Archive of the NY Times article: https://archive.ph/ujlBn

I'm an unashamed classic musical enjoyer. Hell, I've even see Cats (not the movie) and I didn't hate it.

I haven't seen a musical from probably the last ... 20ish years that I've thought was very much good. All the music sounds identical. I walk out of Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables or The King and I or, hell, even Spamalot, and I'm humming some of the tunes. I've heard several musicals recently where minutes after I couldn't hum a single tune or tell you a single lyric.

I also think that race quotas have led to some inferior casting and, when not inferior, some casting that just doesn't fit for the part. I saw the traveling cast of Les Miserables recently, and it was a pretty enjoyable show, but some characters--most notably Enjolras--were just really weak voices and acting for the part.

Take a movie musical like The Music Man. The lead male, Robert Preston, is not a mincing, effeminate Broadway actor. He has masculine energy. His type is rare to find today.

The music sucks. The writing sucks. The casting sucks. It's not rocket science.