Town Hall Theater Launches THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL A Four-Part Class & Movie Experience

Town Hall Theater will host The Hollywood Musical, a four-part class and movie experience on Mondays, October 27–November 24, at 7 p.m. on the Rothrock Mainstage (76 Merchants Row, Middlebury).

Led by Director in Residence Doug Anderson, the $120 series will blend lively lectures with big-screen presentations of landmark films, tracing how studios, directors, and stars shaped—and reshaped—the movie musical.

Part film history, part mini-festival, each session will begin with Anderson’s overview of the era’s artists and industry, followed by a feature screened “the way it was meant to be seen.” The fall course will focus on the form’s early evolution—when Hollywood first tried to bottle Broadway’s magic and then discovered the moving camera could reinvent the musical entirely. A spring installment, Broadway on Film 1945–1975 (Feb 9–Mar 2, 2026), will continue the journey; registration will open in the new year.

Across four Mondays, the series will spotlight: Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), a quintessential backstage musical featuring Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler with Busby Berkeley’s era-defining camera choreography; Top Hat (1935), the classic Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers pairing for RKO with songs by Irving Berlin; Show Boat (1936), one of Broadway’s most influential stage-to-screen transfers (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) starring Helen Morgan and Paul Robeson; and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), the evergreen Gene Kelly–Donald O’Connor–Debbie Reynolds favorite that frequently appears on lists of the greatest American films.

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