But when Weill took refuge in London in early 1935, he turned it into a disastrously received one-act West End musical comedy called "A Kingdom for a Cow," the title referring to the plight of a young villager, Juan, whose only cow is confiscated by the government as payment of a new tax to support the war.
But unlike "Barbershop" or other recent comedies, like "Drumline" and "Kingdom Come," that find inspiration, comic and otherwise, in southern black life and culture, this movie feels phony and slick, as if it were cooked up by Darrin's cynical ad agency, rather than at his aunt's stove down in Montecarlo.
Quirky comedies Silver Linings Playbook and Moonrise Kingdom will lead the field at next year's Spirit Awards, having received five nominations each.
They're condemned by their unfortunate Bash Street teeth and junk in the trunk waddle to be the comedy figures of the animal kingdom.
In places where the Globes voters could have rewarded "Master," an art-house favorite, they chose more populist fare, like "Life of Pi," for best drama and director and "Moonrise Kingdom" for best comedy.
When the wimples start quivering, the pinched mouths break into sunbeam smiles, and the nuns start rocking to raise the Gothic rafters, all's right in the kingdom of musical comedy at "Sister Act".
When the wimples start quivering, the pinched mouths break into sunbeam smiles, and the nuns start rocking to raise the Gothic rafters, all's right in the kingdom of musical comedy at "Sister Act". Who could resist the vision of a stage full of saintly sisters flaring their gams in unison like the Rockettes, or swiveling their hips, Supremes style, to the silken beat of an R&B tune?
Mr. Berg, who explored heroism of a different stripe in his poignant high school football movie, "Friday Night Lights," and showed off terrific action chops in the underrated flick "The Kingdom," is not a comedy natural.
With director Alex Timbers and songwriter Michael Friedman on board, this version of the Bard's comedy relocates the action from the kingdom of Navarre to a modern-day resort populated by rowdy college graduates.
Yet while its structure echoes the kingdoms of "The Divine Comedy" (paradise is just around the corner), in its pacing "Notre Musique" also resembles the three-part structure of a Romantic symphony with its quick-slow-quick movements.
