Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 15:34:58 GMT
ALW is well known as he wrote a series of populist musicals that people wanted to see, he didn't become well known because he won some awards. Barlow is exactly the same in that he sells tickets off his name rather than any awards he may or may not have won.
Conflating someone being called "the new face of musical theatre" with awards is failing to recognise that they are two totally different things. I've no idea how many awards Sondheim has won but they don't cover up that outside of musical theatre circles he isn't actually that well known in this country - he's certainly not the "face of musical theatre" in the UK.
If you asked Joe Public on the street to name the "face of musical theatre" they would say ALW, Tim Rice, Michael Ball, Elaine Page and probably Gary Barlow. Awards recognition has nothing to do with it.
No one on the street would call Gary Barlow the face of musical theatre, except hardcore Take That fans. Five years ago he didn't even have one musical to his name. And why are the general public the ones to decide who the face of musical theatre is? Ask anyone in the UK that actually does know about theatre and they'd say Sondheim over Barlow any day.
