It's time to shake the stigma around musical comedy

From Bo Burnham’s Inside to Jordan Gray / musical comedy is having its day / Perhaps it’s because we have finally got / more women and LGBTQI stars, thinks Jane Watt

Musical comedy, as with musical theatre, has always been a mildly embarrassing habit to admit to, either as a performer or an audience member. Earlier this year my comedy partner Ange Lavoipierre and I were advised by an industry professional not to mention “musical comedy” in our Edinburgh Fringe show description because it would be “impossible to sell”.

And yet, earlier this year almost a third of the nominees for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival were musical comedians, with musician, actor and renowned musical comic Gillian Cosgriff taking Most Outstanding Show and Most Outstanding Independent Production. So, if audiences and judges love musical comedy why is it still trying to shirk the stigma that it’s in some way lame? And for better or worse (better if you ask me), is the genre now finally… cool?

Deemed as cringey and over-the-top or smug and self-satisfied, musical comedy doesn’t sit well with everyone and is one of the few genres that people (snobs!) feel they can openly say they hate. But why? What’s wrong with a little dazzle dazzle?! For one, comedy has always been a historically masculine field, performed by and predominantly for men. “Real comedy” was straight stand up, just one person (man), telling it how it really is. Musicality, vulnerability and un-selfconscious pizzaz, on the other hand, does not fit this mould. So unless it was smug, self-congratulatory satire, performed and enjoyed by the type of people who “love puns”, more theatrical musical comedy could get passed off as lame, over-the-top, vulgar, and silly. Comedy for the philistines who need a little ditty every few minutes to stay engaged. This, of course, is the same type of language that is often employed to dismiss female and LGBTQI comedians. Coincidence, would we say?

Jane Watt and and Ange Lavoipierre in their show Jazz or a Bucket of Blood

Enter more female and LGBTQI performers. Who would have thought that with more diverse performers we would have more diverse audiences, and lo and behold a more diverse comedy scene? Hannah Gadsby dominated the globe with their form-shattering show Nanette, and Viggo Venn just won Britain’s Got Talent with a clowning routine! Gill Cosgriff’s Actually, Good is vulnerable and kind and earnest and it’s also completely hilarious and a far cry from typical ‘bro’ stand up. The idea of what is “actual comedy” or “good comedy” is changing. With a broader audience and variety of tastes, the mainstream comedy world is expanding and, fortunately for lots of us noobs, that includes musical comedy.

Of course, you don’t have to love every musical comedian before you can say you like musical comedy. That’s like saying, I guess, ‘I don’t like music because I hate jazz’. I do believe however, that since the global pandemic and with the rise of TikTok the genre of musical comedy has found its little moment to shine. From Bo Burnham’s Inside to Jordan Gray’s Is it a Bird, musical comedy has been incredibly valuable in helping us process big feelings and a pathologically “unprecedented” few years whilst allowing us to maintain some semblance of a spring in our step. Not because we need to be coddled, or have our frontal lobes hijacked by confetti drops and high notes, but because there are certain truths you can sing but would never say. It’s really hard to say “this is all totally f***ed, I can’t do this anymore” without sounding glib, and there were certain times during 2020 where that’s all we could do. But singing about it allows us to share the feeling without losing ourselves in it. Like a spoon full of sugar, songs can help lighten a subject without necessarily trivialising it, allowing us to engage with the matter in a way that feels more accessible.

So I for one will continue to say “I love musical comedy!” and then I will swiftly morph into that guy who’s like “yeah but i liked it before it was cool”. I love that the genre is growing, and I love what that represents within the community and our performers and our audiences and our big, wide, dumb world. Seriously, in 2021 musical comedian and TikTok star Tom Cardy came in at number 11 in Australia’s ‘Hottest 100’ songs of the year with a tune called Have You Checked Your Butthole and I’m here to say that genuinely gives me hope. Also, that is not an indictment on the Australian music scene. That song is a certified banger.

Jane Watt and Ange Lavoipierre’s musical comedy show, Jazz or a Bucket of Blood, is at Underbelly, 8.50pm, until 27 August. Actually, Good by Gillian Cosgriff is at Pleasance Courtyard, 8.20pm, until 27 August.