The musical at its best is probably the most difficult, but can be the most uplifting of all theatrical forms, combining as it does drama, dance, design and song. A heady mixture.
This art form waxed its most lyrical during the decades from the Thirties to the Fifties, when the whole world needed something magical to take its collective mind off depressions, wars and poverty.
The era when the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter were at their brilliant best and neither Hollywood, Broadway nor Charing Cross Road objected to spending a fortune creating one blockbuster hit after another.
The era when Fred and Ginger danced their way into peoples' hearts and demonstrated that blue skies, romance and the triumph of the human spirit were not, after all, out of reach. Since those breathtaking times the fate of the musical has waxed and waned, but mostly waned, as 'angels' in Broadway and the West End lost confidence in the newer breed of authors and composers, with possibly one or two notable exceptions.
Most of the best musicals are long gone, but not forgotten by theatre audiences as they have been kept alive by amateur musical societies and some of their local productions would not have looked out of place in the West End.
Not only by the musical societies, however, as one of the happiest and most exhilarating musicals I have seen locally was 'Guys and Dolls', produced at the Poole Arts Centre by pupils of Corfe Hills School. This featured among a host of talented young artistes, the young Phillip Andrews, then a junior member of the Angel Players, as Nathan Detroit. You left the theatre after one of their performances revitalized and with a buzz sufficient (as Raymond Chandler would say) to make a bishop punch a hole in a stained glass window.
Some of the East Dorset musical theatre societies are becoming more adventurous and are beginning to feature the work of talented local authors and composers. Frank Ewins of Caught in the Act Productions and Roy Ellis and Tony Edwards spring to mind. The premiere of the latters musical 'The Cockney Box', presented by the BOS Musical Company is, as I write, only a few days away.
The happy infectious joie-de-vivre of a first rate cast can inspire us all. Even Linda Kirkman, our own Daily Echo theatre critic, who must be a trifle blase' after the hundreds of productions she has seen, when reviewing "BLITZ" by Theatre 2000 recently said, "I laughed, I cried - and I wish I could have sat through it all again".
You can't say fairer than that!

RAY SMITH

This article was prompted by Herbert Kretzner, theatre critic and inspired librettist of "LES MISERABLES" which has now run on Broadway for over 12 years.
The photograph is from the recent Ringwood Musical & Dramatic Society's production of "Oklahoma".