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Liisa Rohumaa talks about the appeal of musicals on BBC Radio Solent

25 January 2013

Online journalism lecturer at BU Liisa Rohumaa talked to BBC Radio Solent's Alex Dyke about whether musicals appeal to men.

Liisa, who used to work for industry magazine The Stage, said that there were lots of musicals that appealed to men.

"You can go to Rock of Ages and rock out, or you can go and listen to the great music of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain - he is the epitome of the cool man."

She added: "This isn't high-brow, this is high-drama - just go with the flow."

Liisa also talked about the success of the current film version of Les Miserables.

"Look out of the window right now - it is dark, it is miserable and [Les Miserables] is talking about how when you're kicked down, you are going to get up again and you are going to fight, and there are a lot of people in this country at the moment who are feeling downtrodden, are looking forward to their pay packet - some people who don't even have a pay packet to look forward to - so why not lose yourself in a musical?"

She added: "Musicals are ridiculous, and that's just what you have to say to yourself - this is ridiculous, I'm going to have a sense of humour, I'm going to find my inner musical and I'm going to absolutely love this.

Alex told Liisa that men are often dragged along to musicals and don't get them, but Liisa disagreed.

"I think they secretly, secretly do because men love a good melody, they like action, they like drama, they like music and humour as well."

You can listen to Liisa on BBC Solent in full here.

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