The Current State of Broadway... — Page 2

Your 'conclusion' was essentially 'nuh uh.' But, rather than banter further I'll accept you have your position and I have mine and leave it at that.

But, even though I've never smoked pot in my life, I still prefer the moving storytelling and social relevance of the songs in a 3 and a half hour Springsteen concert to the flaccid plot servicing of a Sondheim show any day of the week.

I'm not sure I'm following your logic.

Good thing there's room for all of us in the world

You're right, my logic isn't clear because I misread your statment. I thought you meant you prefer a 3 minute Springsteen song over a 3 hour musical theatre piece. Then I couldn't delete the post so its not clear.

Don't be offended but what I really wanted to say after scanning your points in the thread is that as far as musical theatre is concerned you don't know what the heck you're talking about, in my humble opinion. So far, no one has yet to prove that a successful post-1960 popular songwriter can write a stage musical of any substance. Lets just ignore talent for a minute, their understanding of the craft simply doesn't exist.

Back to my point earlier in this thread that sub-standard education which has burgeoned in the last 20-25 years, with lessening focus on Western and Eastern classics in every media, breed people with very narrow frame of reference. No wonder the talents of the 21st century are for the most part simply lame. They have grown on a diet of television and pop/rock music. Even the rock songs today are crap compared to those of the 50s/60s and early 70s. LOL.

Yours for a better Broadway!

"Surely no one thought Jerry Herman or Charles Strouse were...relevant to the mainstream of society?" Are you nuts? They WERE the mainstream!! For heaven's sake, the song "Hello, Dolly!" was re-tooled for Lyndon Johnson's re-election campaign!! ("Hello, Lyndon, well, Hello, Lyndon, we're so proud that you're the man the country cheers....") Best get your facts straight.

John, I had decided against responding but MusicMan did it best. He makes the point, and it supports my point...you don't know what the heck you're talking about when it comes to the musical theatre, from what I've read so far.

But hey, there are thousands of topics I know little about, too. C'est la vie. LOL

Yours for a better Broadway!

Well, JohnPopa, the next time you're in my neighborhood, drop in and check out my ceiling-to-floor, eight-foot wide bookcase stocked with books, monographs, encyclopedias, histories, biographies, scholarly textbooks, yearbooks, and critiques devoted strictly to musical theater. Then, while you're picking your jaw up from the floor, open up the hallway door and scan the hundreds of titles I haven't gotten around to reading yet. After that, we'll stroll up to 125th Street and pore through the bin of musical-theatre material I've got in storage there. Then you're welcome to head downtown to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives and peruse their stacks---but you can do that on your own. Have fun!

You said it, precious.

(Though the "What musical theatre character would you like to share a prison cell with?" thread is amusing.)