Cabaret

intparent · May 2, 2009, 11:15pm

I’m curious to get input from parents whose schools have put on the musical Cabaret. Some background:

Our high school put it on this spring. I thought the costumes and choreography were really inappropriate for high school girls (one of the Kit Kat girls was an 8th grader). My eighth grade daughter and a couple of her friends (14 year olds) were so embarrassed watching it that they asked to leave during intermission.

The school is an private independent school (no religious affiliation). Does not have cheerleaders, and dance line formed a couple of years ago wears sweats and hoodies - - I think that was the only way the school would approve it as a school function. Not due to any religious or socially conservative perspective, I believe more from a feminist sort of viewpoint that girls need to learn to accomplish their goals through mechanisms other than flaunting their sexuality. But there was a change in administrators this year, so maybe this view is no longer held by the administration…

Last year they put on Sweeney Todd, which was very well done. I didn’t have any objection to that. This just seemed kind of exploitative, though. A lot of grandparents, family friends, and neighbors come to the spring musical, and the audience seemed kind of embarrassed. I’d have been mortified if it was my D up there. I e-mailed with one of the administrators after the show (politely, but letting him know that my D and I thought it was pretty inappropriate), and he acted like he wasn’t even sure what I was talking about… Not sure if he was truly oblivious (I suppose male administrators have to learn to put some blinders on when dealing with adolescent girls all the time!) or whether he was being deliberately obtuse.

Can anyone whose school has put on Cabaret comment on whether there was controversy at their school?

alwaysamom · May 2, 2009, 11:26pm

The arts h/s my D attended did Cabaret (after she left but we all went to see it) and there was no controversy. It’s an excellent show and I would have no qualms about high schoolers doing it. It’s interesting that you didn’t have any objections about the subject matter of Sweeney Todd (murdering people and baking the body parts into pies and selling them!) but the sexuality that was a part of the cabaret scene in Nazi Germany was objectionable.

I’m surprised that so many people would not be familiar with the show prior to seeing this production.

intparent · May 2, 2009, 11:36pm

Maybe the difference for me was that everyone in the audience knows with Sweeney Todd that the people on stage are pretending to kill, cook, and eat people. Even though the girls on stage in Cabaret aren’t really hookers, of course, the scanty clothing and sexually suggestive dance moves and caresses are real. And having an impact on the audience, from looking around. Our kids are very good (maybe that is part of the problem)! I have no objection to Cabaret staged by consenting adults who understand the impact that they are having on the men in the audience. I object to it when they are 14, 15, 16 year olds.

alamode · May 2, 2009, 11:53pm

hahaha
out school put on cabaret
it was amazing.
definitely the best musical i’ve seen in my four years at the school, the main roles were played extremely well and the singing was beautiful.

some guy wrote an editorial to the newspaper, which was published online, ranting about the costumes and insulting the student actors who participated. it eventually got deleted beacuse of public opposition.

i find it kind of…stupid.
as if girls don’t wear much more revealing clothes on a regular basis…as if kids havent gone to the beach and seen people strutting around in bikinis…as if any of the kit kat girls were under the ages 16-18.
the page was overfilled with comments arguing in favor of the show.

cabaret is such a fantastic musical…the cabaret is not supposed to be appealing, it’s supposed to portray the decline of german society in the years prior to nazi germany. it slightly irritates me that people refuse to believe that teenage students can understand this depiction of social history that is discussed in our textbooks.

do you realize that more scandalous dancing occurs at school-sponsored dances than during cabaret?

alwaysamom · May 2, 2009, 11:56pm

Is there a reason why there were no 17 or 18 year olds in the show? And why would there be an 8th grader in a h/s show?

In any case, it’s acting. That’s what theatre is, and that’s what actors do, whether they’re professionals or they’re high school drama students. Good theatre educates and is meant to be thought provoking, if it is successful. It’s unfortunate that your audience chose to be offended by a rather incidental part of the show, rather than to be moved by the story itself. Cabaret is one of the most effectively emotional shows out there. It’s a shame that people didn’t take that away from the experience of seeing it.

