i don’t even know how to explain to non musical theatre people that we genuinely just lost shakespeare — i can’t even think of another comparison that may even remotely come close. there was no one like him and there never will be. a league of his own, the greatest of the greats.
#this sounds so dramatic but it’s true #like the sadness isn’t even for his death #because he was fortunate enough to live a long life and accomplish more than he dreamed #it’s the enormity of who he was and what he meant to the landscape of musical theatre #there’ll never be another person like him that’s for sure (via @desireearmfeldt)
the thing is, this absolutely is true - his impact on art, music, culture, literature is immeasurable, and it transcends the theatre itself. if you read the tributes coming in today, they’re not only from the Broadway community, they’re from pop artists, from authors. he IS the closest thing we have ever had, will ever have, to a modern day Shakespeare. he transformed the idea of what could be done and written about onstage, and he did it with intense humanism and expression in the weaving of his words and melodies. he transformed what was considered typical writing and sound for musicals, incorporating different styles, new approaches, discord and harmony, complex narrative dialogue set to music, internal rhyme schemes, irony and earnestness, Romance in the traditional sense. his study of the human condition is unmatched in many ways because it is immersed in love and grief, in criticism and comedy, and, ultimately, in empathy. there will never be an influence like the elevation and indelible imprint he leaves with us.
