Musical comedy: just say no

I enjoyed a comment I caught on the Today programme while briefly within earshot. A man, I don’t know who, was evidently responding to criticism that people didn’t like the serious plays he wrote or directed or supported but preferred musical comedy:

‘I don’t want to see Oliver just as much as those people don’t want to see my theatre that deals with serious issues.’

Or something like that. I admire, perhaps a bit uneasily, that shameless declaration of ‘elite’ cultural tastes.