I also saw Anything Goes and was not offended by the inter-racial casting. The producers probably picked that particular ensemble member because he was a better dancer than someone else, not just to have interracial casting. Just as a note, that particular actor plays a sailor on the boat and it was not unheard of to have African-Americans working on boats in the 1920's. It is in fact more unlikely that anybody on the boat would have randomly started tap-dancing with anyone else, black or white, in the middle of the deck. Also, black and white actors had been appearing on Broadway, side by side long before the 1934 premier of Anything Goeas. I have also seen plenty of shows with all-white casts, despite claims that they don't exist. As a side note, I believe that Cole Porter would be happy to see that color barriers have been taken down on Broadway because he was an artist that took every opportunity to work with black artists, greatly enjoyed the music of Duke Ellington, and who even moved to Paris, in part, to work with less racist boundaries. He had a long artistic partnership with Mabel Mercer and most of his work have been successfully preserved by recordings made by Ella Fitzgerald. It may also horrify some of the commenters on here to know that Cole Porter, himself, was a homosexual (gasp!)

I'm going to go ahead and say that dbmcn commented on the remark about endowments because it was a supposition that came out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure they know the meaning of "if" but your argument isn't valid just because you say "if". If I may speak for dcmnc, I would say the problem with your comment is that you assume that Broadway needs endowments from the government to survive (in fact the 2010-2011 season saw record breaking attendance and grossing on Broadway, and saw the second most show openings in the past 24 years) and that the government (because Obama is a Democrat of course) would just go ahead and hand over money to Broadway producers to keep Broadway alive. The same incorrectness would apply should I comment, "Fox News will survive IF a Republican President is elected and starts throwing "endowment" money at it." Broadway is doing just fine and in fact over the past couple years I have seen it get more difficult to get tickets to shows, a wider diversity of people seeing shows and have seen beautiful resurgences and renovations in theaters. But in comparison to most of the people commenting on this article, what do I know about this topic? I only actively follow business and shows on Broadway and the history of musical theater, spend great amounts of time in New York City and attend 10-20 Broadway shows a year.

Actually Book of Mormon hit #3 on the regular album hot 100...not just the soundtrack. And Hippieslayer do you realize that if you just go around in the world calling people lefty morons when you have admittedly no knowledge in the area just makes you sound ignorant? The simple explanation is that general music is marketed to the entire population and made readily available to them. The world of musical soundtracks is marketed only to people that have seen or are in the general area where it is possible to see the show associated with that soundtrack. Anybody outside of that area that purchases the soundtrack usually is someone who actively follows and pursues theater. Is it a coincidence that most of the soundtracks that are at the top of the charts are ones that were released as movies and therefore made accessible to entire market? For a show that is really only ale to be viewed by 10,000 people weekly rather than the entire American population of over a quarter billion to sell enough albums to make it #3 on the charts is usually an indication of the quality of show and how enjoyable it is. I will admit that musical soundtracks are a specialty listening area because they generally aren't music that gets danced or partied to or that is generally of interest to anyone of no knowledge of the show and characters but I don't see any reason that this can be used to say that gays and Obama are ruining the world. The reason that songs from the 20's to 40's became bigger hits is simple, and can be explained by anyone who has any actual knowledge of music history and musical theater. The songwriters of the golden age of American Music wrote songs that they thought would be hits and that generally could be used out of context of the show. Around the late 40's/early 50's there was a paradigm shift in the world of musical theater where song and book writers started trying to make a more cohesive book musical that did not have randomly interspersed songs that were meant to be successes outside of the show. This was not due to liberals trying to push their gay agenda or really any other reason outside of a desire to make a more cohesive book musical. I am open to any comments on this and will gladly debate with anyone, liberal or conservative, in a reasonable manner as long as they use facts about music and musical theater and don't try to just say that gays and liberals are liars ruining the world.

Yea how dare they be so cowardly as to open in the most widely watched and criticized market in the world. If they were so afraid of controversy they probably wouldn't also have written a movie about Mormons that (shockingly) did not only open in New York or have a TV show that is broadcast around the world that also pokes fun at Mormons and pretty much everyone, including, if you can believe it GAYS. Also if you're so worried about Mormons being offended by the musical maybe you should talk to the Mormons who see the show...as I did when I saw it. They were thoroughly entertained by the show and talked about how other people in the church had seen it and praised it. The show does not actually make fun of Mormons he whole time as anyone who would actually see the show rather than just make random assumptions about it can tell you. But of course it's much easier to assume than to actual find things out for yourself.

