SINGIN' IN THE RAIN TOPS AFI's LIST OF 25 GREATEST MOVIE MUSICALS OF ALL TIME

OTHER HONOREES INCLUDE WELL-LOVED MUSICALS WEST SIDE STORY, THE WIZARD OF OZ, SOUND OF MUSIC AND CABARET

On September 3, 2006, AFI revealed the top 25 movie musicals of all time in The Big Picture--AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals, a onenight only presentation produced by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in cooperation with AFI. A jury of over 500 film artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians selected the Gene Kelly song-and-dance classic SINGIN' IN THE RAIN as the most memorable movie musical of all time.

Rounding off the top 10 were movie musicals from the 1930s to today, including: WEST SIDE STORY (#2); THE WIZARD OF OZ (#3); THE SOUND OF MUSIC (#4); CABARET (#5); MARY POPPINS (#6); A STAR IS BORN (#7); MY FAIR LADY (#8); AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (#9); and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (#10).

Spanning a century of film music and counting down from 25 to number one throughout the evening, Director John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed excerpts from each of the winning musicals, many of them accompanied by favorite movie scenes shown on the Bowl's big video screens. While television broadcasts have announced the previous nine installments of AFI's 100 Years... series, following the success of last year's AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, this is now the second time an AFI countdown was revealed before a live audience.

1. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
2. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
3. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
4. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
5. CABARET (1972)
6. MARY POPPINS (1964)
7. A STAR IS BORN (1954)
8. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
9. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
10. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)
11. THE KING AND I (1956)
12. CHICAGO (2002)
13. 42ND STREET (1933)
14. ALL THAT JAZZ (1979)
15. TOP HAT (1935)
16. FUNNY GIRL (1968)
17. THE BAND WAGON (1953)
18. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
19. ON THE TOWN (1949)
20. GREASE (1978)
21. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954)
22. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991)
23. GUYS AND DOLLS (1955)
24. SHOW BOAT (1936)
25. MOULIN ROUGE! (2001)