Hair (1979)

Music and politics mix in this screen adaptation of the hit anti-Vietnam stage show from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest director Milos Forman. Claude (John Savage) is a soldier on his way to 'Nam, who falls in with a bunch of NY hippies, whose opposition to America's involvement in the war provides the inspiration for a bunch of classic tunes and often moving drama. Particularly notable for its "horse ballet" by mounted police in Central Park, its LSD trip fantasy sequence and, of course, the nudity.

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Half A Sixpence (1967)

Loosely based on an HG Wells story, this ebullient musical is set in Edwardian England and stars Tommy Steele as Arthur Kipps, an orphan working for a cruel boss whose life is turned upside down when his grandfather dies and leaves him a fortune. Kipps loses the fortune almost as soon as he gets his hands on it (and almost loses the love of a good woman to boot!) but ends the film a more decent man for it.

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Hedwig And The Angry Inch (2001)

Fans of 70s rock icons like David Bowie and Iggy Pop will get a sparkly-spandexed kick out of this eccentric musical comedy drama, the big screen adaptation of an exuberantly camp off-Broadway musical about a transsexual wannabe rock singer named Hedwig. Writer/director John Cameron Mitchell takes the lead role, camping it up big style with 70s music, bouffant hair, lashings of eyeshadow and a smattering of sharp one-liners. It's not all absurd exuberance though. There's a great deal of pathos in this tale of grim ambition and gender identity.

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Hello Dolly (1969)

Big-screen, big-budget adaptation of the Broadway hit, which caused a big rift between its big stars, Walter Matthau and Barbra Streisand. Although only appearing in her second film, Streisand's now legendary diva behaviour was already taking root and Matthau is said to have found her antics and attitudes unbearable. She's certainly showboating on screen as determined widow matchmaker Dolly Levi, sorting out the love life of 'unmarried half-a-millionaire' Matthau, along with her own in the process, her domination of the film tempered only by the vibrant colours of Gene Kelly's direction.

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