31. The Cup | Do You Hear the People Sing?: Are Musicals Low Art?

Welcome back to the 31st episode of The Cup which is our a weekly (give or take, TBD, these are unprecedented times) performing arts talk show presented by Cup of Hemlock Theatre. The theatres may be closed, but art finds a way to survive! For the time being on this podcast we are rereleasing our past reviews, interviews, roundtables, and duet reviews in remastered audio only versions so you can take your CoH content on the go! For our 31st episode we have another instalment of “The Cup: Roundtable” titled “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. In this episode, once again hosted by Jillian Robinson, we discussed the subject of musical theatre. Through in-depth conversations we try to answer the questions of are musicals worthy of their much-maligned reputation as a “lower” art form when compared to other kinds of theatre and performance? How do we account for their commercial success, typically far greater than that of supposedly “higher” arts? How do musicals engage their audiences different from other plays? What notable differences are there between the musicals that arise out of different national contexts? Cup of Hemlock Theatre is a Toronto-based performing arts collective dedicated to staging works that examine the moral quandaries of the human experience. With an inquisitive compass, we aim to provide audiences the space to retrace their personal stories and navigate their individual ideologies. Follow us on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter: cohtheatre Follow our panelists: Jillian Robinson – Instagram: jillian.robinson96 Mackenzie Horner (Before the Downbeat: A Musical Podcast) – Instagram/Facebook: BeforetheDownbeat Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3aYbBeN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sAbjAu Christoph Ibrahim – Instagram/Twitter: christophib    Emma Loerick – Instagram: emmaloerick    Grahame Renyk – Instagram: renykg