Broadway musicals these days mostly fall into two camps. First there's the candy: shows with bouncy songs--often recycled rock songbooks--and jerry-built, cartoony, tongue-in-cheek books. These shows (Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, Avenue Q) give audiences a carefree evening of entertainment, which is all most of them want.
Then there are the steak dinners: musicals that at least try to provide a fully integrated, emotionally engaging theater experience, with music in the service of a story populated by real human characters. Steak dinners are pretty much off the Broadway menu right now. The few that come along (anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber in the...
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