QuoteProject
The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.
Stephen Sondheim
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The decline in intellectual content of Broadway reflects a broader cultural trend toward simplicity and entertainment.

Stephen Sondheim highlights the issue of cultural stagnation, suggesting that as society becomes less engaged with sophisticated ideas, the quality of entertainment, particularly on Broadway, diminishes. This creates a cycle where audiences grow accustomed to less intellectually stimulating content, further perpetuating the trend of 'dumbing down' in the arts.

Themes

BroadwayCultural DeclineEntertainmentIntellectualismSociety

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about modern theater, you might say, 'As Sondheim pointed out, the dumbing down of Broadway reflects larger societal issues.'

More from Stephen Sondheim

Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night. Tonight there will be no morning star.
Stephen SondheimRead
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Stephen SondheimRead
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
Stephen SondheimRead
Let Pirelli's / Miracle Elixir / Activate your roots, sir... Keep it off your boots, sir- / Eats right through. Yes, get Pirelli's! / Use a bottle of it! / Ladies seem to love it... Flies do, too!
Stephen SondheimRead
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
Stephen SondheimRead
Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
Stephen SondheimRead

Similar quotes

Artists are the monks of the bourgeois state.
Cesare PaveseRead
The main thing is dancing, and before it withers away from my body, I will keep dancing till the last moment, the last drop.
Rudolf NureyevRead
We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.
Ruben BladesRead
I will begin with what in my opinion is your lack of restraint. You are like a spectator in a theatre who expresses his enthusiasm so unrestrainedly that he prevents himself and others from hearing. That lack of restraint is particularly noticeable in the descriptions of nature with which you interrupt dialogues; when one reads them, these descriptions, one wishes they were more compact, shorter, say two or three lines.
Anton ChekhovRead
Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.
E. M. ForsterRead
One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.
Adrienne RichRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.