Facing the musicals
Sir: Sheridan Morley (Arts, 14 and 21 June) is becoming dangerously obsessed by the idea that drama critics — himself excluded, presumably — know nothing about musical theatre.
A man who rates the fairly decent Blood Brothers the best musical of the century, the half-cock Martin Guerre an operatic master- piece, the truly pathetic The Goodbye Girl a valuable populist work, the dreadful and over-produced The Fix some kind of cutting-edge experimental piece and Damn Yankees (literate, musicianly and satirical) `deeply terrible' will always be a critic worth reading at least for his novelty value, though perhaps not as a reliable guide to the tastes and good judgment of others.
Musicals do not bring out 'the absolute worst in London drama critics' — except possibly in his case; they elicit, as do most new plays, many varied and passionate responses. And why does Sherry keep on suggesting that nobody recognised the value of Les Miserables when it opened (five national critics, including myself, enjoyed it very much indeed) and that people who loathed it then say they love it now? These are simply a pair of libellous untruths and it's time he stopped flogging them in so self-congratulatory a manner.
Michael Coveney 11 Shirlock Road, London NW3
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