WHAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

BARBIE, A REAL DOLL OF A MUSICAL

For all who are still hoping that one day a musical might come along that is at least somewhat of an intelligent reflection of our lives, we must admit our long-awaited epiphany does not arrive in the new musical, Barbi, Live in Fairytopia, which is based on, as you might fear, the real doll.

As an even more provocative indication of how cynically moronic the medium of the musical has become, the producer of the smiling new confection is none other than the Mattel toy company, a revelation that alarms us even more the first arrival and eventual dominance of the great white way by Walt Disney.

There is only one possible saving grace. The audience Barbie is reportedly aimed at is children approximately four to eight years’ old.

Well, it’s been a long time since a musical sunk that low. Even Annie aimed a bit older. And, given the rarity of anything in current entertainment that might provide a somewhat innovatively gleeful time for innocents, we can’t entirely tear the doll apart.

We do, however, commiserate with the wonderfully devoted parents who will somehow sit through it.

Perhaps these devoted masochists might while away some of the suffering wondering why the childhood dream of “fairyland” is not in itself such a wonderful place that, to complete its appeal, it had to be confounded with the remarkably similar but somewhat more adult idea of “utopia.”

Could the conflation have been inspired by the similarly sugary soft drink Fruitopia?

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