Musical

I had thought that I had written about this before, but I do not see it under the label of musical, which would be the most likely place to label this.

I really like musicals, and have watched some of them so many times, that I almost know the dialogue as well as the songs.

I was watching Fiddler on the Roof  with a friend from West Texas.  After we watched the musical, he asked why the Jews were persecuted.  I think that is interesting. This person is a well educated man who is culturally sensitive. He did not "get it" that the Jews were persecuted in Europe and Asia (Russia) even before World War II, and that is why many immigrated to the United States, and many immigrated to Palestine to work to establish Israel.

I did not explore this, but I wonder what his perception of the Holocaust was. I am appalled at the number of people who do not believe that the Holocaust occurred. Or even, that the Holocaust occurred because of something the Jewish population in Europe did.   Can you imagine?

This same person and I were watching West Side Story, a musical he professed to know and like.  When we watched it, he revealed to me that he did not know that some of the songs were part of the story of the musical. Specifically, this was clear about the song "America."  He had never really paid attention to the lyrics before, so he did not realize the significance of the song.

That amazed me. But it made me wonder how many other people also discount the message of songs in musicals.  That would be so sad.

Musicals are not fluff. Specifically, but not limited to, the Rogers and Hammerstein http://www.rnh.com/ musicals are not fluff. They were deep, intense musicals that deal with intense social issues.

There are a lot of other musicals that made social commentaries, and this is good. Social commentary from a musical is very palatable to the public.