Yellow brick road to righteousness

Road to righteousness?

More people gain their philosophy of life and spiritual values through musicals than by going to church, says a new book. So what life lessons can musicals teach us?

When Maria taught Do-Re-Mi to the Von Trapp brood in the Sound of Music it was more than just a catchy tune to teach them their scales, it was a song about belief in yourself.

It is these underlying messages that have prompted a call for show tunes to replace traditional hymns in an attempt to get more people back into churches.

Musicals now form a more common means for people to gain their philosophy of life than attending church, says the Reverend Ian Bradley, author of You've Got To Have A Dream.

Churches have a great deal to learn from the way musicals connect so powerfully with so many people, he argues and admits to singing songs from The Sound of Music in his own sermons.

But just what lessons in life can musicals teach us?

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

The odds were stacked against her, but little orphan Annie's belief in herself was rewarded with a life of luxury.

It's a hard-knock life

As in all good musicals, the little flame-haired fighter's journey to a better life was not easy and her battles were many.

Firstly, there was drunken orphanage owner Ms Hannigan to deal with, hounding Annie on a daily basis and making her scrub floors. Then she had to win over her stony-hearted benefactor, multi-millionaire Oliver Warbucks.

But Annie was not the sort of girl to let a bit of exploitation or sexism get in the way of her dream.

STICK BY YOUR FRIENDS

They might not be the crack reconnaissance team you would hope for if stuck in an unknown land, but Dorothy sticks by the cowardly lion, brainless Scarecrow and Tin Man without a heart in the Wizard of Oz.

Would you trust this lot?

The motley crew veer from one mishap to another and face numerous dangers from deadly poppy fields to fighting trees.

But they stick together through out and somehow thwart the Wicked Witch of the West and reach the City of Oz.

Their loyalty is eventually rewarded with a way home (as well as particularly fetching pair of ruby slippers), courage, a brain and a heart.

MAKE THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE

That means everything - even down to the soft furnishings in your employer's home.

Now, what can I make with the tablecloth?

If Maria in the Sound of Music hadn't thought of recycling the expensive brocade curtains hanging in the family mansion, what would the Von Trapp children have worn when playing?

To rid them of the starched uniforms their strict father dresses them in, she pulls down the curtains and runs up some rather fetching new outfits.

The clothes don't only provide gear in which to romp around the Austrian countryside, but also the freedom to be themselves for the first time.

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

And that includes a wife. It might not be the conventional way to woo a woman, but the Pontipee brothers kidnap their chosen ladies in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Happy families

They take the bevy of beauties to their remote farm and seal off the only route through to them by causing an avalanche, so their pursuers cannot reach them until the following spring.

The move doesn't go down too well initially, with the brothers banished to their barn for the winter while the women stay in the house.

But by the time spring arrives the ladies' hearts have melted along with the snow and the mother-of-all wedding is on the cards.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

In Paint Your Wagon this sentiment extends to sharing a wife for gold prospectors Pardner and Ben Rumson.

Don't be selfish - even with your wife

The pair form a lasting bond when Ben saves Pardner from a dramatic stagecoach crash, but their friendship is threatened by the arrival of a woman.

Ben buys his wife Elizabeth from a Mormon but both men fall for her and she is unable to chose between them.

Having come from a polygamous marriage, she demands equal rights for her gender and chooses to live with both men. How generous can you get.

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF

When penniless draper's assistant Arthur Kipps inherits a fortune in Half A Sixpence, it goes to his head.

Money can do strange things to a man

He starts splashing money around and ditches his old life for a flash new one, attracting a bunch of gold-diggers along the way.

On the verge of marrying a snobbish socialite who doesn't care for him, he comes to his senses and breaks off the engagement to marry his childhood sweetheart.

In the end he loses all his money but ends up with a much richer life with people who love him for who he is and not what he's got.