Poll

It may well be that some of the previously mentioned pieces are 'dumbed down' to assist the audiences, but what does an attitude of snobbery about a genre as a whole achieve? It engenders an attitude that theatre and opera is a domain for the intelligent, the well-read, the articulate. I know this is not what you are saying, Leah (and Cary) but the danger is there. In my travels performing for schollkids, we would come across groups who were perhaps not as well off as your average opening night set at the Maj - and none of them had ever been to the theatre before. Why not, we would ask - and more often than not it was because it was 'boring' or 'too long'. We must recognise the fact that we have different focus groups for a reason: some people are just up for mindless entertainment, or for happy, silly tunes which don't qualify as classics. As Jenni said a little earlier, sometimes there is a need to go to the theatre, sit back, and zone out in front of something lightweight for a while. I mean, come on, how many of us have gone to the video store on a wednesday night after a long day at work and leaned towards the Adam Sandler because 'Howard's End' feels like a bit much work for that particular night? Musical Theatre and Opera have lived in a symbiotic relationship for years, because they both fulfil different needs. Opera singers have performed musical theatre too - I have just produced a CD from a bookshelf that features Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras alongside Musical Theatre veteran Mandy Patinkin in 'South Pacific'.

I am not disputing the fact that opera and MT are differing forms - that's the joy of it. I watched Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland yesterday on the ABC and was astonished with their immaculate talents - but I have also marvelled at the virtuosity of Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in Musical Theatre.

Both Musical Theatre and Opera CAN and WILL live side-by-side for a long time yet. Just because there is a Musical version of 'Les Mis' doesn't mean that the original has been superceded and made obsolete - it merely means that there is one more avenue for the story to be told.

Movies like '10 things' don't train people to be thick - it's the mere fact that teenagers simply will not attend a restoration style Shakespearean piece unless there is a twist to get them interested. Trevor Nunn's excellent 1997 'Twelfth Night' disappeared without trace while the less interesting '10 things' raked in the cash, because it aimed at a target audience, rather than saying 'Shakespeare's words are too boring - let's just cut them all...'. The fact that there have been more Shakespearean films made in the 1990s than in any other decade in film is testament to the fact that there is a strong audience for classics, while at the same time there is a desire for 'fluff'. The two can live side-by-side, without the author's intention being too severly besmirched, because the original work will always be there. This is what Kenneth Branagh has based his work on throughout the 1990s, as he produces 'populist' Shakespeare that appeals to the masses, but with an emphasis on the texts to encourage kids to go out and seek 'Hamlet' or 'Much Ado'. And it is no coincidence that university Shakespeare courses have exploded in enrolment since Branagh's 'Henry V' in 1989 (I can find the exact reference for that figure, if anyone is pedantic enough to ask me to qualify that!!) - and this is a direct result of 'dumbing down' Shakespeare.

ANd by the way, I am not a huge Musical Theatre buff. My wife loves it, hence the CD collection, but I appreciate its place in our cultured society and believe that if we do not have 'low-brow' culture to complement and balance the 'high-brow' 'restaurant meal' culture of expensive ballet and opera, then I am afraid we might have difficulty selling these mediums to the sadly disinterested youth of today.

Crikey, I enjoy debates!!

Politely awaiting a rebuttal,
respectfully,
Toby Malone

PS - Leah mentioned 'dumbing down' "shrew" - if you want to see a non-dumbed down version which also promises to be remarkably good, come to the Rechabites this week and next... it's going to be a cracker!
t