While watching Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelley 1957), I was reminded of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s highly enjoyable rendition of Make Em’ Laugh on SNL in 2009. Unfortunately, the performance has never been rebroadcast because SNL never got the rights to the song. Watch a clip on Instagram here.
As I went back watch the clip, I was stuck by how much people love musicals and dance numbers. According to the article I found about Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance, Daniel S. Levine (the author) states, “Rather than a traditional monologue, Gordon-Levitt used his SNL debut to perform “Make ‘Em Laugh” live” (Levine 2023). Many professionals in the industry seem to greatly enjoy musicals as evidenced by this performance. It’s interesting that SNL never got the rights to the song because Singin’ in the Rain is known as a jukebox musical.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor known for portraying the character Tom opposite Zoey Deschanel in the movie 500 Days of Summer. He also does a dance number in that movie, and he worked with the same choreographer, Michael Rooney, for the SNL performance. I love seeing Hollywood celebrate movie classics and the whimsy of cinema.
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