Submitted by Ron Spivak, Nov 9, 2006 16:18

Mr. Rosenbaum is credited at the end of this article as "a novelist, essayist, and law professor, and the author of the novel 'The Golems of Gotham'," but he has demonstrated in this essay that he most certainly is not a musical theatre historian, and indeed has a great deal of nerve pretending to be one. He should be ashamed of himself for his lack of research.

In one fell swoop, he has blithely dismissed such "flimsy and fun" musicals as "South Pacific," "West Side Story," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Cabaret," "Man of La Mancha," "Evita," "Sweeney Todd," and countless others that not only were hits, but that had profound, serious messages and that had tremendous influence on the musicals that came after them.

"Les Miz" does have a melodic score and effective staging, but it did not spring into being out of a vacuum. It owes as much of its style and musical theatre vocabulary to the serious musicals that preceded it as it owes its (overly-truncated, in my opinion) plot to an obscure novel by Victor Hugo.

I have spent most of my life in the theatre, as both a performer and a musical theatre historian. Now, thanks to Mr. Rosenbaum, I know that I have been wasting my time! There is apparently no longer any need for historical accuracy or research... all one has to do to become a succesful writer is come up with a grandiose thesis statement, and then just make up the "facts" to support it.

Mr. Rosenbaum should stick to law, and leave musical theatre writing to those who actually know something about it.

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