Director Alan Parker created a novel concept with his movie musical featuring a group of children portraying adults in gangster-age Chicago in the 1920s, offering a score by Paul Williams and starring an unknown Scott Baio and Jodie Foster among others (plus a brilliant cameo performance by British theater veteran Bonnie Langford). There has never been a film like it before or since, and probably never will. And no one can ever forget Foster's brilliant turn as Tallulah, either when singing her nightclub solo at Fat Sam's Speakeasy or barking such commands as "Hey, Fizzy! Would ya cut the ivories and hit the shoe leather?"
23. Yentl (1983)
By the early 1980s, it was clear that Barbra Streisand was very much her own force of nature; she needed no help from anyone whether performing in a rare concert appearance, acting on screen, writing a song or directing a film. But with Yentl, she was in full flood. Backed by the supporting turns of Mandy Patinkin (in an unfortunate non-singing role) and Amy Irving among others, she created a musical masterpiece adapted from the Isaac Bashevis Singer story, played originally and to tremendous acclaim by Tovah Feldshuh off-Broadway in New York. And Michel Legrand's impeccable score wasn't exactly a slouch, beautifully offsetting the screenplay by Streisand and Jack Rosenthal.