You can get away with anything if you write a good enough tune, I reckon!
Definitely! I've said above that I'm a big fan of the older musicals. I've seen and loved Oklahoma, Carousel and Cabaret on stage as well as lots of Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff etc.
There are examples of all sorts of "interesting" messages in all sorts of them, not just in the obvious places.
Spoiler alert below: Hamilton, the musical. Although it's based on historical events and people, so it's a bit like talking about a spoiler alert if someone hasn't seen Titanic 😁
Take Hamilton for example. It's written about a previous era but through a modern lens. Personally I love it that they've switched all the historical figures within the story from being white to black and are using what might typically be thought of as "Music Of Black Origin" (rap, on this occasion) to mix it all up a bit. Although it's reflective of societal attitudes towards woman at that time, with the Schuyler sisters needing to marry well for status and protection of family wealth and name etc, it also has a subconscious narrative flowing through it where women are held in a similar kind of regard (accessories to men) today.
Dear Theadosia is a beautiful duet, all in harmony, sung by the two main characters when they both become fathers for the first time. You'll Be Back is a deliberately comedic song about the American revolution through the eyes of King George.
Both songs involve gaslighting but this is explored in very different ways. In the King George song, the audience is invited in to see his desperate attempt at gaslighting the American public in to not wanting independence and to laugh at the absurdity of it e.g. the song ends with King George saying "I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love". However, as gorgeous as Dear Theadosia is - and the sentiment expressed within it - it's also a gaslighter's charter but in this case, the audience is gaslight too. He sings about how he'll always be there in the way that his father wasn't, that everything he does now has meaning and it's all about family... We believe in him and later end up forgiving him as a loveable rogue, despite him wanting to have an affair with his wife's sister and going on to sleep with a lady who tricks him.
Despite his promises, it's not long before he ignores his wife and family because he's busy. We don't even get to meet his daughter - she's just a footnote in a song, where his son laments not having a brother (only a sister). Even his son doesn't get his attention in the capacity of "just being a dad". In the song That Would Be Enough we hear his wife Eliza begging him to recognise the importance of family and to notice her instead of just focusing on war with the lyrics, including "let me be a part of the narrative".
Even when Eliza says in a later song (after she finds out he's slept with another woman) that she's "erasing myself from the narrative" it's clear that she knows she's always been a bit part as "a wife", no matter what she does.... because even though she demonstrates strength in that song she ultimately accepts that her loveable rogue loves her in his own special way. The way where he gets to stick his willy wherever he wants, run off to war, leave her to pick up the pieces and then swan back in with a sorry when the shit really hits the fan and she's weakened by grief when their son dies. How very dutiful of her. The message is still very much Stand By Your Man if you want a happy ending.
All that said, I adore this musical. I've seen it twice and would love to go again. <cue lots of earworms in my head..."...when you hear the British canons go BOOM!">
Edited to correct errors in grammar/punctuation. Hope I got them all!