Of musicals...and the current generation

I've been hopping from musical to musical on Youtube, past, present and the future and I keep seeing the same thing popping up.

"Wow, it's like High School Musical!"
"I hope it'll be like HSM!"
"So...it's kinda like HSM?"

Hello??? Comparing amazing musicals with really deep meanings such as West Side Story to HSM??? If you listen very carefully, every musical has very deep meaning to them no matter how whimsical the show is. Even Hairspray is about racial intergration and acceptance.

HSM, for all its catchy music and well done dance numbers can hardly be compared to the others~!! How in the world does anyone compare HSM to Fame? Or even Grease?? HSM is like Introduction to Musicals 101, but most certainly should not be compared to the greats!!

I DO like HSM.... I really like HSM3 but seriously... it is NOT comparable to any of the others out there!! It's kinda like saying, "Whitney Houston? Wow, she sounds kinda like Miley Cyrus!"
I really wish people would go experience even better things before saying the mediocre is better than a great they know nothing about!
If they do, and still prefer their first choice then there really is nothing wrong with that, cos it's personal preference!! But really, to compare a great to something so simple in ignorance is really annoying!!

I remember my first introduction to musicals very vividly. I was sitting in the car listening to my Fantastic Females CD (you know....with Britney, Jessica Simpson, M2M). I was pretty young...around 6 maybe... Then my godmom turned around and asked me why was I listening to such crap.
Then she told me to try something else and popped in an Andrew Lloyd Webber disc. When Sarah Brightman sang "Phantom of the Opera", Julie Covington sang "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and Elaine Page made me cry with "Memory", I knew I had never heard music like this before.

Music that tells a story...that has substance! Instead of the constant whining about break-ups and simpering songs about falling in love (or crush), I'd found something which really touched me. I remember being brought to watch Sunset Boulevard on West End.

It was an experience I NEVER forgot! Even now I can remember the songs. The stage was pure magic to me and the beginning of a love affair with musicals and stage shows. I went with my music teacher every year to the annual opera (when Kee Phaik Chin was active) and I got to see La Traviata, The Merry Widow and Turandot! It was beautiful and a real eye-opener.

These days I can't afford a ticket to go see shows live on Broadway or West End. So like all others like myself, I wait for the movie adaptation. In some ways it's good and other ways its not because movies can do things stage shows can't. Movies can take you to Greece and into a real twisting labyrinth under an opera house but stage shows allow you to let your imagination soar!

I can't wait for the upcoming crop of musicals to come! Fame (2009)...and Nine... and maybe even Wicked! Sunset Boulevard was supposed to be made into a movie but it still hasn't moved. I'd really love to see a musical movie version of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon~!! Perhaps it really is the time for the return of musicals?

HSM was a good starting point. But kids! There is a bigger more magical world of musicals out there! Go experience it and you'll see what I mean!