{"id":73060,"date":"2022-05-12T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=73060"},"modified":"2022-05-12T11:55:58","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:55:58","slug":"the-arts-faith-top-25-movie-musicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2022\/05\/the-arts-faith-top-25-movie-musicals.html","title":{"rendered":"The Arts & Faith Top 25 Movie Musicals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgot to mention this last week: The Arts & Faith community, which I was very involved with for most of the past two decades, posted a brand-new list of the \u2018Top 25 Movie Musicals<\/a>\u2019 last week, and I had the privilege of writing a new blurb<\/a> on The Prince of Egypt<\/a><\/i>, focusing specifically on Stephen Schwartz\u2019s songs and the role they played in the artistic and even theological development of that film. A sample:<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while the film gets much of its energy from the rivalry between two men \u2013 Moses and his adoptive brother Ramses \u2013 the music plays a key part in framing the story as an answer to female prayer (note whose voice we hear over the very last shot, as Moses comes down Mount Sinai with the tablets of The Law in his arms). Also, while the producers ultimately gave up in their efforts to give God a gender-balanced voice (or set of voices) in the burning-bush scene, opting instead to let Moses hear God in his own voice, it may be significant that the only lyrics which reflect the perspective of God (\u201cI send the swarm, I send the horde,\u201d etc.) are performed by a mixed chorus, as Moses and Ramses face off against each other in \u2018Plagues\u2019. It\u2019s subtle, but it\u2019s there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The top film on the \u2018Movie Musicals\u2019 list is 1971\u2019s Fiddler on the Roof<\/i>, and the blurb for that one is repurposed from a blurb that I wrote for an earlier A&F list. Schwartz fans might also be intrigued to learn that the list also features 1973\u2019s Godspell<\/i> (blurb<\/a> by Evan Cogswell) and 1996\u2019s The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/i> (blurb<\/a> by Kenneth R. Morefield).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few quick notes on the artistic and theological significance of Stephen Schwartz’s songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":73069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[654,3934,368,4584,342,15,872,681],"class_list":["post-73060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-arts-faith","tag-fiddler-on-the-roof","tag-godspell","tag-hunchback-of-notre-dame-1996","tag-moses","tag-prince-of-egypt","tag-ramesses","tag-stephen-schwartz"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Arts & Faith Top 25 Movie Musicals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few quick notes on the artistic and theological significance of Stephen Schwartz's songs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2022\/05\/the-arts-faith-top-25-movie-musicals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Arts & Faith Top 25 Movie Musicals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few quick notes on the artistic and theological significance of Stephen Schwartz's songs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2022\/05\/the-arts-faith-top-25-movie-musicals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-12T18:55:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2022\/05\/princeofegypt-chariotrace-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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