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The Great Movie Musical Trivia Book

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It's here. The perfect gift book for anyone who likes a good movie musical. This isn't the weird, obscure, only-a-show-queen-would-know stage musical or the fluff "name the year of blah blah blah" trivia. This is complete coverage; from stats through awards, to fun dirt on ten of everyone's favorite movies. Kurtti just picked his personal favorites to delve into, but who doesn't love "Mary Poppins" and want to know more?

The trivia begins with the MGM Musicals of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Singin' in the Rain" and covers the spectrum from "My Fair Lady" to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," to "Hello, Dolly!" and even to the animated "Beauty and the Beast." Each of the ten musicals has questions divided into three categories. The easiest questions are about the story and the characters, followed by the medium, not so easy questions, concerning actors, artists, and others. Finally, the hard category, with no easy stuff, Kurtti appropriately labels the minutia and obscuria. While the book is set up to be read as simple Q and A, the fun comes with Jeff's researched follow-up stories after the answer. The questions are used as springboards to delicious little secrets about stars, sets, Munchkins, and mistakes. An example of a brief but interesting medium rated question and answer for "The Wizard of Oz," reads as follows:

Q: Who was originally cast as the Wicked Witch? A: An early casting memo shows both Edna Mae Oliver and Fanny Brice as potential "witches" (their ethical orientation is not discussed, wicked or otherwise, but it's not hard to guess the casting). Finally, on August 20, 1938, Gale Sondergaard was announced for the role-a beautiful villain in the style of the evil queen in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (q.v.) She did tests for the picture during the last weeks of September 1938, but left by mutual agreement with the producers in early October,! when it was decided that the beautiful witch was not acceptable and attempts to hide Sondergaard's beauty in "ugly" make-up seemed ridiculous. The next year she would have the part of Tylette the Cat in "The Blue Bird."

The stories range from brief paragraphs to full pages of bizarre information that Kurtti has uncovered through years of curious collecting and inside information at major studios. The book ignores all the obvious and targets the truly tasty fresh facts one can't resist. Juice combined with Jeff's witty personal commentary, make the book a great summer dessert sprinkled with photographs. This becomes the only drawback of the book, beginning with the colorful candy cover, it grabs you and you can't quit nibbling.

This movie musical trivia book has a delightful introduction by Shirley Jones, who sums up the book nicely: "If you're a fan of the celluloid musical, got ready you are about to have one terrific time.' -- William Christopher

Jeff Kurtti's "The Great Movie Musical Trivia Book" perhaps surprisingly doesn't include "The Sound of Music," but does feature chapters about "The Wizard of Oz," "Singin' in the Rain," "Guys and Dolls," "My Fair Lady," "Mary Poppins," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "The Music Man," "Hello, Dolly!," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and "Beauty and the Beast," each a classic in its own right.

Each chapter opens with brief paragraphs about the featured film, followed by three difficulty levels of questions and answers. Kurtti deserves credit for not making the first level, "The Easy Stuff," either condescending or too easy, such as the "Mary Poppins" question, "Who 'gets stuck with the children with no nanny in the 'ouse!'," The answer (no, I'm not going to tell) includes a career rundown of the performer who played the character that made the statement in the film, imparting information beyond just answering the question. "Not So Easy" and "No Easy Stuff" questions test the reader's knowledge, such as who was the associate producer of "Hello, Dolly!" and who is the famous father of the animator of The Beast. These too lead into mini-essays, providing interesting facts with which trivia buffs will be able to astound their friends. Each chapter includes an assortment of photos related to the film covered, and concludes with its screen credits. Highly entertaining, the book may well provide new information even for those who think they already know all the answers.

I bought this book thinking it would be a great coffee-table book for my theatrical home. I even thought I could use it for trivia games with my theatre students. But it only focuses on 10 movies - one for each chapter. And the trivia questions are for people who are obsessed with that particular film. I was hoping for a book full of fun, random questions about a wide array of movie musicals, but this book is not that. However, if you've watched Wizard of Oz 50 times, this would be the perfect book for you!