Submitted by Rosanne Klass, Jan 13, 2007 15:00

Congratulations to Mr. McWhorter for his dutiful willingness to settle for non-melodic music and musicals. I find I can't -- or won't. They have little charm for me. As for "cheryl's" comment about "Drowsy," it's irrelevent, just as similar comments from audiences for "Cats", "Miss Saigon," "Les Miz," etc. For one thing, anyone under 50 has, poor souls, grown up on musical thin gruel, without the extensive experience of the greats that would enable them to make discriminating judgments.

And if the current music is so solid, I would ask, Who do I (or you, Cheryl) hear humming or whistling it on the street, in a check-out line, etc. Bobby Short once noted that, as complicated as songs by Porter, Berlin or Kern were, one used to hear them hummed by Everyman walking down the street. The new ones don't stick to the intellectual ribs -- because they have no melody.

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