Quote of the Day (George Ade, on the Requirements of Musical Comedy)

“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)