Barbra Streisand has quite a few movie musicals under her belt (Funny Girl! Hello Dolly! On a Clear Day You Can See Forever! Her wrongly maligned version of A Star Is Born!), but her directorial debut is undoubtedly the jewel in her crown. A spiritual cross between Mulan and Fiddler on the Roof, Yentl stars Streisand as a young woman in turn-of-the-century Eastern Europe, who—bear with us here—disguises herself as a man to pursue an education and ends up backing into a love triangle with a hunky fellow scholar (Mandy Patinkin) and his pretty fiancée (Amy Irving). But don’t expect sprawling, High School Musical–esque song-and-dance numbers at the yeshiva; in Yentl, every song functions as a monologue, during which our heroine privately reckons with the loneliness and absurdity of her situation. It shouldn’t work—but it so does.
Annie (1982), dir. John Huston
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Aileen Quinn, you will always be famous. Starring as the red-headed, freckle-faced orphan at the center of this Depression-era story, Quinn is a delight, singing and dancing for her life alongside the late, great Ann Reinking and Albert Finney. (Also see Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, and Bernadette Peters as Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily St. Regis, respectively, the trio of baddies out to steal the $50,000 reward to track down Annie’s parents.) Among the most memorable numbers: “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” “Maybe,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” “Little Girls,” “Easy Street,” and, of course, “Tomorrow.”
Grease (1978), dir. Randal Kleiser
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
