How Can Anyone Who Loves Music Enjoy Musicals

[MKunkel]

I just found this article and I thought it be an interesting topic of discussion.
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/david-sexton-how-can-anyone-who-loves-music-enjoy-musicals-8445520.html

[Dave19]

Singing a song is ALWAYS acting, telling a story.

So he does not like singing and music in general?

That's good, but a matter of taste.

[jasonf]

Sounds like a five year old whining "but I don't LIKE it, so why would ANYONE like it!" On top of that, it's condescending and superior - kind of disgusting, really.

I'd love to hear what he considers to be "good" music. I'll bet you I don't like some of it. Does that make me worse than him?

What an ass.

[Dave19]

I bet the music he likes is in some musical somewhere too.

[ratherbewhaling]

to quote laura benanti "When people vehemently hate musicals I wonder what horrible thing happened to them as children."


and he better not be a liverpool fan

[Outoftowner2]

Don't like musicals..then don't go to them. Don't like football, then don't go to the match. Don't like chicken, then don't eat it. Don't like coke, then don't drink it.
People who do like musicals aren't going to stop liking them because you don't approve. I do wish there was a way to win your approval though, it seems so important...to you.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

I actually wonder why you actually posted the link to that pretentious bunch of crap on this board. Think many are going to say hey, you know, he's right?

[Jordan Catalano]

I actually wonder why you actually wonder why he actually posted that on the board. Maybe it was to actually start a discussion about something that was actually written?

[hermajesty]

I totally agree with David Sexton, a good, honest report

[Jordan Catalano]

So one of Broadway World's most useless trolls agrees with him. Good to know.

[yankeefan7]

What is so interesting, he just does not like musicals and seems to think the people who went to see the movie "Les Miserables" don't have musical taste. People who love musicals don't think everything is great and probably are the biggest critics. It is all a matter of taste, too each their own.

[hermajesty]

Just because you have posted thousand of posts on here does not make you superior, it just makes you come across as a sad **** that has nothing better to do than be online all day.... Sad

[hermajesty]

Troll, just because I never agree with your opinion. You know, others do have opinions that may just not agree with yours. Your ego is massive, god help you

[Jordan Catalano]

Bitch, please. You know that I could care less if we disagree. But the fact is that you are a troll here who has never contributed anything worthwhile or substantial to any conversation.

[hermajesty]

In your opinion, that is. Grow up and consider that others may disagree with how you think, that doesn't mean to say that I am wrong or right, it's just a different opinion to yours. How can you be so arrogant as to think only your opinion matters on here?

[hermajesty]

No, people like you bore me to death because your ego tells you that you are always right....I.e.... You're a narcissist big time

[hermajesty]

Even your avatar tells me that, that is how you wished you looked

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Well, the Sexton piece is like le troll de resistance so trolls of a painful Black Swan-like feather, I guess.

[Jordan Catalano]

Well if my avatar tells you I wished I looked like that, than yours tells me you wish you had a heart.

[hermajesty]

You have set your mind that I am a troll and nothing I say can change that. I do not seem to be able to have an opinion on here but back to the subject, I agree with the report. You say you couldn't care less about my opinion so stop replying to my posts

[Jay Lerner-Z]

hermajesty, why do you always use "gay" as a pejorative?

[hermajesty]

Pejorative?

I am never that as I am gay myself

[henrikegerman]

Overall the piece itself is perfectly respectable as it explains why he doesn't like musicals and opera (and many people don't). It's the headline that's objectionable because it is completely unpersuasive and insulting to those who disagree with him (and many people do).

[PalJoey]

His essential premise is flawed:

The very idea of having people acting and then singing at the same time, and quite possibly dancing too, repels us.

People acting and singing at the same time--dancing, as well--has it roots in the most ancient of storytelling. It is as human as laughing or crying.

The way he employs the irritating British habit of speaking in the first person plural makes the rest of his column unreadable...to those of us who are intelligent appreciators of good writing and performing.

When British people speak in the "Royal We," Americans think they're pompous blowhards. When Americans fall into it, they just seem pretentious.

To quote some British queen, "We are not amused."

[GavestonPS]

Thank you, Joey. I too would find Mr. Sexton's argument more compelling if he seemed even vaguely aware that the "non-musical" is a mere blip on the timeline of theater history.

Or if he acknowledged that only European cultures split up music, dance and drama and sent them to separate buildings.

Or even if he noted that all art is based on conventions, even Naturalism. (No, Mr. Sexton, people in real life don't live their lives always facing the same wall or movie camera. You're just used to that convention.)

Or that Verdi and Puccini wrote the popular musicals of their eras.

Or that more contemporary opera composers (Bernstein, Weill) also wrote for the popular stage and yearned for Broadway hits.

[hermajesty]

To me Les Mis is the kings new clothes. Russell Crowe is mediocre as is Anne Hathaway. She just can't sing, a sweet soprano but struggles