<p>I can just imagine the teacher fighting for her job in front of the school board, “But I didn’t KNOW it was going to be prank night.”</p>
<p>binx, the music is terrific (it’s Sondheim!) Occasionally a film of the Broadway production with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury is shown on PBS (what Northstarmom is referring to), and it’s superb.</p>
<p>My son was Joe Vegas in FAME – The Musical this past spring. The lyrics to his big number were changed to “I Can’t Keep It Cool.” Some of the dialogue in the show was changed… but not all of it. :eek:</p>
<p>HS Musicals are community events around here and everyone who’s ever known one of the cast members tries to come… little kids, grandparents, neighbors, church friends, etc. Because of that, I think teachers should be considerate of what is said and done on stage. </p>
<p>My son told me from the beginning of the FAME auditions that we should not invite everyone we knew. It was much easier when he was Linus in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. ;)</p>
<p>MaryTN…exactly! These works can still be put on with very minor changes by HS aged kids (like I mentioned they put on Hair but were not nude). I know my D’s camp worked with MTI to develop and stage the first school edition of Avenue Q. My D had already graduated. However, in a musical revue she put on herself in our region, she had some songs from Avenue Q and she was cognizant of the family audience and for example, in the line where it goes “F— my TA”, she changed it to “Date my TA”. And I believe that MTI in these school editions of RENT, Sweeney Todd, or Avenue Q, have kept most of the show intact but changed some lyrics to be more PG level. But the theatrical works and themes themselves should be appropriate, in my opinion, for high school kids to stage. Nudity and improper language can be altered without doing away with staging the show itself.</p>
<p>Our high school did Sweeney Todd when my older child was still in high school…golly, at least 6 years ago. It’s a very odd play, but you know…most musicals are odd. But truthfully, other than being “odd”, I think it’s fine. It’s no odder than Little Shop of Horrors…which the HS also did. If you’re counting bodies…a lot of folks die in West Side Story too.</p>
<p>thumper…great point West Side Story is a classic put on at many high schools. Not only are people fighting and killed in WSS, but I recall when my D played Anita in WSS at her theater camp, there was a scene in Doc’s shop where she was raped by the Jets when she comes looking for Tony. They threw her on a table and they held one boy over her who was violating her sexually. And at college she played Audrey in Little Shop, an abused young woman and there is lots of killing in that show too. And in Bat Boy, my daughter’s character was murdered. She’s had sex, turned tricks with men as a prostitute, and been murdered several times on stage already, LOL…and she is still 19.</p>
<p>Soozie, clearly you are very proud of your D and all her roles, and I don’t mean to take anything away from that. You have shared enough about her that I recognize her talent and dedication. Please don’t take the following as directed toward you or anyone in particular. I’m just thinking out loud.</p>
<p>Sex - the good parts and the ugly - is part of life. So is death. So, unfortunately, is violent death, drug use, organized crime, suicide, and not getting into Harvard! All tragedies to someone. It used to be a given that your parents had sex at least once. (Not so anymore, with in vitro). In fact, underneath our clothes we are all naked - every one! A story that reaches us is going to have real life in it.</p>
<p>A story that pretends everything is hunky dory all the time is fitting maybe for preschoolers. I don’t think that is the issue here. Not body count. Not who is willing to shed their clothes on stage. </p>
<p>The issue is how is the content handled? Is the sex or gore gratuitous? Implied or spelled out in all it’s gory detail? What is the purpose or message involved? Is it appropriate for your designated / expected audience, and are you going to whine if they choose not to attend? </p>
<p>People go to plays for many reasons. To escape, to be seen, to see “art”, or because their granddaughter is on stage. In the staging of anything, you have to balance your “rights” to perform anything with your expectations of how others will respond. It sounds as if Sweeny Todd manages to get it’s message across, and many folks here have enjoyed it. But the school decided that the message or the method (I suspect method, but I don’t know) wasn’t appropriate for their community. Does it mean that no one in the community would have appreciated it? Does it mean the community is evil or small-minded? I don’t think so, but I also don’t think that is the point. Is it possible that the culture from community to community varies - so that what plays in NYC doesn’t play in Peoria? Should it?</p>
<p>at our school prank night was always referred to as senior prank night, as it was always the seniors that pulled it off.</p>
<p>Imagine my dismay when my own daughter was involved in one that went a little over the top in 2003. They were doing Little Shop of Horrors and the last night, some of the seniors decided to ‘add’ a little to one of the scenes that takes place in the dentist’s office. They decided the dentist’s walls were a bit too bland, and hung up 2 or 3 bras on hooks on that wall. Now, there was so much other stuff on stage, that it wasn’t something that was obvious right away. So I’m sitting there, watching the show, and the bras caught my eye (this is after I began to hear a little snickering here and there). As I looked at them (and snickered myself), those bras began to seem familiar. I even said to my friend I was sitting with, “Those look like D1’s bras.” She has some bras that would not be described as white, beige or black. </p>
<p>So I was in the theatre lobby during intermission and ran into the theatre director, and asked her how hard she came down on the students at the break. She looked right at me and said, “Well, I came down on your daughter the hardest since she was part of it.” She was obviously furious so I backed off and decided to wait and ask my daughter her version of the story afterwards. The way it unfolded was, as the seniors were trying to come up with a good prank a few days before the show, one of the male leads was over at our house, and managed to sneak a few bras out of my daughter’s dresser. When daughter found out about it the night of the show, she asked him not to put them up, but he did. So the director assumed it was all my daughter’s fault and she got the brunt of the admonishment. This young man told the theatre director what he did, that it had been his idea all along and he had done it by himself. She didn’t seem too moved by the whole confession, and never apologized to my daughter for falsely accusing her.</p>
