Why do I constantly criticize Musical Theatre? Because Musical Theatre is a vital art form. I criticize plays and films and TV programmes all the time. Those I love as well as those I loathe. From different points of view, with reasons and suggestions, which you are invited to challenge and debate. Do you? Or do you just know what you like and like what you know?
Song and dance are as ancient as Drama. Older actually. I see no good reason why they should be beneath criticism. That would be scandalously underestimating them. The equivalent of patting a pig-tailed girl on the head and saying “Well done.” Fine if she’s ten. Taking the piss if she’s twenty...
All art forms should be criticized and self-critical. To fail to criticize is to fail to evolve. Obsolete art forms are obsolete for a good reason. They have nothing new to say. They’re just copies of copies of copies. Why the hell would you want to be a third generation copy of Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe? They’re old and dead. Are you so lifeless and lacking in your own persona?
Stagnation is the enemy of art. Far deadlier than oppression or censorship which actually revitalize it. Those who sulk at criticism (or worse still, stifle it) are suffocating the art form they profess to love. Are singers and dancers so conceited, so mollycoddled, so pig-tailed into adulthood, that their petty egos will burst into tears if I don’t pat them on the head and keep my mouth shut (unless it’s to say “Oh you were marvellous darling! Mwah!”) Oh grow up you silly little girl...
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