- Book of Mormon – I would call this far from “an attack on Mormon Church and Christianity” and actually in most aspects a traditional musical in form and execution though maybe not in the material for much of the humor but I must say that this is by far one of the most lighthearted musicals I have seen on Broadway. Sure there are Mormons in the show but are they completely ridiculed the whole time? NO! Simple as that. Not all of the Mormon boys in the show are closeted homosexuals as Mr. Miller states. In fact only one of them actually ever makes a reference to being gay. The Mormons in this show, especially the center of attention, Elder Price, are depicted as caring, honest and as being persons with honest belief. By the end of the show, the Mormons have given the natives a new respect and hope for life…How Horrible! I can’t believe the show’s writers would do such a thing! To say that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are pushing the gay agenda and have never made fun of homosexuals is laughable. I suppose you have never heard of South Park. I defy anybody to sit through this show and not laugh. Mormons are seeing it and are loving it, so please stop trying to tell people that it is a show that is trying to “attack” the Mormon church or that it has anything to do with GLAAD. As for it not being the height of wit or lighthearted, I saw this show in a theatre jammed full of people of all ages and witnessed the entire theater erupting into laughter throughout the entire show. The book, music, choreography and performances are brilliant. Period.
- You seriously heard of two talented people who were told their material wouldn’t be produced? Gasp! You’re right…the Communists win. This was an irrelevant and useless anecdote, people have been told they wouldn’t be produced for pretty much ever.
- A form of entertainment being used as a fundraiser for a political party? Seriously? You’re going to try to use this as an argument as to why Broadway is in its decline? If anyone considers this to be valid, I simply give up on trying to talk reasonably with them.
- You are absolutely correct…you HAVE barely skimmed the surface with this article considering you have completely made up facts and blatantly ignored others. Before you try to argue that I just don’t appreciate classical musical theater I would like gladly match my knowledge of musical theater history against Mr. Miller’s and am an avid listener to the great scores of Broadway past including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart and Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jule Styne, Burton Lane and many others. Sure the musicals of the 20s-50s are great but did the greatness of Broadway end in the 1960s? Absolutely not! This is one of the most inaccurate arguments about the decline of Broadway I have ever read and I encourage any new theatergoer to disregard it and GO SEE A SHOW FOR YOURSELF!

-Billy* Elliot – I have personally never seen this show so I will not comment on it….a standard that some people do not seem to find a need to stick to.
-HAIR- I’m not exactly sure what you’re aiming to criticize with this comment. Should every musical from that era have been pro-war despite the sentiments of many Americans during the run of the original production? And then should it not be revived because everyone loves war now? First you criticize “The Scottsboro Boys” for not being about current issues and then you criticize HAIR for being about current issues…so would you like musicals to be about only positive things that have never happened, aren’t happening and are never going to happen? Please clarify
- Yank – Never seen it but just to clarify a couple of incorrect facts….Never premiered on Broadway…Originally produced in 2005 (Obama was elected in 2008 right?). Enough said
- Memphis – Considering that this is loosely based on the life of DJ Dewey Phillips (who was one of the first DJs to promote both “black” and “white” music) are we to assume that Dewey Phillips lived solely to create a “white-guilt orgy?” Also did you do ANY research before stating that this was the only original music nominated for a Tony that year? Did you see that the Addams Family was nominated and just assume that they just used the Addams Family theme show music for every song in the show and disregard the completely original score by Andrew Lippa? And what about the two plays with original scores that were nominated? In a similar mis-stating of facts I am now going to go around telling people that “Sure George Bush won the presidency, but he was the ONLY person that ran that year”
-The Scottsboro Boys- This was brilliant production of a show. The fact that it opened and closed in the “blink of an eye” does not reflect the quality of show. Was not “Pacific Overtures” (1976…Obama was 15) as guilty of “dredging up past sins” of our interactions with Japan (It is set about a hundred years in the past, after all) while being set in Kabuki style “of all things”. Go ahead and criticize “Pacific Overtures” for the same sin and have anyone who knows anything about musical theater shoot you down in an instant.
- Next to Normal- Your description of this show is so filled with errors and completely off track that it doesn’t warrant comment.
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So I have never been on this website but once I read this article I felt that I had to create an account to let anyone who has never seen a Broadway show know how off-point this article is. Let's just take this one from the top...shall we?
-First of all, stating that the “downward spiral” of Broadway began in the sixties seems like an inaccurate generalization considering that the sixties marked the beginning of the careers of Stephen Sondheim (famous for the lyrics of “Gypsy” and “West Side Story” [two of the most respected musicals ever] and the music and lyrics for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, “Sweeney Todd”, “Company” and many other shows. He is often considered one of the greatest songwriters in the history of American Musical theater), Kander and Ebb (the longest active songwriting partners in history, famous for “Chicago”, “Cabaret”, the aforementioned “Scottsboro Boys” and a tune some of you might know called “New York, New York”), and Jerry Herman (“Mame”, “Hello Dolly” [yes that “Hello Dolly” that spawned an international hit by Louis Armstrong that became his most successful single, that topped the Beatles on the Billboard Hot 100 and that won the Grammy Award for Song of the year in 1965 (That’s in the 60’s if I’m not mistaken)], and “La Cage Aux Folles”)….just to name a few
-Ok I have to admit that everything about racism that has ever been on Broadway has been a result of the Obama presidency. Like that musical with a major plot point about the controversy over a mulatto woman marrying a white man….oh wait that’s from the 1927 musical Showboat? My mistake…and how about Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg’s 1947 musical Finian’s Rainbow in which a man is transformed from white to black so that he can overcome is racism?…..I’m sorry Mr. Miller but would you prefer that Broadway was full of shows that had no conflicts or people overcoming character flaws? It just so happens that Racism is a major problem throughout the world, even though, judging from your attack on John Kander’s comment, you seem to believe that nobody is racist anymore because once a “black president” is elected the world is perfect. Everyone is a little bit racist, Mr. Miller…just ask the song with that title from Avenue Q, a musical that was developed in 2002 (I guess they were just anticipating the Obama presidency and the upcoming “Anti-American left wing agenda”)
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