We are a big theatre family. One of my Ds is a professional actor and my kids have seen theatre since they could sit quietly in a theatre, probably their first professional shows were seen at age 4 or 5. They all saw Cabaret on Broadway in '98 so one was 14, two were older and two were younger. It’s still a family favorite. They’ve seen hundreds of productions of all kinds of shows, some probably a lot more challenging than Cabaret. I guess it’s what kids have been exposed to that determines their reaction to different subject matter.

My feeling is that if parents have objections to a show that is chosen by their school, the objections should be voiced ahead of time, and they’d certainly have the option of refusing to allow their child to participate, and then not attending the show. Other than that, in my opinion, the drama teacher and school administration should be the ones responsible for choosing the shows.

intparent · May 3, 2009, 12:05am

Not at our school. Our school dress code isn’t terribly strict, but it is enforced. And our dances are pretty well chaparoned. And… that is dancing with a partner (or partners) they choose. Not in front of hundreds of strangers, many of whom are either looking mortified or leering at them.

I didn’t say that anyone couldn’t understand the depiction of social history, or the hedonism of pre-Nazi Germany. In fact, I think that teens are smart enough that the hedonism could have been depicted with a bit more subtlety (eg, did costumes need to have bare midriffs? Could skirts have come down more than 1 inch below the crotch? Could they have done this in flats or low heels vs. stiletos? Were the fishnet stockings with garters necessary?)

Alwaysamom, there were also 17 & 18 year olds. It is a K-12 school, and middle schoolers are allowed to try out. School is kind of small, so a range of ages get parts. And honestly, I don’t think most of the audience had any idea what Cabaret was about ahead of time (so hard for parents to opt out). The spring musical is a pretty big event for the school, and honestly I don’t think parents or kids had any expectation that it might be inappropriate…

I also really don’t think this was “incidental”. There were several numbers that involved the dancers and suggestive lyrics/choreography. I was wondering if cutting out a couple of numbers would have helped, but it is pretty pervasive.

alamode · May 3, 2009, 12:10am

…its not like the students are being forced to dance in front of these people, are they? i’m pretty sure that if they feel uncomfortable at all with the tone of their performance they are permitted to opt out, because thats how it is here

and i wasnt accusing you of saying that–my post wasnt directd to you at all, i was just saying how the general gist of people opposing the play–especially according to the editorial in our local newspaper–ignored the fact that the students and hopefully the audience understand that the play is not about sex appeal but rather the social history.

and obviously, i can’t argue for the musical at your district because it wasnt the same as ours. no bare midriffs here, just extremely short black jersey dresses—WITH spandex shorts underneath, of course! and there were fishnets and heels.
obviously knee length dresses with flats arent exactly accurate to the portrayal of cabaret dancers…

alwaysamom · May 3, 2009, 12:25am

intparent, as I said, it’s pretty surprising that most of the audience wouldn’t be aware of the subject matter of Cabaret. It’s a musical that’s been around for more than 42 years and the film, which won 8 Oscars, for more than 35 years.

By the way, cutting out scenes or a couple of numbers is not permitted when you obtain the licensing rights for a play. I guess my only advice would be that if your school is doing RENT next year, it might be a good idea to stay home! :)

teriwtt · May 3, 2009, 12:26am

Well, we didn’t do Cabaret, but we did Chicago, and my daughter and another CC mom’s daughter were Roxie and Velma.

The choreography was definitely more appropriate for high school than professional productions, but still, my older daughter said at times that it felt awkward watching her sister up there. For their final number (Hot Honey Rag), their dresses were quite form-fitting and low-cut, but our theatre director has two daughters of his own, and I know he wouldn’t ask our daughters to do anything he wouldn’t ask his own (and he’s actually a kind of conservative person) daughters to do.

I agree that if you’re going to take your kids to see a show, you should know enough about the show to know if you might find certain scenes, etc. objectionable. Just because it’s a high school play, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t tackle tough issues, and the artistic freedom of the director can have a big impact on the issues.

Frankly, I was more offended when our school did The Laramie Project, and we had protestors standing at the entrance to the high school driveway with signs. Also, I know our director would love to eventually do Rent, when he has the appropriate male talent to pull it off successfully.

