The central question here is whether “redemption” is possible, as a straight, huwhite, Christian (in this case, American), working class male…
It seems that in current era, leftists would argue that it is not, even in fiction, and even in death, as with the main character of this musical…
That’s a scary thought, when you consider this shit is effectively semi-official “state ideology” now…
Backed up also by all the “right-thinking” reviews of, and comments on, recent productions of this musical, including of course on fucking Reddit… 🤦🏻♂️
Hah, good post. I was thinking about this recently. I'm a fan of some musicals (including Gilbert & Sullivan), and I saw recently that Phantom of the Opera, one of the most popular musicals of all time, just closed on Broadway.
Phantom was the longest running show in Broadway history. 1988 to 2023. Tens of thousands of showings.
(It's slightly amusing that the last Christine was played a black actress for the first and only time -- this was a big deal with much crowing in the media, etc. And then Phantom closed after less than a year with this Christine. Did black Christine kill the Phantom??)
Anyway, it got me thinking about how many older musicals were about love stories and about normal people and understandable themes. They were not made to appeal to the uppercrust, but to popular forms of entertainment.
Andrew Lloyd Weber made two musicals about Bible stories. Would that happen today without being a harsh commentary on the stories?
Grease...Music Man...so much of Rodgers & Hammerstein WAS working class, popular, understandable plot lines, and story that don't only appeal to upperclass aging cat moms.
Today? I don't know wtf is going on. Looking at the shows on Broadway, they seem to be largely weird as fuck shit, musicals based on nostalgia TV shows, and old musicals going through a revival.
Cultural rot and lack of creativity is everywhere.
Completely agreed. Don’t go on the Broadway sub, or indeed any Broadway-related media, though…
It’s just depressing at this point. They’re fully brainwashed… 😑
Ngl, when I first saw a local production of Urinetown a few years ago (one of these new musicals you speak of), I was like, “So that’s where musicals are at now?”
It was bad…
We have an oddly successful original “chamber opera” scene, here, though, so weirdly, that seems to be where the creativity is, here, now, at least locally…
Of varying and dubious quality, but nonetheless, lol!
But yeah, we’ve “come a long way” from working-class, accessible stories about normal people (I forgot South Pacific, too), to $300+ tickets to shitty musicals about wizards and Disney characters, that most people have to say up six months to see, lol…
Oh and Hamilton, which is… Even worse.
As you say, it’s bizaree how captured this “art form” has become. 😑
The central question here is whether “redemption” is possible, as a straight, huwhite, Christian (in this case, American), working class male…
It seems that in current era, leftists would argue that it is not, even in fiction, and even in death, as with the main character of this musical…
That’s a scary thought, when you consider this shit is effectively semi-official “state ideology” now…
Backed up also by all the “right-thinking” reviews of, and comments on, recent productions of this musical, including of course on fucking Reddit… 🤦🏻♂️
Hah, good post. I was thinking about this recently. I'm a fan of some musicals (including Gilbert & Sullivan), and I saw recently that Phantom of the Opera, one of the most popular musicals of all time, just closed on Broadway.
Phantom was the longest running show in Broadway history. 1988 to 2023. Tens of thousands of showings.
(It's slightly amusing that the last Christine was played a black actress for the first and only time -- this was a big deal with much crowing in the media, etc. And then Phantom closed after less than a year with this Christine. Did black Christine kill the Phantom??)
Anyway, it got me thinking about how many older musicals were about love stories and about normal people and understandable themes. They were not made to appeal to the uppercrust, but to popular forms of entertainment.
Andrew Lloyd Weber made two musicals about Bible stories. Would that happen today without being a harsh commentary on the stories?
Grease...Music Man...so much of Rodgers & Hammerstein WAS working class, popular, understandable plot lines, and story that don't only appeal to upperclass aging cat moms.
Today? I don't know wtf is going on. Looking at the shows on Broadway, they seem to be largely weird as fuck shit, musicals based on nostalgia TV shows, and old musicals going through a revival.
Cultural rot and lack of creativity is everywhere.
Completely agreed. Don’t go on the Broadway sub, or indeed any Broadway-related media, though…
It’s just depressing at this point. They’re fully brainwashed… 😑
Ngl, when I first saw a local production of Urinetown a few years ago (one of these new musicals you speak of), I was like, “So that’s where musicals are at now?”
It was bad…
We have an oddly successful original “chamber opera” scene, here, though, so weirdly, that seems to be where the creativity is, here, now, at least locally…
Of varying and dubious quality, but nonetheless, lol!
But yeah, we’ve “come a long way” from working-class, accessible stories about normal people (I forgot South Pacific, too), to $300+ tickets to shitty musicals about wizards and Disney characters, that most people have to say up six months to see, lol…
Oh and Hamilton, which is… Even worse.
As you say, it’s bizaree how captured this “art form” has become. 😑
That suck. I’ll check it out. Their songs are so common I knew some without realizing
You know “You’ll Never Walk Alone” because it’s Liverpool’s song!
I would be almost 100% certain you’ve heard that one. 😁
Also possibly “Old Man River” (Showboat) and “Tit Willow” from the Mikado…
Pirates of Penzance is classic, but I don’t like that one as much, lol…
But yeah, you’ll almost certainly know some of the music, even if not where from! 😁
Some of it is pretty lame, but there’s some gems in there, too.
Carousel is the darkest of all of these. By… Some margin. Hence its “cancelling”, coz yeah, it sure ain’t woke…
By today’s standards, anyway. I don’t think it would have been viewed as particularly “backward” in the 1940s, but today..? Yeah…
I’ve heard those. I have Old Man River by various artists. Also aware of The King and I
I realised after I wrote this that Pirates and the Mikado are both Gilbert & Sullivan… 🤦🏻♂️ Show Boat is Hammerstein, but not Rodgers…
But yeah, Oklahoma!, the King and I as you mention, South Pacific, Allegro, The Sound of Music - there’s a whole bunch of them.
Oddly I got the era and country completely wrong for the Gilbert & Sullivan ones, lol…
They’re good, too, but they’re like half a century older, so they’re less… Relevant, I guess. And a bit less “serious”, I would say, too. 🤷🏻♂️
Being from Oklahoma we sang the main song from that musical at school a lot. I have some recordings of Robeson singing Old Man River. Very good