Stew Bashes Musical Theatre

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 5:54pm

Per Michael Dale's Blog here on BWW. 7 Broadway composers were interviewed by Opera News about the differences between Musical Theatre and Opera News.


Opera News: What's the main difference between musicals and opera?

Stew: The ticket price? The jewelry? I think it's confidence — musicals lack the confidence that operas have in music's ability to get the job done alone and tell the story.


Click below for Michael Dale's response:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/showtime/

[NGD2225]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:18pm

Stew can shove that jewelery up his T-rex ass.

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:22pm

I hate Stew. I've always hated him.

Maybe Heidi rammed his Tony up his ass (they like the kinky stuff) and it got stuck...

[NGD2225]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:24pm

I actually liked him on the TONYS I thought he was funny & someone I would like to hang out with. That was until I heard all his **** flying out of the mouth. I'm better than you, classic theatre sucks, you need my show. What a pompous jackass.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:27pm

I sort of agree. Especially in movie musicals. There is often times a lack of "confidence" in the source material that leads to bizarre and arbitrary cuts that were often times, on stage, entrusted to the music. Opera almost always keeps its faith in the music to provide the emotional needs of the story being told.

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:28pm

oh jesus. his comment was on the music, many people have said that the power of opera music is such that you don't even have to read the lyrics to get the emotion the power. This is certainly not always true about musical theatre, where the songs and music work together. But as for the music in opera, it is certainly THE most important aspect of the work and the "confidence" (weird word choice, but whatever) of the music certainly can stand alone and do a lot more emotionally than typical show music. not that there aren't exceptions (ie: most of the greatest musicals written) but the majority of musicals rely on the words and music to work together towards a common emotional goal, where in opera it is different. the music has more "confidence".

[Weez]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 6:35pm

People are still listening to what Stew has to say? After he's proven that he's just SOOOOO knowledgeable about musical theatre? LOL to that!

[stupidbeans]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 7:02pm

he thinks he is hte most revolutionary thing to happen to broadway but he is not

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 7:29pm

I don't like Stew, either, but I actually agree. I've often said that the difference between musical theatre and opera is that, in opera, the music does the storytelling by itself, and musical theatre it's more up to the performance of the actor and the music really just assists.

People will disagree, of course.

[Weez]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 7:41pm

As far as I can tell, the difference between MT and opera, apart from the musical style, is that opera is about the musical side whereas MT is about the theatre side. Opera has surtitles because the singer is making more with the music, whereas your enunciation is absolutely KEY in MT because people have to understand you straight-off.

Stew is still a d*** though. He strikes me as one of these people who often makes good points, but sortof happens upon them accidentally rather than through any prolonged study.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 7:59pm

That's a very good way of phrasing it, Weez. I've heard it said that way before.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 9:39pm

I understand where some of you think Stew is coming from, but I read it differently. I believe that he is saying that music (meaning notes and words together) are not enough to tell the story, that they are just thrown in there, interrupt the show, and then stop to let the action continue. Maybe I read it completely wrong, but knowing Stew and his pompous attitude I highly doubt it.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 9:44pm

Passing Strange probably is the smartest show of all time, but Stew's ignorance is discouraging. It's just a lack of exposure to good musical theatre--his comments have often been true of a lot of shows, but there's so much he's missing.

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 9:56pm

Wait- the smartest show of all time? Are you HIGH?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:08pm

It is called sour grapes. He lost the Tony he thought he should have gotten & this is the result.

I thought PS was OK but not the great musical everyone thought it to be. Hell, if I do not get a CD of the score I really did not think that much of it.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:15pm

jacobtsf: Ahh, yeah, I can see him meaning that. Wouldn't surprise me, either.

I very much dislike PS's score and I like rock. I just think it's very bland.

I always feel that if you hate musicals, why write one?

Updated On: 9/7/08 at 10:15 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:18pm

Mr. Roxy, Stew has been criticizing what he perceives to be typical musical theatre from the start, though at least he often says that he really isn't someone who knows a lot about it. His attitude is actually extremely typical of artistic people who aren't really familiar with MT.

And no, I'm not high, I've never gotten so much out of a show.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:27pm

I thought PS was OK but not the great musical everyone thought it to be. Hell, if I do not get a CD of the score I really did not think that much of it.

But you do buy the Wildhorn CDs?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:29pm

I enjoy his music. You do not. It is what it is

I did not care for PS . You did . Case closed

To Scary. I did not intimate you were high. You loved the show. I liked it but did not adore or idolize it. To each his own.

Updated On: 9/7/08 at 10:29 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:36pm

Oh, in that part, I was responding to SirNotAppealing

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:36pm

Oh, Scaryotypes - - - - Unite!! Ha ha! Same old, same old (thread)...like Stew cares. Not.
Don't bother responding to this tired old "argument".

[little_sally]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:36pm

I don't care what the man has to say anymore. I thought Passing Strange was fantastic, and that's all that matters.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:40pm

Stew is OBVIOUSLY just referring to BKLYN: The Musical!

[scaryclowns223]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:41pm

I actually get where he's coming from. I think he's not so much insulting musical theatre as he is just poorly phrasing the difference.

I would absolutely agree that the difference between musical theatre and opera is that musical theatre acknowledges the fact that music alone cannot tell the story and therefore uses it to enhance an already existing story, and tells the story using lyrics and acting. Opera, on the other hand, tries to strive to make the music the ONLY thing that matters. In the end, I think this was just poor phrasing on Stew's part.

[NGD2225]

Posted: 9/7/08 at 10:43pm