Senior year, my daughter was the witch in Into the Woods; I sort of warned people who brought their younger kids to it, that they might consider leaving at intermission, as the second half of the story is very, very dark. The play is written such that, if you don’t know the second half of the play, you’d assume everyone lived happily ever after ifyou only saw the first half. I understand that your concern has more to do with costuming, but there are many, many elements to a play, that removing one (such as costuming) can have a significant impact on the experience you want your audience to walk away with. And I agree that if there are issues, the time to take it up is before the play goes on; however, realize that theatre directors often choose their season months before it begins, and have already obtained licensing rights, etc. long before the community is aware of what will be produced… meaning there’s been some financial investment long before anyone outside of the school’s administration hears what shows will be staged (other than the theatre students of course, because they’re usually the first to hear once a season has been cleared by the administration).

teriwtt · May 3, 2009, 12:33am

alwaysamom - cross posted with you. Like I said, I assume Rent will be done at our high school within the next few years. Have you seen the high school version yet? I’d be curious to see how it’s edited out, and how much of the message you lose.

alamode · May 3, 2009, 1:03am

teriwtt i’m confused…were you offended that the school did The Laramie Project or that people were protesting?

i believe our school did the laramie project a few years before i entered…i’ve heard it turned out very well. i’d really love to see the show at some point.

soozievt · May 3, 2009, 1:05am

I can relate to this thread.

First, let me say that I love the musical, Cabaret, and think it is a great show for a HS to stage as it is thought provoking in a historical context, let alone has great music. It is hard for me to imagine that some are unfamiliar with this play, but then again, my family/kids have been into musicals since they were tots and have known the music from Cabaret from a very young age. Anyhow, I support the idea of putting this show on at a HS.

But I will share our experience. Our high school put on Cabaret. Our HS allows middle school students to audition for the HS plays and musicals even though the MS puts on their own musicals. In 7th grade, when my D was 12, she was cast in the HS production of Cabaret (the only MS kid in it and so clearly the youngest). My D was one of the Kit Kat girls. The production was excellent. The senior who was Sally Bowles has gone onto having her own band and CDs and performs on a national scale with much success.

However, this musical caused an uproar in our community and it wasn’t due to the themes of the show, I don’t think. Rather, a poor decision (in my view) was made in the costuming of the Kit Kat Girls. They were outfitted in what amounted to Victoria’s Secret undergarments basically…sexy underwear was the outfit. What is odd is that the Kit Kat girls on Broadway had more on than the Kit Kat girls at our HS show and in fact, the lingerie of the era would be more than what was chosen to outfit these teenagers. As an aside, my 12 year old was barely starting to wear a bra and when they were giving out the bras and panties (those were kinda the outfits…bustiers and such), she was embarrassed at having to wear sexy underwear on stage. I had to buy her a different bra top (more of a dance one) and she had on that bra top and dance panties and fishnets and a belt (that was all). We laugh 'til this day in Don’t Tell Mama when they threw off their boas, she kept hers on to cover her near nakedness! Anyway, the reason this was a problem was that ALL the talk about this fantastic production was SOLELY about the “outfits” on the Kit Kat girls (kinda akin to a porn magazine). What was a shame was that the entire town was talking about what these girls had on (or didn’t have on, as the case may be), rather than how good the show was! And this wasn’t necessary as you can have very suggestive lingerie for that era for a cabaret girl that didn’t have to be underwear! And it took all the attention away from the fine job that the kids did. It caused SO much controversy. I supported the show FULLY but I do think it was a mistake to have chosen these unnecessary outfits. I say this as a parent who is very into theater and my kid went for 8 summers growing up to a theater camp out of state that also put on Cabaret but the outfits there were not like what was chosen for our HS show. Her camp put on many very adult theme shows (including RENT) or where my kid played a whore on stage and what not. Of course, all the parents there were very supportive of all things theater. But in our town, after this debacle with the Kit Kat girl costumes, they started playing it safe with the choice of musicals…Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Into the Woods, Oklahoma, Wizard of Oz, Guys and Dolls, etc. And while those are all good musicals, it was a shame as I think Cabaret was very appropriate, but it was the poor costuming that caused all the negative attention.

