<p>This article is frightening. </p>
<p>It’s sad to me that a very specific, “cookie cutter” type of performer is being bred with no regard to one’s personal artistic values and tastes. The article is glorifying and encouraging blandness. There is a place and a need for standard chorus types but it’s already obvious that “Broadway legends” don’t exist anymore (or have yet to come into view), so schools should be allowing students to explore their artistic essence while they’re in school rather than making them fill in a pre-determined mold. The current crop of “Broadway stars” are more like blank canvases that don’t have any particular flair or style and are working because of their versatility, not their contribution to the culture (a la Ethel Merman, Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, Jerry Orbach, Joel Grey, Ben Vereen, Elaine Stritch, Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury, Dorothy Loudon, Barbara Cook, Nell Carter, Debra Monk, Betty Buckley, Bernadette Peters, Liza Manelli, Patti Lupone, Len Cariou, Mandy Patinkin,etc…Audra, Kristin, Raul, and Michael might be new and rare exceptions).
I’m not saying everyone needs to be so unique, but with the demise of the training of individuals also comes the demise of an American art form that has morphed into a commercial entity. There are few shows on Broadway and coming to Broadway that still try to hold on to a smidgeon of true artistic value rather than commercial value, and it does lie in the hands of the producers, but if there was a wave of artists demanding shows to match the needs of performers then we might experience a resurgence in the confluence of Broadway to popular music and culture.
I ADORE musical theatre and I love Broadway culture and history, but I am truly saddened at the ever-approaching death of the art within “new” Broadway shows and performers. Perhaps the future of musical theatre is abroad, where the new crop of musical theatre performers are full of life, not afraid to be different, and far from “plastic” and “industrial”:)</p>