i think deh was unnecessarily hated on during tonys season, i recall it being called a generic white boy musical and like... yeah, but just because your fav didn't win? maybe someone else deserved to win but it's just awful to degrade a show when it's actually addressing a very important topic even if other shows deserved to win. like i'm not talking you specifically or anything, i just think it got a lot of hate that really sucks to read b/c it addressed a meaningful topic and ppl ignored that
not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever
hmmm okay I’m going to try and disagree respectfully because I can tell that this show means a lot to you. So please remember that this isn’t an attack on you, and you’re totally allowed to like the show. Theatre is not one thing to all people, and that’s the way it should be.
I will be very upfront: I don’t like DEH. I don’t think it’s a good show. I think it’s a crime that they won the Tony for best score with yet another iteration of the generic pop musical that has dominated the last 7-8 years of new musicals (sorry Pasek and Paul fans), and I think the book is not only toxic, but perpetuates a dangerous way of thinking. It’s actually quite sad, because I think if the material had been approached a different way, it could have been all the things that the reviewers and fandom seem to think it is. Instead, they went the easy way and tried to appeal to a very vulnerable population of kids with a message that is really messed up.
To quote a fantastic article that everyone should read if you really want to know why people dislike this show: “Socially responsible theatre — Good theatre — is not overly dependent on cheap, mass-produced stereotypes of mental illnesses and the people who live with them. It doesn’t pretend that simply pointing out that Important Issues Exist constitutes a profound or novel perspective, or brings a rawness or an edginess to the art form. It is not overtly and recurrently homophobic. And it certainly doesn’t use the dead bodies of suicidal teenagers as props for character development and comedy.“
I think if it hadn’t been Ben Platt in a cast of 7/8 white people, it wouldn’t be getting this much praise and people would be having more realistic discussions about it. Instead, the show got so hyped beyond belief that when people dare to speak about reasons why they dislike the show, they get slammed for ‘degrading a show’. I get that you and many other people love the show, and that’s great. But DEH doesn’t get brownie points for skirting around the topic of mental health and perpetuating the idea in young peoples’ heads that they don’t need medication, they just need to feel accepted. (ESPECIALLY when masterpieces like N2N exist, proving that these topics can be addressed in a realistic and respectful manner.)
So yeah, when I (and other people) say that DEH didn’t deserve their Tony Awards, it’s not because we’re just bitter that our faves didn’t win. I was bitter that Hamilton swept the Tonys in 2015 and closed a lot of shows that depended on Tony wins, but I never once said that they didn’t deserve the awards. Hamilton deserved their awards, because it’s a fantastic show. DEH, in my opinion, did not, because it is not a good show.
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