And therefore, the funniest moment in the picture is when a big musical number from an Astaire/Rogers white-tie-and-tails RKO musical comes flying in from out of nowhere. It's so unexpected--in the movie--you're left gasping with laughter. But turn the whole show into a Broadway musical and "Puttin' on the Ritz" goes from being unexpected to being inevitable.
Yes.
And I would take your point one step further. The long dance arrangement (not credited to anyone specific - probably therefore either by Kelly or Besterman - both whom I respect a great deal) is serviceable, but only serviceable IMO. I think it needed to be way more musically outrageous and heightened so that it indeed did stand out in the musical to be similar to the way the song itself did in the film. It's not a bad arrangement at all, it's just rather standard, surely serving the dance onstage just fine, but never really rising beyond that. It should have. |
