You mean in theatre or on the big screen?
I was in London last year, the place to be talking about musicals, but the last thing I was thinking of back then, was going to a musical, be it Mama Mia or The Phantom of the Opera or Les Misérables.
I don’t know what caused this ‘musical hype’, but I know of people who wouldn’t have ever thought of going to a theatre, who were in queue for hours to get a ticket for one of the above mentioned musicals.
I guess they do so, because other people do so, and again those other people do so, because … etc. Hypes are like jokes: it’s impossible to say where and when a joke was told for the first time. All of a sudden everybody’s telling it. All of a sudden everybody was going to the musicals.
On the other hand, I’ve seen most of the classic musical films like Oliver, My Fair Lady, Funny Girl, Hello Dolly and of course The Sound of Music, which is one of my favourite films. Why? I don’t know, maybe because it stars a singing nun, or it’s set in the Alpes, like some of Corbucci’s best movies.