<p>That was that theatre director’s last year at our school. I don’t think there have been any noticable pranks since then.</p>
<p>EK4 - regarding adapting shows… really, when someone purchases the rights to perform a show, they are pretty much buying into the whole show and have no right to adapt it themselves. I remember in one show, the theatre director (new one) chose to eliminate or change some profane words (I think in the Laramie Project) and made a comment to me that he could realistically get in trouble for altering the script. That is why many shows have ‘high school’ versions, so that schools can purchase versions of shows that are more appropriate for high schools and younger audiences. </p>
<p>I actually heard that they’re working on a high school version of Spring Awakening. That would be… um… interesting, to say the least.</p>
<p>Even Oklahoma has it’s moments. Think of Judd. </p>
<p>I guess I just don’ see that Sweeney Todd is anything more than just plain odd.</p>
<p>binx, I totally already know that your remarks are not of a personal nature at all, no worries. Further, the only reason I brought my own kid up was some examples from her experiences since we were talking of HS productions and then college ones, etc. I shared what I have observed first hand. </p>
<p>Anyway, I have also addressed the concept of “audience” in the sense that in a show meant for family audiences, one would alter things like take out nudity or curse words, etc. My concern, however, is that some schools are “banning” certain shows due to the themes in them and I am against that. Who decides? And what’s wrong with exploring themes like sexuality, oppression, crime, prejudice, and so forth? These shows deal with issues that make people think and reflect. They can have an impact. I don’t want to eliminate such shows that have certain themes in them just to keep it light or safe topics. While an elementary school would not be an appropriate place to stage a show like Chicago or Sweeney Todd, I expect a HS to be able to produce it. I think the themes are no different than many explored in literature. Thinking of the audience is important to a degree but I also think of a HS production for the experience it gives the participants and so limiting it to shows like Sound of Music (which I adore, don’t get me wrong) but saying no to Cabaret, Footloose, La Cage Aux Folles, RENT, Avenue Q, Sweeney Todd, etc. really does bother me. </p>
<p>I don’t want art to be supressed. I don’t want someone saying “homosexuality” is not appropriate or “teen drinking” shouldn’t be seen on stage in a story" or “pre-marital sex should not be conveyed,” or “murder, crime, and greed should not be displayed in a show,” or “the subject of drugs should not be shown on stage”, etc. I think these issues and topics belong in plays and books and are ways to get people to think about such themes. A play is not condoning behaviors but portraying behaviors. </p>
<p>By the way, the murders I have seen on stage…rarely are gory…they are implied or else you see someone stab someone with a knife or shoot with a gun but nothing like what you see in a movie with blood and guts. Should we ban all shows that depict violence? Should we ban shows that show different attitudes about women? about sex? about drugs? about lifestyles? about racism? with crimes in them? </p>
<p>I do agree that the communities vary where shows are put on. But I would really like to see a theater or school not bow to those who say “inappropriate” but rather stage material that may provoke thought. That’s just me. I would really be worried about where the line is drawn with outlawing certain plays at a school and who decides that (ie. certain outspoken people in a community who may even be in the minority about such a request?)</p>
<p>Well it’s a <em>bit</em> odder than most. “Have a little priest…”</p>
<p>Everyone’s personal standard of “odd” or “appropriate” or “acceptable” varies. So, that’s why I ask who should decide such things? I’d rather see any musical be able to be produced at a high school. I just think it is a very slippery slope to decide that certain plays, musicals or even books are unacceptable, inappropriate or odd and that the HS aged kids cannot have access to reading or staging such works.</p>
<p>The minute I read the OP I thought of Macbeth.</p>
<p>If it is really a purpose of the HS musical to provide entertainment for families, that’s a valid reason to ditch a scary play. But most schools do claim that it’s for the benefit of the high school students themselves.</p>
<p>And so what if someone is murdered and eaten in a show or someone is raped or someone has sex with the same sex, or someone snorts cocaine? A show deals with issues but the show is not meant to be promoting such behaviors. Sweeney Todd doesn’t promote violence, murder, or cannibalism…hardly. It depicts some very provoking themes. Lots of literature is like this.</p>
<p>Maybe we should not let schools stage the classic, Oliver, because family audiences may think it is OK to rob someone or for a guy to abuse his female partner and even murder her? Where do we draw the line here?</p>
<p>Hey, how about when “The Producers” is released for high school licensing? I’m envisioning just how people are going to react to THAT. 
Our synagogue does a musical staged by the high schoolers each year. I keep suggesting that they do “Rocky Horror”. For some odd reason, they keep ignoring my suggestion. Just realized: that’s a musical with casual cannibalism!</p>
<p>Pippin is odd, but has some wonderfully upbeat songs that really captured me as a teen, especially “Corner of the Sky”.</p>
<p>My son was the stage manager for his high school musical Batboy last year. Talk about an odd play. It has a rape scene, incest, bestiality and everyone is killed in the end. It did raise a few eyebrows but the music was great! They did Urinetown the year before.</p>
<p>My school did Sweeney last year. :)</p>
<p>I forgot to mention but my daughter’s theater camp put on the first youth production of The Producers this past summer.</p>
<p>Judy, my daughter was in a professional production of Bat Boy and it is an unusual musical but campy and fun. The basis of it is a National Enquirer story. She got murdered in that show, the same summer she was murdered as Lucy in Jekyl and Hyde (she thought it was kinda funny that she kept getting murdered). Then, she was murdered as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. </p>
<p>But just to remind you that not every show is like this…LOL…she did play Annie 
(but she has moved on…)**Then again, Miss Hannigan was an alcoholic in that musical…</p>