Ah Whit. You've just listed a WHOLE BUNCH of reasons why I HATE "these entertainment types."Well, mg...
I'm sorry, but there's just something disturbing to me about seeing the word HATE (in huge letters) attached to the names of magnificient composers, writers, choreographers, and others, who (despite the admittedly garagantuan egos of all artists) strove to create something postive for the world and to enrichen all our lives. To put that word next to names like Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents (West Side Story), Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Bert Brecht, George Gershwin, Michael Bennett, Jerome Kern, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ("Fiddler"), Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, the creators of
Wizard of Oz, and Walt Disney(???), just makes me shudder. Sounds almost Hitlerian, really. Granted, there's always a financial motive as well, mostly for the producers...but, it's not like they're selling
weapons, you know?
You're entitled to dislike
West Side Story, but it is certainly not
crap...and, for me, to enter into a discussion on this point is just too ridiculous a notion to bother.
From all my experience in the theatre (and I was one of those "triple threats"), there is nothing more damaging to a
musical production than to cast, especially as a lead, one of these head-strong actors who think they can fake their way through the singing and dancing on the strength of their
acting alone.
A good actor can always put over a song (see Rex Harrison in
My Fair Lady for the definitive study in the fine art of "talk-singing", but how many Rex Harrison's are there?)...however, more often than not, these music-less actors don't have the range to pull it off, and instead weigh the production down by just mouthing the score and lumbering through the dance numbers with the grace of a dinosaur. On the other hand,
good singers, are usally good actors, having the depth and range of emotion they bring to their songs, and also to the
lyrical intepretation involved therein. Rarely have I seen a good singer turn in a bad performance as an actor. So as far as a
musical production is concerned, I'll take a strong singer to a "rapping" actor any day...it is, after all, the
musical theatre.
I certainly hope you can qualify your "lofty" criticism from more theatrical experience than sitting in a booth selling tickets. It's certainly difficult for me to fathom how you can claim to be a "theatre lover" after your rendering of the above remarks.
(And do you
really think
The Wizard of Oz should have never been made in lieu of preserving the "integrity" of a short children's story?)
And, ending on a brighter note, I do see some commendable salvation for you in your laudet of
Guys and Dolls.
