“The so-called music of musical comedy must be the
kind that any messenger boy can learn to whistle after hearing it twice. At the
same time it must satisfy the tall-browed critic who was brought up on
Tschaikowsky and Bach. As for the dialogue, it must be guaranteed to wring boisterous
laughter from the three-dollar patron who has a facial angle of thirty degrees,
and a cerebellum about the size of an olive; also it must have sufficient
literary quality and subtle humor to please the dead-head who is sitting in the
fourth row with a hammer in one hand and a harpoon in the other.”—American humorist—and
musical-comedian librettist—George Ade, “Musical Comedy,” in
The America of George Ade: 1866-1944: Fables, Short Stories, Essays, edited by Jean
Shepherd (1960)
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