelly), repay her hospitality by doing chores around the farm. Although Joe is engaged to Abigail, he begins to fall in love with Jane after Abigail leaves him in an angry fit. Similarly, although Jane is engaged to Orville (Eddie Bracken), she falls in love with Joe.

The film's most famous scene is the now classic final song and dance number "Get Happy" performed by Garland in a tuxedo jacket, black fedora, and black nylons to an arrangement by Skip Martin. It was choreographed by Charles Walters and filmed two months after the rest of the film, after Garland sought the help of a hypnotist in Santa Barbara and lost 20 pounds (9 kg). She performed it perfectly in just a couple of takes. According to New York Times critic Bosley Crowther Get Happy' finds Miss Garland looking and performing her best." In another notable sequence, Kelly performs a solo dance in a darkened barn, using a newspaper and a creaky board as partners and props; the musical accompaniment reprises "You Wonderful You". The dance "turned out to be one of the breakthrough numbers" of his career. In the film, Garland and Kelly share a dance duet, the swinging "Portland Fancy," where a square dance turns into a heated challenge dance for them.

Summer Stock was in the mold of the "unknown saves show" musical genre, Although Garland and Kelly were the stars originally announced by MGM in 1948 to appear in the film, in February 1949 the studio announced that Garland would be replaced by June Allyson. She was suspended in May 1949, during the filming of Annie Get Your Gun, and spent three months in a hospital in Boston being treated for drug dependence. Betty Hutton replaced her on that film, but Garland was reinstated to the lead in Summer Stock, which was her first one following the suspension. Kelly was not the first choice for the role: the producer, Joe Pasternak, originally wanted Mickey Rooney, but was prevailed on to go with Kelly because Rooney was no longer the box office draw he had once been. Busby Berkeley was originally slated to direct the film, but was replaced by Charles Walters before production began. He and Kelly worked on it as a favor to Garland, whose career needed a boost at the time, and Walters later complimented Kelly for the help he gave to Garland. Kelly believed that he was miscast, because he was far too old for the role, and that the script was "a piece of crap." and she required frequent reassurance from Walters about her appearance and the quality of her performance. He later recalled that "flattery was food for her." Overall, Summer Stock took six months to film, and was a box office success.

A stage adaptation of the story by George Wells and Sy Gomberg premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2023. The book of the musical was written by Cheri Steinkellner while the score retains many of the songs from the film with new ones added from the American songbook. The musical changed the characters name of Abigail to Gloria and cut the character of Esme, while introducing a new sublot involving Orville's mother Margaret Wingate and her trying to purchase the Falbury farm and turn it into a commercial farming business. The world premiere included Corbin Bleu in the Gene Kelly role and Danielle Wade as Jane Falbury.

The film, specifically the iconic "Get Happy" sequence, has been referenced in many pop culture contexts. Michael Jackson performed "Dangerous" in a way that paid tribute to the film, most notably at the 1993 American Music Awards and the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. He and his dancers wore suits, and a dancer stood in front of him until the beginning of the song, just like in the film, in which Garland is covered by a dancer at first. Some excerpts from the song can be heard in his performance. British singer Duffy's "Rain on Your Parade" music video was also inspired by that sequence, and she can be seen wearing an outfit similar to Garland's, and dancing against a white background along with some male dancers dressed in suits. Actress Katie Holmes paid homage to Garland, performing "Get Happy" on the television show So You Think You Can Dance. She wore a similar outfit and danced alongside male dancers in suits in front of a match painted background. Drag queen and recording artist Alaska Thunderfuck's music video "Anus" pays homage to the "Get Happy" sequence. A scene in the video shows her in a blazer and tilted fedora, backed by two male dancers, dancing in a similar fashion to the original number. This is a tribute to Garland and the song's importance in the LGBT community.

Frank, Gerold. Judy (1999), Da Capo Press, Green, Stanley and Schmidt, Elaine. Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (1999), Hal Leonard Corporation, Wayne, Jane Ellen. The Golden Girls of MGM, (2003), Carroll & Graf Publishers, .