In olden days, raves often used the phrase “the bright new musical comedy” and having just seen the bright new musical comedy called The Bully Problem, I find myself thinking about how it exemplifies many meanings of the word, “bright.” We say intelligent people are bright, and Michael Gordon Shapiro’s book, music and lyrics are, first and foremost, smart. The plot is on the silly side, but there’s a level of thoughtfulness in the plentiful jokes, and cogent construction in all the songs. There’s...
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