Tapping Toward Love In Celebrated Slippers
Ben BrantleyDecember 5, 2003: There was a time -- long, long ago, my children -- when Hollywood was the place where good musicals went to veg out. A racy, vivacious Broadway show like ''Pal Joey'' or ''Kiss Me, Kate'' would rush to California for a glamorous big-screen makeover and wind up with a lobotomy. Sure, there were exceptions. But more often than not, what finally lumbered into movie theaters resembled the neutered, empty-eyed Jack Nicholson at the end of ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.''
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