Ok, so how do we know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants to star in a musical badly? Cause when he was in the pitch meeting with Lorne Michaels and the Saturday Night Live writing staff you can bet your bottom dollar that doing the number “Make ‘Em Laugh” from the musical “Singin’ in the Rain” — which is what he pulled off this weekend during his SNL intro quite amazingly— was not at the top of the list of their funny monologue introduction ideas. For one, it wasn’t even funny really, nor was it meant to be for the most part, but it was very impressive.
As he says in his monologue before his wicked singing and dancing, Gordon-Levitt did a musical sequence in Marc Webb’s “500 Days Of Summer” set to Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True” (which you can see below) and he loooved doing it. Let’s not forget that he also danced off a storm in the Marc Webb directed music video/short film for Zooey Deschanel’s song “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”
The SNL intro practically feels like an audition or a calling card to show off his stuff. Either way, Hollywood take note (or Marc Webb who might be doing a “Jesus Christ Superstar” musical remake), Gordon Levitt can not only sing and dance, he can pull off crazy back flips with the greatest of ease, has excellent timing and does a pratfall like a mutherf’er. He’s a bit too ingratiating in the clip, but man, we were wowed and awed by his skills in the SNL opening. Someone give this kid a shot (Soderbergh we’re looking at you if you have any supporting male roles in “Cleo” that fit the bill). You have to take a look.
Here’s the original version from “Singin’ in the Rain” which starts around the :52 mark
