Best Cast of a movie musical ever, what's your favorite?

Annie 1982 version

Albert Finney
Bernadette Peters
Tim Curry
Carol Burnett
Ann Reinking


I cannot think of a better cast in a movie musical. 
Anyone else?

So funny enough, I actually loved the cast of Dreamgirls.....except Jennifer Hudson, who has a tremendous voice but I just found dry and boring in the role.  But Beyonce, Anika Noni Rose, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx, Ken Page, Hinton Battle and so on were all perfectly cast in their roles.

How are we defining best? For example, the cast of Oliver! doesn't feature many big names for film (if any), but the cast is so strong in these roles. The film works because the huge ensemble cast seemingly has just the right actor in every part.The spectacle of the huge production numbers doesn't overshadow the quality of acting, dancing, and singing onscreen. 

Honestly, I love the cast of Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game. They are primarily the original Broadway casts minus one lead that was a Hollywood star (DY: Tab Hunter. PG: Doris Day)

I would agree on "Chicago" it was the first that came to mind.  While the casting for "Annie" was great the movie overall was horrendous. The made for TV re-do actually worked and I actually think that cast actually better, but I saw the original about a month after it opened on Broadway and no-one will ever beat Dorothy Loudon's Miss Hannigan.  

It's a guilty pleasure, but... Hairspray. 2007. I mean, that was a stacked cast.

White Christmas
The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
Mary Poppins

For as big of a cast Into the Woods is I was super impressed there were very few weak links. I would maybe say Anna Kendrick was the weakest but her "On the Steps of the Palace" was great

Music Man's cast is great, too. The Pick-a-little Ladies sold that number on the screen. 

trentsketch said: "How are we defining best? For example, the cast of Oliver! doesn't feature many big names for film (if any), but the cast is so strong in these roles. The film works because the huge ensemble cast seemingly has just the right actor in every part.The spectacle of the huge production numbers doesn't overshadow the quality of acting, dancing, and singing onscreen."

Ron Moody as Fagin is absolutely one of my personal favorite performances in a movie musical. 

Chicago,Oliver,The Sound of Music,Mary Poppins,The Wizard of Oz,Meet Me in St.Louis(1944)

Rita Moreno in West Side story.

Updated On: 7/2/20 at 06:08 PM

poisonivy2 said: "Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof both pretty great.

Also ... is it cheating to say Hamilton?"

Fiddler on the Roof may be my second favorite movie musical, but I think that Norma Crane was a real weak link.  She brought nothing to the role of Gold IMO.

The things that come to mind for me are:

-- Chicago (Zellweger, Zeta-Jones, Gere, Latifah, Reilly, and down to most of the very small roles)

-- The Bandwagon (Astaire, Charisse, Buchanan, Levant, Fabray)

-- 1776 (no stars, but perfect casting)

-- The Music Man cast, including Shirley Jones, even if I don't love the movie

-- Gigi (Caron, Chevalier, Jourdan, Gingold, Jewell)

-- (cheating) That's Entertainment

Interestingly, Cabaret may have won more Oscars for acting than any other movie musical, but I don't include it. Other that Minelli and Gray, and maybe York, none of the other roles were interesting to me or the actors particularly memorable.  I also have to admit that, almost 50 years later, I periodically cringe at Minelli's performance.

 

 

Updated On: 7/4/20 at 07:29 PM