Is this a joke?

I click on a New York Times link about Stephen King and John Mellencamp collaborating on a musical that they will try out in at Atlanta's Alliance Theater -- First thought, "Well, I guess musical theater is exactly where formerly great artists go when they're totally over the hill." Second thought, "What? Once you pass a certain age, you actually enjoy theater more than other entertainment? Again - why do we worry about the blue hairs in the audience. They may die but someone will come and replace them. It's environmental. It's the senior citizen food." Third thought: "Another nonprofit theater supports the creation of a big time money making musical. Just like the Guthrie's little house on the prairie. This is what we've come to -- the minor leagues. Not leading the theater movement but begging for scraps from the table of commerce. Well, I hope they get perpetual revenue from it at least -- I'm sure that's how they're justifying it to themselves."

Final thought when I see the video advertisement for a new musical called "In the Heights" in a corner box on the same page: "Is this is joke? Haven't I seen a satire of the musical that looked exactly like this? Seriously -- is this a joke? And if its not a joke - What the hell did I actually think theater was supposed to be?"

P.S. I always make fun of the plays where I think the artists seem to have just discovered that the world exists. "Look, Honey! People suffer. Aren't they dignified?' or "Look, Honey! Those wacky others." I'm also going to have to start to make fun of the art where the artists think their world is the world. "In the Heights, Baby! If you're not here, you're nowhere. You don't even know! . . . Hey, I stubbed my toe. Is that, like, a whole wide world that I stepped on? Naaah."