Guys and Dolls – and other musical messages

Charlotte Levene celebrates the joys and challenges of her son’s growing love of musicals.


When we were children there was a tradition in our family.  If the world was tough, if life was tricky, we would watch a musical.  My sister favoured (somewhat obsessively) The Sound of Music but we were both fans of many others as well.  Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Singing in The Rain, Bugsy Malone, West Side Story, Calamity Jane…. The list can go on.  This love of musicals came directly from my dad.  He is an expert.  He knows every step, every dancer, every lyric.  

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35 years later I am utterly delighted that my father has passed this passion on to my son.  As we drove back from Wales this Easter I listened as my son rattled on in the back of the car about who can sing (Frank Sinatra), who can dance (Tommy Raul), who is in everything (Howard Keel).  My son, like his grandfather, is now an expert in the subject of musicals.  (He is also an expert in anything Star Wars which is good as it’s important to have a backup if you get through the first round of Mastermind).  We spend ages trying to find the exact song he wants to listen to but doesn’t know the name of “you know… the one who plays Adam in the other film sings it.  But he sings it with the one who isn’t in anything else.  But is a bit like Calamity.  But not her”.  If only my dad was in the car with us.  

Watching musicals with my son is also one of the few times I can be seen as an expert.  I know the words, I know the nuances and we can dance around together when it’s clearly bedtime but we just need to see this bit.  

They don’t come without their problems though do they?  Musicals.  Underneath their jolly songs, witty lyrics and somewhat implausible plot lines, there are some worrying messages. 

 

Let’s play “Name that film”

  1. Abduction and imprisonment of women in a (successful) attempt to make them marry you

  2. Finally agree to marriage after a 14 year engagement, just to escape arrest

  3. Make your house pretty so that men will like you

  4. Trick a woman into a date in Cuba and then spike her drink

  5. Marry a man who you have just met (Didn’t Frozen warn us against this sort of thing?)*

So what do we do?  Do we stop our children from watching? I don’t want to support these ideas. I don’t want a wedding to be the end of the story. I am a feminist. I was at Greenham. But I love that my son and I can dance to Guys and Dolls together. I want boys to see dancers as role models and to be inspired by incredible music. Surely its more enjoyable to spend a long journey listening to Gershwin rather than Baby Shark. 

At the moment I am going with it.  We are welcoming the classics and, when I can, I am challenging the messages and hoping I am doing it well enough.  We celebrate what Calamity Jane can do.  We cheer as the Brothers dance beautifully at the barn dance.  And, at the moment, we don’t watch West Side Story.  Got to save something for later.  On the way to school yesterday my son said to me “Guys and Dolls should be called Men and Women shouldn’t it mummy?”  I smiled at him and he continued “Wouldn’t sound as good though would it?”  Out of the mouths of babes.  

*And for those of you who need answers: 1. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, 2. Guys and Dolls, 3. Calamity Jane, 4. Guys and Dolls, 5. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers


Charlotte Levene lives with her son, partner and dog in Stroud and works for a children’s charity.