Dumb musicals overload

Why is mainstream entertainment so lacking in imagination and creativity these days? Are we suffering the result of a generation brought up on MTV, whose idea of "epic" is a television series starring Kiefer Sutherland, whose idea of "diva" is Beyonce Knowles, and genuinely does not know that the DaVinci Code is not a true story...?

My greatest bugbear at the moment is the increasingly banal state of theatre - in particular the concept of what exactly constitutes a "musical". Lightweight dross like "We Will Rock You" and "Mamma Mia" are international success stories, and lately we have had musicals based upon the dubious talents of Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, and (gulp) Boney M!



Now I read with horror of plans for "Shrek - the musical", following hard on the heels of "Lord Of The Rings - the musical", and even "Legally Blonde - the musical" (which was universally panned even in the culturally light USA):

Shrek

Legally Blonde

Lord of the Rings

Is nothing sacred any more? Why can't we find writers these days of the calibre of Cole Porter, Gershwin, Bernstein or Sondheim...

And what next? "The Queen - the musical"? "Laurence of Arabia - the musical"? "Guantanamo - the musical"?