Shakespeare vs. Musical... who would win?

***SPOILERS***

Disclaimer. I really enjoyed this show. However, I have mixed emotions about some things in it.


I'm one of those people who likes Shakespeare and musicals. While I found the season 1 references to CATS amusing and spot on, I found the season 3 war between the Shakespeareans and the Musical types more than annoying. Now, I know lots of people don't like musicals, but this whole story thread felt like a juvenile smart kids vs. popular kids thing. Not to mention that most actors I know like being in Shakespeare plays AND musicals. But here, there is the implication that bad Shakespeare is infinitely superior to good musical theater. At the end of Season 3 one of the punchlines is that they're going to do Oklahoma. Hah ha! What a comedown. As for me I'd much rather see a good production of Oklahoma than a bad production of Pericles, and I've seen both.

And isn't it just a tiny bit ironic that they rail against the hokey aspects of musical theater when the tv show itself frequently dips below the line of twee, melodramatic hokiness?


My last complaint is that in this show, Shakespeare exists by itself, as if other good playwrights and good dramas don't exist, only Shakespeare. Apparently none of these actors and directors have even sullied themselves with mere drama. Only the best! And on the other end of the imaginary spectrum are musicals, shown as the low point of all shallow, bland, lowest-denominator theater. Not one mention of the mediocre, lite comedy, sitcom style plays that have been written in the past 50 years. In the world of theater, actors and audiences, there are more plays in heaven and earth than were dreamt up in this show's philosophy.

Did Gross and Burns secretly wish they could have done Timon rather than a tv series?


OK, I'm done.