Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Terry Teachout may be the best blogger there is. Certainly he is the most cultured. That said, he has these enthusiasms, and this review makes me think he's stumbled onto another one. Reading between the lines I'm thinking this is a boutique musical, and boutique musicals will not bring back the masses for whom humming Broadway tunes was second nature. That he likens RICHARD RODGERS'S GRANDSON (I'm sorry, that's why he's in the biz) to HERR DOKTOR SONDHEIM makes me even more suspicious, especially as Mr. Teachout goes Jell-oish at the knees over THAT genius. It would be nice to think I'm wrong, that this really is a wonderful production, but we've had too many ENTHUSIASMS from ad-blurb copywriters (of whom Mr. Teachout is NOT one) for me to think otherwise.

P. S. Ben Brantley, I sympathize with the idea that a "real human being [should] materialize in a mainstream musical, an environment that has become increasingly hostile to such life forms"; but you must take credit for many of the "singing cartoons and dancing robots that are multiplying on Broadway like flu germs," as you raved some of them.