How I Became Obsessed With Singin' in the Rain

Just singing in the rain...

Welcome Back!

If you were to look at my Spotify history, you might be able to tell that I love musicals. My playlists include songs from musicals like Hamilton, High School Musical, Annie, Newsies, and the Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief musical!

I recently watched a musical for the first time that astounded me. It has excellent singing, incredible dancing, and a wonderful plot. You might have figured out, by the title of this post, that I’m referring to the 1952 classic, Singin’ in the Rain.

The Plot of the Movie: 

Singin’ in the Rain is the story of two friends, Don Lockwood and Cosmo Brown, played by Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. Lockwood is the most famous movie star of the 1920s, only rivaled by his costar Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). But as silent movies become talking pictures, Lockwood and Lamont must adapt to the new changes, with some major repercussions: when Lina tries to sing and talk, her voice isn’t as refined as she looks. So Don ends up hiring Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), an aspiring singer with a lovely voice, to dub over Lina. 

Some Easter Eggs:

While I was watching the movie, I had only one thought: why have I never seen this before? The whole film was incredibly iconic, and I was shocked I had never heard of most of the actors and actresses that worked on the movie (the exceptions being Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds).

I was even more impressed with how modern the movie seemed! Everything felt like it could still be relevant to society if it had been filmed in the present day. The movie reminded me of the aesthetic of the movie musical The Greatest Showman.

I also loved the worldbuilding! The movie is set in 1920s Hollywood, where glitz and glam were all the rage, and the movie really showed that, with all the characters wearing time-appropriate clothes. All the Hollywood movie sets were cool, and I thought the giant microphones the actors and actresses had to speak into were hilarious!

My favorite part was the addition of dubbing, which ends up being an important plot point in the movie, in that Kathy Selden ends up speaking/singing over (or dubbing) Lina Lamont’s lines and songs for her. Ironically, in a movie all about dubbing, the two main actresses each dubbed a few lines for the other woman’s character.

And, even more surprisingly, Betty Noyes, an uncredited but famous singer, actually dubbed two of Debbie's songs, “Would You?” and “You Are My Lucky Star.”

Someone recently found Debbie’s performance of “Would You?” and dubbed it over Noyes’ version, with the video included. You can watch both versions below. 

(version with Betty’s voice, dubbed over Debbie)

(vocals actually done by Debbie Reynolds --I personally like this one better, but Betty did a great job!)

Final Thoughts:

I watched the movie for a musicals class I’m taking this semester in school. It was nice to discuss it with a group of people who loved it as much as I did! And although the Singin’ in the Rain discussion is over, I believe it might now be one of my favorite musicals!

And now to discuss it with you! Have you watched Singin’ in the Rain? Did you enjoy it? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the iconic movie in the comments! 

Next week, I’m going to talk about procrastination: what it is, how to break away from it, and some helpful tips to keep your motivation going. Make sure to check back in next week to see the new post!

Thanks for reading, and keep on being kind!💖

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