> I think the key question is: what *is* the fall musical?
>
> (Oklahoma?)
>
> - Joe
If only. After "West Side Story," "Oklahoma" is my fave musical (see the recent London production on DVD with Hugh Jackman -- great). No, it's "Beauty and the Beast." My daughter's a freshman, been in high school 3 weeks and had the balls to audition for the lead! She's got a dynamite singing voice and is in training, but no way were they gonna cast her over a bunch of juniors and seniors. They offered her something small, but she preferred working on the sets. A new experience for her which she's enjoying. There'll be other musicals. Maybe she'll be Laurie in a future production of "Oklahoma." (She already knows the songs.)
> Also: play Skinny Puppy or Flipper or Cabaret Voltaire and see
> if they also get marked as "uncool".
In fairness to my daughter, she does like The Supremes, Beatles, Sex Pistols and Ramones, among other oldies. She's pretty eclectic, actually -- can go from Biggie Smalls to Patsy Cline in a hearbeat. But like Doug and Jordan, she hates Springsteen. I'm not like Alterman who falls on all fours when discussing The Boss, but Springsteen's written some great stuff. "Rosalita" simply rocks (I like "Born To Run" and "Thunder Road" as well). I know Doug likes Madonna, who's a bit pretentious herself, but I'm not gonna sweat you over it, listmom. We likes what we likes.
DP