Mister Matt said: "The fact is, once you get beyond paying the $30,000 price tag, you have to push and sell yourself to get in there. IMO it’s a total ego-driven thing. Furthermore, I have read that to be considered you also have to have some fame that has endured for at least 5 years. He barely, if at all, meets that criteria. I know there was In the Heights, but that was not what made him a household name.
It's the same for everyone who has a star on the Walk of Fame, who all have to be nominated, have the star paid for, and be considered. Do you honestly consider every name on this list to be a "household name"? At any rate, nobody receives a star as an award. They pay $ and apply for it. This is nothing new.
But then again, he also received the Kennedy Center Honors, for what amounted to one body of work.
Unfortunately that alone proved these honors are really nothing more than popularity contests with a lot of self-promotion behind them.
He was one of four receiving the same honor for the same work as a group. So, now you reduce every single recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor to a popularity contest and self-promotion because of this one? That's...odd.
Also, I hate how people act like it's "Groundbreaking LGBT+ representation" because...1 character is bisexual, and another one wore a pride pin.
Are people really acting like that? I assume they've never seen A Chorus Line or La Cage or Falsettos or Rent or Kinky Boots? Or they simply have little-to-noknowledge of musical theatre in general? There's really nothing groundbreaking about Be More Chill at all.
And did he really create the two most notable musicals of the 21st century? Did hereally?
He created two of the most notable musicals of the 21st century. That much is true.
Fair enough Hamilton is this generation's musical juggernaut like RENT, Phantom, Les Mis was before us butI'd never heard of In The Heights, nor LMM, before discovering Bring It On and neither had a lot of my very nerdy theatre friends.
Just because you and your friends weren't paying attention doesn't reduce the importance behind In the Heights and its impact on American musical theatre and the American Latino community (immigrant and non). While it wasn't the juggernaut of Hamilton (few shows have been), the fact that a small off-Broadway Latino-centric musical with no stars attached prominently featuring hip-hop musicand an almost entirely sung-through score would go on to be a hit on Broadway, win 5 Tonys (including Best Musical) and be a Pulitzer nominee wasn't something that had ever happened before. That's the very definition of "notable". Maybe if you'd had heard of it at the time and why it was an important event, you would feel differently. Personally, I think it's a stunning and joyous work, but that's irrelevant when it comes to what makes it a notable work."
About the BMC thing, your right about the average theatergoer knowing about other representation, but a lot of younger BMC "stans" think it's gods gift to Broadway and that it "opened new doors" and crap like that. If you like it fine, it's just nothing special.