Happy Tuesday, dear readers! Each week, we’ll rank the top 10 films in a specific category. While we aim to tie these lists to big releases, that won’t always be the case. Our goal? For you to enjoy, share your own lists, and join in on a lively, friendly debate. This is an interactive space to build community here at The Contending.
No fancy intros, no long essays – just a category and a list. Sound good?
This week Wicked: For Good rides its broom into theaters, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande returning as Elphaba and Glinda. Both actors earned Academy Award nominations for those roles last year, and the sequel (if early buzz is to be believed) keeps them firmly in the awards conversation. If both are nominated again, they would be the first pair of actors to receive Oscar nods in consecutive years for playing the same characters; if only one is nominated, that performer would be only the second person since Bing Crosby to be nominated in back‑to‑back years for the same role. They would also become only the seventh and eighth actors ever to receive Oscar nominations for playing the same character in different films. Of the six actors who have done this before, Paul Newman is the only one to win for his second performance, while Bing Crosby won for the earlier film in his pair.
Let’s celebrate their performances, the release of Wicked: For Good, and movie musicals in general by ranking the ten best performances in a movie musical.
For the purposes of this list, “musical” refers to films where characters burst into song and dance in non‑realistic, spontaneous ways, and where music acts as an extension of speech, heightens emotion, and helps move the plot along. This list excludes backstage or biographical musicals such as A Star Is Born, Cabaret, and Walk the Line.
I don’t make the rules, I just… Well, I guess I make the rules. Here are the ten best performances from traditional movie musicals.
10. Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music (1965)
9. Gene Kelly in An American in Paris (1951)
8. Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964)
7. Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964)
6. Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935)
5. Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
4. Topol in Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
3. Rita Moreno in West Side Story (1961)
2. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
1. Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
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The difficult thing with this is simultaneously that the genre is built on large star personalities which require the question "why this performance and not that one" and so many of my favorite musicals have these ensembles that I'm so fond of that picking one out as above the others feels odd. I guess that's why I largely drifted to lead performances. But I came up with (assuming the ineligibility of Cabaret, All That Jazz, and A Star Is Born [1954] and with only one performance per movie and perfomer):
1. Judy Garland (Meet Me in St. Louis)
2. Judy Holliday (Bells Are Ringing)
3. Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
4. Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl)
5. Björk (Dancer in the Dark)
6. Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)
7. Gene Kelly (It's Always Fair Weather)
8. Fred Astaire (Top Hat)
9. Rita Moreno (West Side Story)
10. Shirley MacLaine (Sweet Charity)
Side-note: Cabaret's status gets more complicated if you consider the stage show, which is an integrated musical (which is what the criteria here sound like) and can be staged in a way that really highlights the porous relationship between reality and performance and thus the two types of musicals. But for the purposes of this list, I understand why it's excluded since the movie isn't really one.
YES! Glad to see Ms Judy Holliday there. She would be my number 1 pick (& 2, & 3, &… 10).