(I mean, presuming climate change and civil war haven’t ended the whole Broadway phenomenon.)
Well, frankly, that's what I think myself--though I think climate change is far likelier to be the culprit than civil war.
But to go way out on an optimistic limb and assume that there will still be a Broadway in 2121, I then have to predict that I think it's far likelier that they'll still be tinkering with Gershwin in 2121 than that anyone will even have heard of Moulin Rouge. Gershwin's songs (as opposed to his shows, apart from Porgy and Bess) have already survived for a century or so. They've proved their appeal across several generations now. Nothing about Moulin Rouge has done so, and I don't see anything at all about that random collection of 20th-century pop tunes that strikes me as likely to be of great fascination to the people of the 22nd century. If they're going to exist at all, I wish for them that they'll be able to develop a rich contemporary popular culture of their own! |
