EnchantedHunter,
There are plenty of "entertainments with IDEAS in their heads" on Broadway today and recently. Musical theatre pieces such as Rent, Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens, Caroline or Change, Light in the Piazza, and Parade all fit into this category of serious musical plays that you seem to think exist only in the past. Looking back with rose- colored glasses, much? And back when your generation was 9, as you say, weren't there also witty and vibrant musical comedies? Shows such as Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Little Me, Sweet Charity, Mame, Promises Promises... they have evolved into our modern- day musical comedy: shows like Spelling Bee, Legally Blonde, Curtains, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels... One may prefer a different decade of musical theatre, but it's absurd to declare that ALL of Broadway is "theme park schlock". Your generation had its condescended- toward tourist attractions (Oh Calcutta) just as this generation has theirs (Mamma Mia). Your generation had absurd flops (Kelly, Breakfast at Tiffany's), just as this generation has theirs (In My Life, Lestat). There are plenty of musicals on Broadway that don't ask you to leave your brain at the door... both musical plays and musical comedies. Drowsy Chaperone is smart and funny with a truthful emotional core, and no name recognition, and it has had a very successful theatrical life. Broadway is not synonymous only with theme park shows. It takes all types of theatre to make up a season, and the commercial nature of Broadway has always been there. Hello- wasn't David Merrick playing on name recognition for the movie- to- musical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's? And The Music Man, a fine American musical, may have put ideas in your head, but it did so through musical comedy tradition, a tradition continued by worthy recent shows like The Full Monty, Urinetown, Hairspray, Avenue Q...
Weak argument. Weak. Contemporary theatre is alive and well.
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.