Good composition is like a suspension bridge - each line adds strength and takes none away.
Musicals are by nature theatrical meaning poetic meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief by which I mean there's no fourth wall.
Col. Shaffer is prohibited by his lawyer from talking. He's at great risk. They want to take away his pay and his health care benefits so they can hold it over his head and not allow him to talk while he's under suspension. This is not America.
That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith.