It doesn’t take a demographics expert to tell us what form of theater appeals to the largest audiences in the Valley. You only had go to Gammage Auditorium last week for the opening night of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” to know that musical theater is alive and well in the greater Phoenix area.

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is a very funny, brilliantly‑written show with dynamite lyrics by songwriter David Yazbek, who also penned a few good tunes to go with them. Based on the pretty funny, but hardly classic, 1988 film comedy of the same name (starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin), the show is actually better than the movie, something that can’t be said about, say, “The Producers.”

In other words, here was a musical that didn’t take itself seriously, was a fun but hardly unforgettable evening in the theater, and yet a near‑capacity audience on a Tuesday night at Gammage went nuts for it, throwing shouts of bravo at the terrific cast. And well they should have. I like to think the audience was standing and clapping like crazy not just for this one show, but for the whole art of musical theater, which is far healthier nationwide than you’d be led to think by certain pundits. For proof, look at the growing audiences here in the middle of Arizona.

Take the rest of the Gammage “M&I Bank Broadway Across America” series, which “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” commenced. All but one of six remaining offerings is a musical, and that doesn’t count the newly added “encore presentation” of “Chicago.” There was a time when “Broadway” meant straight plays as much as musicals, but no more. After “Doubt,” the sole non‑musical on the lineup, Gammage will bring us “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” Chita Rivera in “The Dancer's Life,” “The Light in the Piazza,” “All Shook Up,” and “Sweet Charity,” musicals all.

Even more remarkable is the range of type of musical represented. “The Dancer’s Life” is a revue based on the life story of its star, while “All Shook Up” is a tribute to Elvis, of course, with his songs serving as a backdrop to the story of his life–the “jukebox” musicals currently in vogue. Add to these the traditional book‑show “Sweet Charity” (from 1966), and, from the recent season, the lyrically and movingly Romantic “Light in the Piazza,” the spunky ode to nerds that is “Spelling Bee,” and the screamingly funny “Scoundrels,” and it would seem the musical is capable of describing a limited but vivid arc of emotions from nostalgia to hilarity to gentle reflection on the human condition.

But there’s more. Look into the smaller venues and musicals take aspects of life not necessarily associated with the form. A two‑person show called “The Last Five Years” has sparked the imaginations of theater folk everywhere, with its song‑cycle approach to telling the story of a failed marriage, Jason Robert Brown’s songs are the show in its entirety, with only scraps of a “book” and no dance–even scenery is optional. In this bare‑bones way, Brown relates not only humor and romance, but more than hints at the nastier edges of love gone wrong, and the need to look at our own failures in the realm of human relationship.

The show, which has been produced twice already in the Valley, gets at least two more productions this coming season: At the tiny‑but‑adventurous North Valley Playhouse (Cave Creek Rd. north of Sweetwater; go to www.nvcplayhouse.com) Nov. 16 to Dec. 2, and again during the upcoming Desert Foothills Musicfest in Cave Creek/Carefree this winter; dates to be announced.

While I can recall a time that one musical per year was enough for most regional theater companies, both Arizona Theatre Company and Phoenix Theatre now present numerous musicals every season. Then there are many dinner theaters, most of which trade almost exclusively in musicals. These are anchored by Broadway Palm West in the East Valley (www.broadwaypalmwest.com), which this weekend closes its production of the jukebox show, “Always ... Patsy Cline,” on the heels of more traditional fare such as “Funny Girl,” “Oklahoma!” and “Camelot”; and by Arizona Broadway Theatre (www.azbroadwaytheatre.com) in the West Valley, which starts a new season Sept. 29 with “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

We tend to think of the musical as an old‑fashioned form, or at least an old one. But it is neither. Historically, the musical is just beginning. Opera started around 1600 and hit its peak of producing great new work in the mid‑19th to early 20th centuries. The musical started, ostensibly, with something called “The Black Crook” in 1866, and was slow to fire up its expressive engines. Only with Rodgers and Hammerstein in the 1940s did the genre start to mature.

My guess is that the musical’s past will be far outshone by its future. Phoenicians clearly want to be a part of that.

For more information visit www.kennethlafave.com.