~~“Hello I don’t even know your name, but I’m hoping all the same, this is more than just a simple hello. Hello, do I simile and look away?  No, I think, I’ll smile and stay, to see where this might go.” (Johnny Mathis and Jane Oliver, 1978)

Hello~ Welcome to April, 2017 ~The Fools for Love Edition, with Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Peter Lawford, and Ann Miller in Easter Parade.

As we open up the Guidebook on this April Fool’s Day, we find a cast of characters looking for love, finding it, only to discover, the love they have, isn't the one that will make them truly happy.

Thus, another staple of the Classic Movie Musical is born~ the Love Triangle.
Don (Fred Astaire), loves Nadine (Ann Miller). (“Nadine and Hughes, that’s written in stardust. This isn’t just dancing. This is us.”)  

Nadine loves her career, (“they say they’ll star me!”) and Johnny, (Peter Lawford). (“Johnny, I’m going to meet your father?!).

Johnny, loves Hannah, (Judy Garland).  (“I’ll be the fella, the fella with an umbrella, if you’ll be the girl who saved her love for a rainy day.” “Scientists say, people fall in love quickest in a rainstorm. I can prove it ~ because that’s when I fell in love with you…Do you think you could love me?”)

Hannah loves Don. Aware of her foolishness, she admits, “Oh Johnny, I’d be such a fool if I didn’t, but I’m in love with Don. He doesn’t even know I’m alive half the time…When they were passing out the wishes, I wished for him.”
 

Characters established, triangles in motion, each character pursues their own interest,  making foolish choices  along the way, in order to feel better about their circumstance.

Don uses Hannah to get over Nadine. ("See those girls? Any one of them has as much talent as she has! "I can take any one of those girls (and teach her what I taught Nadine.")

Nadine criticizes Hannah, ("..tell that seamstress you've got dancing with you to stop imitating me".) 

Hannah settles for Johnny.

 Now may be a good time to ask this month’s thought provoking question:

What or who is the catalyst, that helps the characters to recognize their foolish behavior, and move the story to the happy ending we all  expect in the Movie Musical?

It is  Johnny ~ The Sidekick.

It is Johnny, who  allows Hannah to break an engagement with him, in favor of a date with Don. Hannah sings, "It Only Happens When I Dance With You." Don realizes he has been a fool, ("why didn't you tell me I was in love with you?")

It is Johnny, who convinces Hannah to go back to Don following a bitter fight over Nadine. ("Put on his favorite dress, and fix your face you look horrible!")

Johnny ends his own foolish behavior, by telling Nadine to, "get out all the hounds, we're going for a walk."  A walk up the avenue, that leads to a happy ending for all fools in love. 

For you, your clients, students, and intergenerational family members, it should lead to an engaging conversations of love, lost, love found, and holidays filled with warm memories, all month long! 

Happy Easter!

~~Lori