WE all love a musical.’ So said Sheridan Smith as she introduced a recent BBC1 programme with the modest title Musicals: the Greatest Show. I wouldn’t argue with Miss Smith’s claim and it was cheering to see peak-time television advancing the cause of live theatre. However, after 80 minutes of non-stop boosterism, I couldn’t help thinking what a strange image the programme gave of musical theatre.
We got endless songs wreathed in self-pity with only occasional reminders—as in a George III number from Hamilton and Dancing Queen from Mamma Mia!—that the musical can also be a source of gaiety and wit.
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