Score One for Tom

I'm no fan of Phantom, which I saw eons ago in L.A. And I'm a dissenter on Lion King. But I've got to second the broad-minded wisdom of Disney's theatrical impresario Tom Schumacher, quoted in this LA Times' piece on Phantom's landmark Cats-scratching performance:

"There's one myopic thing on Broadway, and that's 'if it didn't happen on Broadway, it didn't happen.' It's not just this eight-block radius we're talking about tonight...Right now there is great work being done all over this country, from the West Coast to the East Coast, that could lead to the next record-breaking hit. And it won't be the marketing, or the critics, or the producers, who'll make it that. It'll be the audience."

PS: As I wrote this, this song by my late colleague Joel Hirschhorn came up on my iPod. 2006 looks better already.