Broadway University

I went to see How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying at my alma-mater. (Well, its not my alma-mater, because I didn’t graduate there, so I guess its my nonma-mater.)

It was a well done show, but I would title it How to Write a Musical without Really Having a Plot; it’s one of those shows that succeeds on performances alone, the plot could’ve already been explained, the music is solid but nothing worthy of buying a CD. It really runs on quirky actors upstaging performances, and only in the end tries to be philosophic, with the message we’re all brothers and sisters but it fails, by utilizing a baseball bat to bludgeon the message into your head.

Hopefully the producers of the CD didn’t lose too much money and WSU didn’t pay too much for the rights, because well they’re playing the poor man again, but at least this time they haven’t resorted to pan handling like they used to do. Instead this summer they’re doing three shows just for the cash.

Of course someone should stop these egotistical maniacs, but President Goldenberg likes it. The real question is why is a college program doing such expensive shows? I tend to believe its because they’re too focused on creating "broadway" that really training their students. I know for a fact that the student run Directing Lab is not really supported by the theatre department. It exists and they’re happy to holding it up as a success, but when it comes to supporting it they put as many hurdles in place as possible.

I must agree with Dr. Taylor‘s assertion that our universities are now glorified career training programs, and unfortunately not places of knowledge and learning. And thats sad.