The show picked up a Tony for Best Musical and even snagged a Pulitzer, rare for musical theater.
Pop songs are illustrative.
How I feel, in theater, is best sensed through songs that make the story move forward. That's not what pop audiences are used to hearing. There was a time before niche radio when pop music and musical theater were the same thing. Some radio programmers, hired to tell stations what their listeners want to hear, have recommended non-Broadway highlights from Michael Crawford's recording career. Pop artists Pete Townshend, Randy Newman, Barry Manilow and Paul Simon have written or retooled material for musical theater, but none of those efforts registered a radio hit.