The summer after my D’s first year of college, at age 17, she was in a professional production of Cabaret (again the youngest) and was a Kit Kat girl again. The costumes were sexy but she had more on than when she was 12 in the HS production!

So, our HS show was a case, in my opinion, where the show was a great choice but the judgment in costuming was not good and frankly, not necessary as even the authentic show on Broadway had less skin than our HS had in our production.

I really do hope that high schools put on shows like Cabaret, RENT, Laramie Project, Sweeney Todd, and so on. Theater involves provoking thought and I don’t think the schools should just stick with shows like 42nd Street (though I love it) and Guys and Dolls (love that too).

mathmom · May 3, 2009, 1:09am

Sometimes there’s a bowdlerized version that’s okayed for high schools. I have to admit I’m surprised you didn’t know the content of Cabaret before attending and I can’t imagine 8th graders being embarassed, but communities are different. Our school did Pippen a couple of years back and there was one scene that was a little racier than I remembered.

soozievt · May 3, 2009, 1:21am

I think Pippin is a great choice as well. My D played The Leading Player (that is the name of the character…the one played by Ben Vereen on Bdway) when she was 14, but it was at her theater camp, that does not shy away from any musicals and doesn’t play it safe and just do sugary themed shows.

teriwtt · May 3, 2009, 2:57am

On second thought, I don’t know if offended is the correct word, but very, very disappointed that there were protestors. These kids worked very hard for this play, and it was student directed - he went through so many hoops, even spoke with community leaders about his desire to do Laramie and what he hoped people would gain from it before he even got administration approval. Basically these groups that protest Laramie are offshoots of Fred Phelps group… the one who protests at the funerals of soldiers, too. Due to the nature of the show, I think the students took more ownership in its production, than most others, and very much took to heart what they were portraying.

mimk6 · May 3, 2009, 4:05am

Okay, I just recently let my 14 year old son watch the film version of Cabaret. There is a lot of very mature content in the movie and it’s quite intense. Several years ago my daughter was in her school’s production of the Laramie Project. I did talk to the principal at the time. I told him that I thought it was important to remember that high school kids have younger siblings who should be able to come to see their older siblings in the school plays. If the subject is too mature, or if the F word is repeatedly used in the play (as it is in Laramie), a lot of parents aren’t going to bring their young kids to see it (or bring them not knowing and become upset). I did not bring my then-young son to see his sister perform for a number of reasons. The material is very upsetting, the language is strong, etc. I know one very liberal and open-minded mom found it quite disconcerting to watch her kid using the F word on stage. I think some plays should not be performed in high school because there is a huge range of what families find comfortable and a huge range in the ages of family members. It’s not college, it’s not Broadway, it’s high school and a high school play should be able to be a family affair where grandparents are comfortable attending and relatively young kids (old enough to sit through a play but still young) can be brought. Some parents choose to shield their young kids from all the evil in the world. Maybe some don’t, but some do and I think schools should keep that in mind.

pageturner · May 3, 2009, 9:31am

I suppose I’m a bit conservative when it comes to kids in high school. And I am a high school teacher in the performing arts.

While I do appreciate thought-provoking theater, I am the parent and the teacher who has a problem with the racier costumes and overt sexuality in high school. I always wonder why we think that these kids need to perform in shows with questionable content?

From a teacher standpoint, my belief is that they are there to learn the performing and technical aspects of theater. Can this not be accomplished by putting on shows that an eight year old or an 80 year old could attend comfortably?

These kids are only in high school for four years. Some will never experience Rogers and Hammerstein, Willson, Loesser, etc. because we (and they) keep pushing for the show that causes controversy.

Our high school put on a Rogers and Hammerstein musical this year. When it was announced, the kids were up in arms, because they thought it was “babyish”. But, when I talked to them about it, it turned out that very few of them were familiar with the movie(!) and almost none of them had seen the show. Of course, once the show got underway, they came around, and realized that there were nuances in the show that they hadn’t considered. It takes every bit as much acting skill (and maybe more) to take a show that is familiar and make it fascinating as it does to put on a controversial show and make the audience uncomfortable.

