Make musicals matter (From News Shopper)

Make musicals matter

4:53pm Wednesday 6th February 2008

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Sometimes I listen to Virgin DJ Christian O Connell’s breakfast show and enjoy his ironic mix of family man meets alpha male, in the morning.

A weekly feature of O Connell’s show is to find a Dictator of the Week. In an on-air interview the dictator introduces a law, a national anthem and can ban something too.

A week or two ago, Former Soccer AM presenter Tim Lovejoy was the celebrity pseudo-leader and - proving just how big for his boots he has become – of all the things he could ban, Lovejoy chose to ban musicals.

Seemingly for comic effect, but with hints of genuine vitriol, he claimed musicals were cheesy, girly and owed their existence to entertaining elderly tourists and tasteless theatre-goers.

Yes Tim, those moving storylines in Les Mis focusing on the tragic struggles of the oppressed lower classes in 19th-century France are cheesy, aren’t they? Sweeney Todd? No thanks. All that cannibalism and murderous revenge is far too girly for my tastes.

Good timing, Lovejoy. A nation of girlfriends literally just convinced their other halves that if Johnny Depp is starring in one, musicals must be worth a watch.

But seriously, the minute audiences begin to open up the genre its being publicly rubbished as an out of date art form.

I understand Dictator Lovejoy is far from alone. Admitting you’re a fan of musicals can be akin to proclaiming you’re a James Bl**t fan. But the genre just isn’t given the credit it deserves and the idea that musicals are old fashioned is archaic in itself.

Especially when musicals have never been shy to explore the controversial issues of the day; Hairspray, for example challenges racism and Cabaret explores Nazism and war. Chicago composers Kander and Ebb’s tales of life in NYC, metrosexuality and commercialisation are funny but far from fluffy and Bob Fosse’s raunchy choreography couldn’t be further from stuffy.

Musicals attract top talent too. In the form’s hey day, stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly filled the leading roles and most recently Kelly Osbourne took the Momma Morton role in Chicago and invited all her A-list pals to her opening night.

That’s without even mentioning John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Oscar-winner Christopher Walken in Hairspray or Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter for Sweeney Todd.

Not the sort of stars I imagine Tim Lovejoy, or anyone else for that matter, consider girly or cheesy.



It’s clear high profile, big-sellers such as Dirty Dancing – although you’ve got to love them for bringing audiences into theatres in their millions – and spin-off shows such as We Will Rock You and Momma Mia have blunted the West End’s edge.

But it’s important to look beyond the box office and discover there is far more to musicals than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

There are a hoard of good examples of the form playing as we speak on the small and large stages of south east London and north Kent.

Sweeney Todd composer Stephen Sondheim’s twisted fairy tale Into the Woods opens at Greenwich Theatre this weekend and next month the theatre will also host Melvyn Bragg’s acclaimed musical The Hired Man. The interactive song-led show The Mystery Of Edwin Drood continues to attract crowds at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon until Feb 24. (see next week’s News Shopper for a feature on the participation in this show). And if you want crowd-pleasers there’s Shout! at The Churchill, Bromley next week and South Pacific at The Orchard, Dartford March 4 to March 8.

All proof the credibility of the musical is in tact, right?