“Michael John LaChiusa, who has written serious-minded musicals like “Marie Christine” and “The Wild Party,” committed what many in the industry consider an unforgivable breach: he published a scathing attack on many of his colleagues in the August issue of Opera News. The article, titled “The Great, Gray Way” began by declaring, “The American Musical is dead,” and went on to assail a large percentage of the musicals that have played Broadway in the past few seasons, and their creators. That might have been that, had not Marc Shaiman’s wildly popular show, “Hairspray,” come in for particularly stinging criticism…”