The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 7 plus 5 letter word THE BEGGARS OPERA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
H
E
B
E
G
G
A
R
S
O
P
E
R
A
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Gay musical" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case gay musical = the beggars opera.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.