::goes to sit with Sail, who is apparently speaking for my brain today::

Typo, I don't know how many musicals you've seen, but a lot of the things you point out are kind of par for the course for the genre. Also, I don't know that Joss was setting out to say anything that hasn't been said before, but rather trying to give that his own spin.

That's just my pre-breakfast $0.02, though.

::snuggles with Ailleann::

We can share.

I enjoyed it, but the pitifulness of

Penny was not enjoyable. All along she was just such a sad sack. Yes, she was an unfailing advocate for the homeless, but she let Captain Hammer treat her like shit and she was rapturous over it.

Typo, I thought the whole thing was supposed to be ironic. So, I enjoyed it (the music, etc.) because it seemed to be a straight parody. I figured the whole thing was going to be about an ineffectual superhero. Although one could argue that the whole thing IS about an ineffectual superhero given that the fool couldn't kill the Hammer. He was kind of endearing that he wanted evil in the world, but wouldn't rape and murder until Hammer got in his grill. And Hammer wasn't exactly a hero, so I thought this would be a flip the script kind of thing.

Oh well.

> she let Captain Hammer treat her like shit and she was rapturous over it

yes but in Act III I could see she was waffling a little bit. Everyone says I should be happy and all that jazz. Plus, the whole laundromat scene where she's singing had me thinking - if Billy had gone to the laundromat that day instead of plotting against Hammer would Penny and her extra fro-yo swayed him? Would she have told him she was doubting Hammer? She was clearly waiting for him.

See, le_n, I thought that we were supposed to think that Hammer acted great when he was dealing with Penny, and like a schmuck in the asides so that we could figure it out. It was only when he had the full attention of the press that he didn't keep up the facade.

d & Ailleann -

yes, she was waffling a little bit, but Hammer was such an arrogant prick. He tossed her into garbage! He was yawning on a date. I just wanted more assertiveness from her. She couldn't even be assertive when she was trying to get signatures. All those people were walking right by her. She just seemed oblivious and then too meek.

I get that, but... sometimes people are meek and don't stand up for themselves, you know?

yeah, but...

this was so short. I would have liked the conclusion better if that hadn't been the case. Her doormat tendency coupled with her death, just left me a bit unsatisfied. Maybe if she and Hammer had died...

but a lot of the things you point out are kind of par for the course for the genre.

I've seen a lot of musicals - but normally:The music is of high enough quality to make up for a lot. A lot musicals, say Sondheim manage fairly high ratios of wit to witlessness, and put some depth into characterization. (Many, not all) operas are more comparable in writing quality, but then they have really really good music, really really good singing, plus my opera tolerance is not really that high either. This looked to me like a case where parody was used an excuse for really bad writing. But some of the posts help me understand how it can be seen differently.