By the way, it was the best attended show in our school’s history.

If these kids want to perform in Chicago, Cabaret, Rent, etc. in their high school years, encourage them to audition for community theater productions. I believe a public school production should be a show that is accessible to all. Yes, they have less clothes on at the beach, and hear lousy language every day in the hall. But we don’t encourage the language (in fact, it is an offense we are supposed to “write up”), and beach-wear is inappropriate for school (they would be sent home if they did that).

I think sometimes we forget that they’re just kids, and are looking to us to see what is OK. Could we save Rent and Cabaret for college?

alwaysamom · May 3, 2009, 10:03am

That would be a school edition and school editions are not available for all shows. If a school gets the licensing rights to the traditional version of a show, they are required to perform the show as written, unless they get specific permission to make a change.

teri, yes, I have seen the school edition of Rent and the one production that I saw was done very well. They had not stripped the show of its meaning, story, or message. I have heard, though, of some schools changing certain aspects of the libretto (which they are not supposed to do) and then, of course, there are some districts that are ‘up in arms’ and fighting to prevent this show from being done. One issue that some schools have is the inability to find a boy who will play Angel, and in some schools, the role is covered by a girl, which is unfortunate, as that relationship is at the core of the show. Now that the full rights to the show are available in North America, it is the most requested show at MTI and hundreds of productions are in the works all across the country. This thrills me because I think everyone should see this award-winning show (same with The Laramie Project) that has been so very successful. It’s message is one that many NEED to see! :)

One of my Ds did a production of the Laramie Project and it was one of the most popular shows the school had ever done. The protests and controversy only fueled the resolve of all those involved, including most of the community, to get this wonderful story out there. The evil in that show is not the fact that the F word is spoken a few times, it’s that those two young men were such horrible human beings that they felt it was okay to kidnap, to brutally beat another young man and tie him to a fence in the desert, leaving him there to die, simply because he was gay. That’s the type of evil that should be exposed.

mimk6 · May 3, 2009, 12:59pm

I did not say that the evil was the f word. The evil is obviously what was done to the young man. Of course, it should be exposed – the question is not whether it should be exposed, but whether a high school stage is the appropriate place to do so. I believe the evil shown in the play combined with language makes it inappropriate for young kids. It’s the same reason I would not show a young child Schindler’s List or the movie I watched last night – Changeling – because I think kids do need to be shielded from some things. I agree with every word that pageturner wrote. Kids will have plenty of time to be provoked to think in college and beyond but they might never discover some of the more traditional plays that are part of theater history. When I was in high school, back in the dark ages, I was very involved in our theater program and we had one of the pre-eminent theater programs in the nation – lots of students went on to be very successful in the field. We did lots of classics – Fiddler, Guys and Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie, Brigadoon, Godspell, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Romeo and Juliet, etc. And the entire community – even people who didn’t have any connection to the school district would attend those productions because they were so well done and it was a fun night out.

teriwtt · May 3, 2009, 1:09pm

I do have to say that when our school did Laramie, they did not use the f bomb. I have only seen Laramie at the high school level, so I wasn’t aware that it had so many of those words. Again, this was student directed, and I’m sure it was part of the stipulation from the administration. In hindsight, it makes me wonder if the director got specific permission to eliminate those words.

From what I do remember, my own daughter (who did the Millwork’s song in Working) did say G*d damn, as it’s written in the song and I was waiting for the gasps in the audience. That’s about as ‘racy’ as our plays have gotten when it comes to language.

Have to disagree with you. The plays should first and foremost be done because it’s an educational experience for the students. Some shows, such as Rent and Laramie teach things that no Rogers and Hammerstein show can match. It’s not about how many members from our community can we cram into the high school auditorium, because if it was, every show would be name-recognizable. Our high school theatre director picks lots of obscure shows as well as well-known shows (they just finished Fiddler this weekend), and he knows the obscure shows will not have the audience draws that the big name shows will. But it’s first and foremost about an educational experience for the students, not ‘I want everyone to be able to come see my daughter or son in a show at the school, so pick something non-controversial’.

Cabaret

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