Posted 5:38 PM by Gene

I hate to harp on this show by RICHARD RODGERS' GRANDSON, but by calling his music "intermittently melodious" John Simon confirms one thing: you cannot write musicals with mere technical excellence. Adam Guettel must know the ins and outs of Broadway shows as well as anyone; he surely learned every last bit of technique through diligent attendance at theater workshops (unlike, say, the Gershwins and the Berlins, who learned their technique on the street). But no amount of excellent technique will make up for a LACK OF INSPIRATION. Richard Rodgers' name will endure forever because of his abundant inspiration. For a simple comparison consider his daughter Mary -- Mr. Guettel's mother -- who wrote a couple of moderate hits in the fifties and sixties. Can you name ONE of her TUNES? And at least her shows had hooks; Once Upon a Mattress starred Carol Burnett, and she did a Mad magazine revue. But Mr. Guettel has written nothing but boutique musicals, small-scale musicals, successes d'estime, musicals for vest-pocket theaters, and there he will stay. I make something of this because we once did musicals very well; they were at the heart and in the soul of our culture. Now we have extremely stylizing ciphers and Ben Brantley's "cartoons" and "robots." When will people come to realize our culture's excellence and inspiration have already gone down the drain, and no amount of adjectives from AD-BLURB COPYWRITERS will bring them BACK?