Getting A Kick Out Of A Review

This is a bit old but what the hey - in response to this piece by the Evening Standard's David Sexton, Lyn Gardner over at the Guardian has been asking if it is too easy to kick musicals.

The immediate answer is no, if the musical deserves a kicking.

But really it's best to ignore this kind of criticism. In truth the Sexton piece is very far from being a kicking; it is a poke at best. It says nothing more than 'I don't like musicals'. Nothing wrong with that. I don't like thought-free opinion pieces by people called David. Each to their own.

However Ms. Gardner goes on to make some interesting points:

"Theatre criticism – largely because most critics come from a literary tradition – has always been short of critics who are really knowledgeable about the form, which may in part explain why musical theatre occupies such a fragile place in theatre culture."

Fragile, perhaps, within the theatre culture. Given that musicals are keeping most of the West End running, I wouldn't call their place within theatre as fragile. I suspect what is meant is that musicals don't receive quite the same cultural kudos as non-musical theatre.

"Popular doesn't always mean pap – and a form which brings such pleasure and joy to so many deserves to be celebrated and treated to the same informed critical scrutiny as the latest play by Tom Stoppard."

I'm all for informed critical scrutiny but it's of a different kind for musicals than it is for a Stoppard play. When it comes to musicals I'm not too interested in high-falutin' stuff like the socio-politico-philosophical context of Oklahoma!.

You can big them up or stick the boot in but, either way, musicals are broadly middlebrow. It's best not to pretend otherwise.