Don't Rain On My Parade

So I've been watching musicals on DVD at a rate of two per week for the past month as research for my Exciting New Science Fiction Musical, Upload/Download and I am happy to report the following revelations:1) Barbra Streisand is the best person the human race has yet produced.2) Nothing conveys emotion or character as powerfully or personally as music--except dance.3) Film direction and cinematography have gone way downhill since the days of Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound of Music). Note to today's directors: if the scene is written well you don't have to brute force emotional impact by constantly cutting in for close ups.4) A hollywood actress who took tap dancing classes as a child is not the same thing as a professional dancer.5) Carousel is the darkest story ever told.6) Christopher Plummer is a genius and I will go to my grave regretting that I failed to secure him as the star of a movie I produced years ago.7) The only way to guarantee a cathartic release of cleansing tears on a Tuesday night is to watch anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein.8) You can portray the insidious banality of Nazi thugs surprisingly well in song and dance.9) People who need people really are the luckiest people in the world.10) I don't believe in God but if ever there was a person whose existence might persuade me otherwise, it was Louis Armstrong. And if you don't believe me, watch Hello Dolly.