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50 free Movie Musical trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Movie musical trivia questions with answers. Movie musicals go back to the first feature with synchronized singing, and this quiz covers the whole run of them. Forty-two questions take in The Jazz Singer, The Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain, the Oscar-sweeping 1960s of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Fiddler, Grease and Rocky Horror, then Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia!, Les Misérables, La La Land, The Greatest Showman and Wicked. Expect questions about who really sang the songs (Marni Nixon gets her due), which stars turned down which parts, the film that held the box-office crown for five years, the only Best Actress tie in Oscar history and the longest theatrical run in film history. Easy ones ask who plays Danny Zuko; the hard ones want the year Gigi swept nine for nine. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the films, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01Which 1927 film was the first feature with synchronized music and lip-synced speech?
The Jazz Singer
Al Jolson performed six songs and the silent era was effectively over.
Q 02Which 1929 musical, advertised as 'All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing', won Best Picture?
The Broadway Melody
Its show-biz plot has two sisters competing for the same song-and-dance man.
Q 03Which song from The Wizard of Oz won the Oscar for Best Original Song?
Over the Rainbow
Judy Garland also received an Academy Juvenile Award, but the film lost money until its 1949 re-release.
Q 04Which actor was originally cast as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz before being replaced by Jack Haley?
Buddy Ebsen
He recorded all his songs and started filming before the aluminum makeup put him in hospital.
Q 05The 1952 Gene Kelly classic set in Hollywood is about performers caught up in which change?
The switch from silents to talkies
The plot was built around Arthur Freed's back catalogue of songs, many written during that very transition.
Q 06Who co-directed and choreographed the 1952 film where Gene Kelly splashes through puddles?
Stanley Donen
Debbie Reynolds' singing on 'Would You' was actually dubbed by Betty Noyes, in a film about dubbing.
Q 07Which film topped the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie musicals?
Singin' in the Rain
It was only a modest hit on release in 1952.
Q 08An American in Paris ends with a dialogue-free ballet set to Gershwin lasting how long?
17 minutes
Gene Kelly choreographed it opposite Leslie Caron in her film debut.
Q 09Which 1958 musical won all nine of its Oscar nominations, including Best Picture?
Gigi
The clean-sweep record stood until The Return of the King went eleven for eleven in 2004.
Q 10How many Academy Awards did the 1961 West Side Story win, a record for a musical?
Ten
It was nominated for eleven, and co-director Jerome Robbins got a special award on top.
Q 11In West Side Story, the Jets fight which rival gang?
The Sharks
Riff leads the Jets and Bernardo, played by George Chakiris, leads the Puerto Rican gang.
Q 12Who provided Natalie Wood's singing voice as Maria in West Side Story?
Marni Nixon
The same ghost singer dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Deborah Kerr in The King and I.
Q 13Who played Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 film of My Fair Lady, replacing the stage star Julie Andrews?
Audrey Hepburn
Andrews won that year's Best Actress Oscar anyway, for Mary Poppins.
Q 21Cabaret (1972) holds the record for most Oscars won without Best Picture. How many?
Eight
Bob Fosse beat Francis Ford Coppola for Best Director, but The Godfather took Best Picture.
Q 22In Cabaret, which is the only musical number not performed inside the Kit Kat Klub?
Tomorrow Belongs to Me
It is sung by a Nazi youth and a German crowd in a beer garden.
Q 23The Rocky Horror Picture Show, history's longest theatrical release, became a hit as what?
A midnight movie
Audiences at New York's Waverly Theater started talking back to the screen in 1976.
Q 14Mary Poppins was Julie Andrews' feature film debut. How many Oscars did the film win?
Five
Its thirteen nominations remain a record for any Walt Disney Studios film.
Q 15Which songwriting duo, siblings under contract to Disney, wrote the songs for Mary Poppins?
The Sherman Brothers
The film was shot entirely at Disney's Burbank studio, with London painted on backdrops.
Q 16The Sound of Music became the highest-grossing film in history in 1966, overtaking which movie?
Gone with the Wind
It held the crown for five years and broke box-office records in 29 countries.
Q 17In which city is The Sound of Music set?
Salzburg
Filming took place there and in Los Angeles between March and September 1964.
Q 18Oliver! won Best Picture in 1968. Which was the next musical to win, 34 years later?
Chicago
Rob Marshall's film took six Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Q 19Funny Girl produced the only tie in Oscar history for Best Actress. Barbra Streisand shared it with whom?
Katharine Hepburn
Streisand was reprising her Broadway role as Fanny Brice in her film debut.
Q 20Fiddler on the Roof (1971) follows Tevye, a poor Jewish man in what trade?
Milkman
He has five daughters to marry off, and the film was the highest grosser of 1971.
Q 24Who wrote The Rocky Horror Show and plays Riff Raff in the film?
Richard O'Brien
Tim Curry made his film debut as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Q 25Who plays Danny Zuko in Grease?
John Travolta
Henry Winkler turned the part down for fear of being typecast as a greaser after Happy Days.
Q 26How old was Olivia Newton-John when she worried she was too old to play high-schooler Sandy in Grease?
28
Producer Allan Carr had also considered Carrie Fisher, Ann-Margret and Marie Osmond.
Q 27Grease was 1978's second-best-selling US album, behind the soundtrack of which 1977 film?
Saturday Night Fever
Grease was the highest-grossing film of 1978 and the highest-grossing musical ever at the time.
Q 28Which film began the Disney Renaissance and won Oscars for Best Score and Best Song?
The Little Mermaid
'Under the Sea' took the song prize, and the villain Ursula was modelled on the drag performer Divine.
Q 29Evita won the Oscar for Best Original Song with which number written specially for the film?
You Must Love Me
Madonna also won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
Q 30Moulin Rouge! is the third and final entry in which Baz Luhrmann series?
The Red Curtain Trilogy
It followed Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet, and won Oscars for production and costume design.