Shockingly, Ben Shapiro doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to musicals

I had the misfortunate of stumbling upon Ben Shapiro’s video talking about the 8 best musicals. To be fair, I was looking at his page to mock his take on the Oscar nominations and was forced to see this title and curiosity got the best of me.

As someone with a Performance Theatre degree, I have a lot of takes on musicals. Not all of them correct. But I do know a lot about musical theatre as a whole. I should have stopped watching Ben Shapiro when he said that Rodgers and Hammerstein are responsible for the “modern” musical because they’re literally responsible for the book musical as we know it. But “modern” is far from the word I’d use with them. (They were the “Golden Age” of musical theatre, if you must know.)

But in Shapiro’s video, one thing became shockingly clear: This man has the absolute worst taste in everything. While he talked about musicals I love, his take on why they were great completely negated the choice. What do you mean you love the song “Ladies in Their Sensitivities” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street? No one likes that song the best! And to be fair, this is one of my favorite Sondheim musicals but what Shapiro likes about it is…..the worst part of the show.

The entire video is…honestly not that surprising. He talks about classics like South Pacific but misses the point. Loves Fiddler on the Roof and honestly the most surprising thing is his apparent love of Stephen Sondheim, a man who would have hated Ben Shapiro.

You can’t just watch musicals with blinders on

One of the most fascinating aspects of Shapiro’s list is that all these musicals have themes that are very anti what he stands for. When he mentioned Sweeney Todd, I knew that he probably would think Judge Turpin is in the right. He seemingly completely missed why they’re repeating a list in Into the Woods and he also ignored Sondheim’s own history to make grand statements that were just incorrect.

Shapiro loving West Side Story is really when I knew that this man just thinks musicals are “fun” and ignores the deeper meaning in them. Yes, it is an adaptation of Romeo + Juliet but it is also a commentary on the racist structure built into America that refuses to allow growth to anyone outside of the white men in props up.

There is not a musical on this list from the “modern” era of musical theatre, as Shapiro seems to thing Rodgers and Hammerstein are responsible for. Hammerstein created Show Boat, a musical that changed what musicals were because it had a “book.” They created the “book” musical but both of these men died prior to 1980. They are not responsible for the musicals of today but rather they redefined what a musical is. Hope that helps, Ben.

But what this list does is show me why he’s failed at being a creative. These are all basic choices. While some push the boundaries of the time, most are just safe musicals that have someone racist undertones in them. Shapiro liking them shows me just how boring this man is.

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