Social media has been passing around a rather caustic opinion piece by Stuart Heritage written for The Guardian. In this article, Heritage asserts that “Musicals are the lowest form of entertainment…” and that “I can’t bring myself to trust people who enjoy musicals. I seem to have pegged them all as cheats, as people who don’t understand subtext and nuance, who don’t want to do the work and constantly have to have everything spelled out for them.”  It’s an asinine and arrogantly written article that draws from one musical example (the movie musical of Les Misérables) as the means by which to indict an entire art form. The genesis of his misguided manifesto is in regards to the recently announced BBC television adaptation of a non-musical Les Misérables. He celebrates how delighted he is that he will be privy to a Les Misérables without music. Heritage is certainly entitled to his opinion. If he doesn’t like musicals, he doesn’t like musicals. I don’t think any of us will miss sitting next to him at the Shubert or the Broadhurst. What I will assert is that his generalized and snarky article does notorious damage to an art form that is arguably the HIGHEST form of entertainment.