1 | 1 | | Musicals have always been in the business of show. The combination of song, |
| 2 | | dance, story and spectacle both mythologizes abundance in play and creates it in profits. |
| 3 | | In fact, the legend of showbusiness rests primarily in the high-risk, high-return drama of |
| 4 | | the musical which has made a happy capitalist out of many a tired businessman. No |
| 5 | | wonder, then, in a time of recession and severe cuts in theatre subsidy, that both repertory |
| 6 | | theatres and boulevard entrepreneurs have fallen back on the musical: one eye cocked at |
| 7 | | the American tourists and the other at their bank balance. |
2 | 8 | | The climate of Mrs Thatcher's Britain is not for debate but compliance; not for |
| 9 | | social justice but the confirmation of Establishment power. The society is winded, |
| 10 | | demoralized and afraid. And Britain's fatigue is visible in its appetite for nostalgic |
| 11 | | revivals and musical extravaganza. The mood of retreat has been forced on the fringe and |
| 12 | | repertory companies by economic stringency. Cutbacks in Arts Council grants have |
| 13 | | changed the shape and content of what is produced. Productions of new, experimental |
| 14 | | and controversial plays have been curtailed; and adventurous theatres are being forced to |
| 15 | | play safe. The infrastructure that feeds new writers into English theatre is threatened. |
3 | 16 | | The knock-on effect is to change the nature of the dialogue that theatre has with its |
| 17 | | public. Enchantment increasingly replaces debate. What the West End is registering in its |
| 18 | | all-pervasive escapism is the society's defensiveness. The American musicals sing about |
| 19 | | money and vindictive triumph and take their incredible energy from the sense of |
| 20 | | anticipation which these twin obsessions inspire in the dreamlife of the nation. The |
| 21 | | homegrown English musicals wrap the British public in its own childhood dreams: |
| 22 | | bedtime stories about cats, choo-choos and chess. The most urgent issue being raised in |
| 23 | | West End musicals at the moment is in Starlight Express, which asks: Can a steam engine |
| 24 | | find happiness with an electric train? |
4 | 25 | | Musicals are at once a barometer and a promoter of cultural conservatism. The |
| 26 | | philosopher John Dewey understood the potency of song to shape attitudes when he |
| 27 | | observed, 'If one could control the songs of a nation, one need not care who made the |
| 28 | | laws'. Until the mid-Sixties, the best popular songs came out of the American musicals |
| 29 | | which made them sensational. Musicals have been instrumental in moulding the myths of |
| 30 | | the nation. They have given America a backbeat of promise and helped to homogenize |
| 31 | | yearning in a consumer society. Musicals cajole an audience to believe in the society's |
| 32 | | dream; after all, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true? |
5 | 33 | | The new style of English extravaganza, like Chess and Starlight Express, looks |
| 34 | | baggy and overblown compared to their streamlined American counterparts. The great |
| 35 | | American musicals evoke the national rhythm: driving, noisy, ambitious, full of swagger |
| 36 | | and a desire to shine. The English have never been able to master the modern musical. It |
| 37 | | is not a problem so much of talent as of temperament. The musical celebrates abundance |
| 38 | | and optimism; and English life is built on scarcity and irony. The American musical |
| 39 | | believes in 'tomorrow' and the endless possibilities just beyond the horizon. The English, |
| 40 | | on the other hand, believe in limits, and are somewhat embarrassed by the waste of |
| 41 | | wealth which the American shows put on parade. The English performers can't invest the |
| 42 | | musical with the same passionate conviction. They don't quite believe that everything's |
| 43 | | coming up roses. For them, the light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train . |
| | | |
| | | John Lahr in The Listener, June 5, 1986 |