ABSTRACT
This article is about musicals as entertainment. I don’t necessarily want to disagree with those who would claim that musicals are also ‘something else’ (e.g. ‘Art’) or argue that entertainment itself is only a product of ‘something more important’ (e.g. political/economic manipulation, psychological forces), but I want to put the emphasis here on entertainment as entertainment. Musicals were predominantly conceived of, by producers and audiences alike, as ‘pure entertainment’ – the idea of entertainment was a prime determinant on them. Yet because entertainment is a common-sense, ‘obvious’ idea, what is really meant and implied by it never gets discussed.
