User talk:Dickie323

WP:RS and WP:DUE
Hello, Dickie. Welcome to Wikipedia. Something that may help a lot in getting started here is an understanding of our guidelines on "reliable sources" (WP:RS) and "noteworthiness" (part of WP:DUE). A major idea behind Wikipedia's usefulness is that if something is important enough to mention in an encyclopedia (that is, encyclopedically "noteworthy"), then someone will have written about it in a reliable, published source, not just to say that it exists, but also to indicate its general importance as compared with the importance of other things discussed in the encyclopedia article. I edit a lot in Wikipedia's musical theatre area, and my experience is that high quality encyclopedia articles usually focus on professional musicals that are either long-running or that are created by notable (blue-linked) writers, composers and directors, or that are very frequently revived, because critics and theatre writers write about them in theatre news sources, books and scholarly articles. A short-running community or student production may be extremely innovative, but if all one has that documents it is a review in a student newspaper (which is not a WP:RS), then it is not encyclopedically noteworthy. See also WP:NOTEVERYTHING. I hope this helps. All the best, -- Ssilvers (talk) 15:55, 25 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Thank you for this. The introduction to the Rock Musicals page does not say that only musicals recognized by 'the establishment' in some formal, scholarly way are acceptable or legitimate.  In my note to you I included a screen shot from Wikipedia about sources, where it said that both reliable and unreliable sources would be acceptable. Doesn't that suggest it's OK to refer to a student newspaper?  (I'm not sure I accept that student newspapers are unreliable, but let's leave that for now.)
 * It is likely that Anything and Everything did not influence subsequent rock musicals as its audience was and is small. (And without 'the establishment' acknowledging it, how could it be otherwise?) However, in the context of rock musicals as a newer style of musical, it seems to me to be of interest because it is evidence that rock music was inspiring artists familiar with the standard theatrical music genre, in this case, as early as 1957. It took awhile (1960) before the 'legitimate' theatre world caught up to where the kids were at.  I guess we don't know whether Bye Bye Birdie was inspired by lesser-known rock music works which were already being performed here and there.
 * Rock music was of course new in the 1950s, and much of that music was (and still is) exciting and inspiring. Anything and Everything is just one example of its impact.  (It's actually fun to think of all the budding artists coming up with their own rock musicals locally wherever rock music was popular. A potential thesis topic!)
 * I would be happy to rephrase the entry if it would be more satisfactory: "Lesser known, a college production of Anything & Everything (Nelson & Caplan) was performed Nov 22,23, 1957 at Swarthmore College (the only known performances)."  Or similar.  There is a recording of the play/musical, which sometimes turns up at vintage vinyl record sales (I can provide details of that).  And the libretto was published in book form.
 * Thank you for any suggestions about how to add this rock musical to the page in an acceptable way. Dickie323 (talk) 04:03, 26 January 2024 (UTC)