Which Musicals Won Top Honors?

Only 10 movie musicals have ever won Best Picture at the Oscars out of the 32 that have been nominated. “La La Land” is aiming to be the 11th to win and the first in 58 years (“Gigi,” 1958) not to be an adaptation of a Broadway musical.

“La La Land” is set in the 21st century world of Hollywood show-business and tells the story of an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) who falls in love with a struggling jazz musician (Ryan Gosling), but while it’s set in the present day its writer-director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz were inspired by some of the most classic musicals in cinema history, including “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964), neither of which were even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, shockingly enough.

Can “La La Land” succeed where those films didn’t to join this elite company of 10? It would be the first musical to win the Best Picture Oscar in 14 years and only the second in nearly half a century. Click through the gallery above to check out the 10 musicals on the list and the other awards they picked up on Oscar Night.

Text by Amanda Spears

‘Chicago’ (2002)

An adaptation of the Broadway show: when Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Heart (Renee Zellweger) find themselves on death row they find a new way to make headlines with the help of their attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Geere).

Won: Supporting Actress (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Editing (Martin Walsh), Costume Design (Colleen Atwood), Art Direction (John Myhre and Gordon Sim), Sound (Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella and David Lee)

Nominated for: Director (Rob Marshall), Adapted Screenplay (Bill Condon), Actress (Renee Zellweger), Supporting Actress (Queen Latifah), Supporting Actor (John C. Reilly), Cinematography (Dion Beebe), Original Song (“I Move On” by John Kander and Fred Ebb).

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Gangs of New York,” “The Hours,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “The Pianist”

‘Oliver!’ (1968)

An adaptation of a Broadway musical based on the classic orphan tale by Charles Dickens.

Won: Director (Carol Reed), Art Direction (John Box, Terence Marsh, Vernon Dixon and Ken Muggleston), Sound (Shepperton Studio Sound Department), Musical Picture Score (John Green), Honorary Award (Onna White for choreography)

Nomniated for: Adapted Screenplay (Vernon Harris), Actor (Ron Moody), Supporting Actor (Jack Wild), Film Editing (Ralph Kemplen), Cinematography (Oswald Morris), Costume Design (Phyllis Dalton)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Funny Girl,” “The Lion in Winter,” “Rachel, Rachel” and “Romeo and Juliet”

‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)

An adaptation of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about a nun who leaves a convent to become a governess in the early days of WWII in Austria. One of three films ever to win Best Picture without a Screenplay nomination; the others were “Hamlet” in 1948 and and “Titanic” 1997.

Won: Director (Robert Wise), Film Editing (William Reynolds), Sound (20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department), Music (Irwin Kostal)

Nomniated for: Actress (Julie Andrews), Supporting Actress (Peggy Wood), Color Cinematography (Ted McCord), Color Art Direction (Boris Leven, Walter M. Scott and Ruby Levitt), Color Costume Design (Dorothy Jeakins)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Darling,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “Ship of Fools” and “A Thousand Clowns”

‘My Fair Lady’ (1964)

Adapted from the Broadway musical, which itself was based on the play “Pygmalion” about two professors who try and remake a poor girl into a proper lady.

Won: Director (George Cukor), Actor (Rex Harrison), Color Cinematography (Harry Stradling), Color Art Direction (Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins), Color Costume Design (Cecil Beaton), Sound (George R. Groves), Music (Andre Previn)

Nomniated for: Adapted Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Supporting Actor (Stanley Holloway), Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper), Editing (William Ziegler).

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Becket,” “Dr. Strangelove,” “Marry Poppins” and “Zorba the Greek”

‘West Side Story’ (1961)

An adaptation of the Sondheim musical, a re-telling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” set in New York.

Won: Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins), Supporting Actor (George Chakiris), Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno), Color Cinematography (Daniel L. Fapp), Editing (Thomas Stanford), Color Art Direction (Boris Leven and Victor A. Gangelin), Color Costume Design (Irene Sharaff), Sound (Todd-AO Sound Department and Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department), Score (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal)

Nominated for: Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Fanny,” “The Guns of Navarone,” “The Hustler” and “Judgement at Nuremberg”

‘Gigi’ (1958)

An original musical set in Parisian society that tells a love story between a courtesan and a playboy.

Won: Director (Vincente Minnelli), Adapted Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Editing (Adrienne Fazan), Color Cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg), Art Direction (William A. Horning, Preston Ames, Henry Grace and Keogh Gleason), Costume Design (Cecil Beaton), Score (Andre Previn), Original Song (“Gigi” by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner).

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Auntie Mame,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Defiant Ones” and “Separate Tables”

‘An American in Paris’ (1951)

This original musical tells the tale of a love triangle between friends living in Paris.

Won: Story and Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Color Cinematography (Alfred Gilks, John Alton), Color Art Direction (Cedric Gibbons, Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and Keogh Gleason), Color Costume Design (Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff), Score (Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin)

Nominated for: Director (Vincente Minnelli), Editing (Adrienne Fazan)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Decision before Dawn,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Quo Vadis” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”

‘Going My Way’ (1944)

An original musical about a young priest who takes over a parish and tries to use his life experience to reach out to a group of kids.

Won: Director (Leo McCarey), Original Story (Leo McCarey), Screenplay (Frank Butler and Frank Cavett), Actor (Bing Crosby), Supporting Actor (Barry Fitzgerald), Original Song (“Swinging On A Star” by James Van Heusen and Johnny Burke)

Nominated for: Editing (Leroy Stone), Black and White Cinematography (Lionel Lindon), Actor (Barry Fitgerald)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Double Indemnity,” “Gaslight,” “Since You Went Away” and “Wilson”

‘The Great Ziegfeld’ (1936)

An original musical telling the real-life story of famed producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.

Won: Actress (Luise Rainer), Dance Direction (“A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” by Seymour Felix)

Nominated for: Director (Robert Z. Leonard), Original Story (William Anthony McGuire), Editing (William S. Gray), Art Direction (Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Anthony Advers,” “Dodsworth,” “Libeled Lady,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “San Francisco,” “The Story of Louis Pasteur,” “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Three Smart Girls”

‘The Broadway Melody of 1929’ (1929)

An original musical: two sisters set out to make it on Broadway, but matters of the heart might get in the way. First sound film to win Best Picture.

Nominated for: Director (Harry Beaumont), Actress (Bessie Love)

Also Nominated for Best Picture: “Alibi,” “In Old Arizona,” “Hollywood Revue” and “The Patriot”

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