Talk:Let 'Em Eat Cake

Latest comment: 7 years ago by AnarcichallyInclined in topic Dictatorship of the proletariat???

Dictatorship of the proletariat???

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It looks to me as though whomever edited this page in the past had this idea that the dictatorship in Let 'Em Eat Cake was intended by the authors to be a Soviet-style, left-wing autoritarian state. I don't think this is accurate. I think previous editors have taken license in saying this without a proper citation from the work. For example, one editor describes the government established in the musical as a "dictatorship of the proletariat", even though the expression does not appear in the source for the inline citation, "Let 'Em Eat Cake" [a song from the act I finale]. Nor does the historical expression "let them eat cake" have anything to do with authoritarian communism. Virtually every review I have read of the play is adamant that the dictatorship was intended to echo those of contemporary fascist countries, although a New York Times review of the 1987 Michael Tilson Thomas production uses the expression "dictatorship of the proletariat"-- casually, without regard to a specific passage from the play. I am trying to obtain a copy of the full libretto to review this myself, but I am quite convinced that this was a mistake on the part of a previous editor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnarcichallyInclined (talkcontribs) 21:47, 15 March 2017 (UTC)Reply