I may finally be too old for a stocking, but there’s one holiday tradition I continue to love, and that’s the airing of classic musicals on television. For a long time now, I’ve been of the opinion that lesbians need to reclaim musicals from gay men — not least because there is such a plethora of gorgeous, talented women in film musical history.

While a list of all my favorite female performances would probably take all day, here in chronological order are ten that I’m hoping to see over the vacation:

1. Ginger Rogers in Shall We Dance (1937)

I love all the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire collaborations, so it’s hard to select just one.

But Shall We Dance has one of my favorite Ginger Rogers moments, as the camera dwells in close-up on her listening face as Fred Astaire sings "They Can’t Take That Away From Me." While the song is beautiful, it’s Ginger’s subtly despairing response that really strikes at the heart. (She would go on to win an Oscar for Best Actress, for the non-musical film Kitty Foyle, in 1940).

2. Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas (1954)

This very, very silly seasonal musical is mostly notable for the gay undertones brought by Danny Kaye’s performance (no, really — watch it again). … continue reading

Emmy Rossum has tried her hand at three kinds of opera (Metropolitan, soap and Phantom), as well as film and TV. So why not take on the pop world? Last month she released her first CD, Inside Out.

Though she is perhaps best known for her Golden Globe–nominated performance in the 2006 film version of The Phantom of the Opera, Rossum has been singing all her life. At the age of seven, she auditioned at the Metropolitan Opera. She went on to perform in 20 separate productions in six different languages at Lincoln Center, alongside icons such as Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Now just 21, she has had roles in big-budget Hollywood films, including Mystic River, The Day After Tomorrow and Poseidon. On her website, she notes that she prefers music to movies:

"In the movies, I've always felt like one piece of the puzzle. But this is all me. It's my baby. I get to write, direct and star. And that's the most fulfilling thing. It's everything I've always wanted to do. This music is so close to me. It's something new ... You can't categorize it." … continue reading