Singin' in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation

Gotta dance.

Singin' in the Rain invented the wheel.

Like, it really just kind of put a new spin on how musicals on film were done.

This was the one that definitely made me feel...

that you can blend every dance style together...

and it just influenced me and inspired me to do things...

outside of what I was doing, as far as hip-hop goes.

Because of Gene Kelly, I know that every step I choreograph...

has to have a purpose.

Those dream sequences...

those ballets were, you know, the origins of music videos.

They were fantasies.

We, as artists in this time...

stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us.

I think the magic that Gene Kelly possessed...

was the ability to make something so difficult look so effortless.

Singin' in the Rain, still, to this day...

has such heavy influence on young, budding choreographers...

established choreographers, dancers.

It's like going to school.

Gotta dance

The first time I saw Singin' in the Rain was in my meemaw's room...

at my aunt's house. Ha-ha-ha.

My grandmother was a huge musical fan.

Feel like dancin' down the street.

And I grew up dancing.

So Singin' in the Rain sort of combined, not only a dancing element...

but sort of brought that fantasy world...

and it was so much color.

And just the sheer energy, I think, translates to such a young person.

Singin' in the rain Just singin'...

DelLUCA: First time I saw the film...

it's a great memory. My parents were interested.

The neighborhood liked it. Everybody was excited it was on television.

With a happy refrain

DeLuca: I always knew since I was a kid...

that I loved this way of expressing one's self through song and musicals.

I didn't much like the traditional musical...

because I liked things that were a little more daring than that.

Then here comes a traditional musical...

and it felt contemporary. And it still feels contemporary now.

They were breaking ground without even knowing it.

First time I saw Singin' in the Rain...

it's hard to remember, I was young. I started dancing at 2 years old.

Tap and ballet. And at my dance studio...

we ended up doing a tap number to Singin' in the Rain.

Of course, at the time, I didn't know what the reference was to.

I just heard the music and we were dancing and...

my parents, they actually introduced me to the film...

which was my first introduction to Gene Kelly.

I just saw dancing, and that was all I needed to see.

I was 18 in high school.

And it was like the most amazing piece of art...

that I've ever seen. I had just started dancing.

And it totally inspired me to move that way, in that fashion.

I was a tap dancer. I wanted to tap at 10 years old.

I liked Paula Abdul and she was doing a lot of tap dancing...

in her performances.

So as soon as I got in a tap class, my grandmother rented me the video.

I just watched it over and over and I... You know, I didn't really grasp the film.

I was more in tune with the dance numbers.

As a little 10-year-old kid...

all wanted to see was the singing and the dancing.

It's a very fond memory.

It's probably one of my first vivid memories.

I was all of 4 years old.

I remember sitting on the carpet...

and my mom and dad said I was so fixated...

that at one point, after I saw him dance...

I went and kissed the television set...

and I said, "That's my dad."

And my father said, "Excuse me, Paula."

And I turned around, and he said:

"I'm your father. That can be your TV dad."

I was starstruck.

And I blame Gene Kelly...

for me falling in love with him and the art of MGM musicals.

You are.

My lucky star.

- Why don't you? - What?

- Make a musical. - A musical?

Good mornin'

Good mornin' -We've talked the whole night through.

Good mornin' BOTH: Good mornin' to you.

Good mornin'...

I just still study it.

When I travel, I'll be watching "Moses Supposes" and "Good Morning."

Just to study the... Just the...

The craft of choreography is so brilliant.

Might be just as zippy If we was in Mississippi.

They take you on a ride. "Good Morning" takes you on a ride.

It takes you on a journey from room to room to room.

You don't think about it, but you feel it. You ride with it.

So say good mornin'

Good mornin'

It looks so easy, but the truth is, we all know the only way you can do that...

is work, work, work. These people worked.

I mean, I know Debbie Reynolds' feet were bleeding...

by the end of "Good Morning." I know that.

Donald O'Connor never worked so hard to keep up with Gene Kelly.

He was really hard.

He was a very tough choreographer in that way.

But it looks effortless...

because it's in their bones, it's in their blood.

They're dancing, not thinking, "what's the next step" or anything.

It's there. So now it's just about being on the money...

and bringing life to it in the moment.

It doesn't surprise me, the two directors...

Donen and Kelly, were also the choreographers.

It's so intricately woven...

that there's a real director-choreographer eye there.

Gene and Stanley Donen, who both received credit...

met all the time and they discussed what they were going to do.

Stanley, a lot of the time, was behind the camera...

and would know and tell Gene... This is before the days of Tape/Assist.

Tell Gene that it was okay.

The take was okay, rather than, "Let's do another for protection."

Once upon a time, when they were making musicals...

you would have months to rehearse the dance numbers...

And production would even stop...

for a length of time to rehearse.

And I think what's great about that process is it's sort of a hybrid of theater and film.

And it forces everybody to be on the same page...

because you're in the same room working on the same movie.

You see how long the takes are and there's something thrilling about that.

Both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly...

because of their talent...

and their demands of themselves, the director wanted to show...

they were the real deal, could dance the whole time.

There was no reason to cut.

That doesn't exist today.

If you go to any music video shoot, you never do it all the way through.

It's just exhausting.

Now I would much rather do long takes...

but because you don't have that length of rehearsal time...

where you get to perfect long takes that they used to do back then...

you actually need the edit to get out of the mistakes...

that are invariably gonna be made.

What's this wire doing here? It's dangerous.

Using all of these practical objects as props...

that are just integrated into the movie...

you don't realize this is not easy to work with props.

Like, it's just not at all.

Both Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire were just die-hards...

about using anything to dance with.

There was nothing that was not there to be danced with.

And so in "Good Morning"...

of course, Gene Kelly used everything in the house that he could...

that will inform the character and how the character is feeling.

That's what's so important about it.

They were kids playing, so that house became their playground.

That's not easy dancing.

That takes everything.

That takes... Even when you feel like you've pushed it to the max...

you've pushed it way past your limit...

you have to give a hundred and 10 percent more.

And that ending number with the white, you know, flowy scarf...

you don't realize that that is a nightmare to deal with.

Material that has a mind of its own...

and fans and things, and so much can go wrong...

it's perfectly executed.

How did they do these things?

It's just what they did, you know?

And that's what their talent was. And that was what their contribution was...

and that's why we're all, you know, trying to chase the genius that was them.

- We made it! - It's a miracle!

It's great, Don.

One of the great powers of the old musical, one of the great joys...

Is that the performers really were exposed.

That is that they had to be photographed head to toe...

actually carrying, as an ensemble, the weight of the story.

When the band began to play The stars were shining bright.

That was Debbie Reynolds' first starring role in a musical.

So good mornin' Good mornin'

No dancing in her background.

Just a gymnast. Flip-flip here, flip-flip there.

And then you have Gene Kelly, the master of dance...

guiding you, training you.

And Kelly said she was as strong as an ox.

And I guess she had tenacity, heh...

because the drills that they put her through...

and the rehearsals with Ernie Flatt, the tap man...

and with Jeanne Coyne, Gene's assistant...

it must've been grueling.

How much did she put into herself and into her work to get to that level?

It's so inspiring.

She did say in later life, I remember...

that doing that film and giving birth...

were the two hardest things she'd ever done in her life.

When you're shooting dance numbers...

anything and everything will go wrong. Ha, ha.

And then in the cake dance sequence, my favorite shot is...

they cut to one shot...

but Debbie has a streamer over her face...

which is probably not planned on.

But she's still going for it like it's not even there.

And then just a simple like:

And, like, her eyes roll. It's genius.

It's the perfect moment.

And I think that is a testimony...