<p>I am not a fan of Sweeney Todd, and don’t really understand its appeal. I definitely would not take my elementary school aged children to see it. The premise is rather revolting, (killing people and making pies out of them), but doesn’t come across as grisly as it sounds (strangely) on stage – it is more like some old fashioned horror show. It is odd, weird, dark, and so on, but not graphic, bloody, as in the movie version.</p>
<p>I agree with SlitheyTove (Post #33) --The part in the stage version that creeped me out was the lasciviousness of the Judge and what he does (or wants to do) to his young charge. That was downplayed in the movie, but in the stage version, I found it very repulsive and disturbing.</p>
<p>Batboy is a musical that sounds really awful, but I saw our high school do it, and it was hilarious. I am planning to go again, (but not taking my ten year old) to a community theatre version – we’ll see how it is – they claim to use <em>stage blood</em> very liberally, so we’ll see. The high school version was not bloody . . .</p>
<p>If I can stray off topic a bit…“stage blood” made me think of The Crucible (which my school did a few years ago). Talk about a show that’s a little iffy…a group of girls getting the women they disagree with hanged for being “witches”…</p>
<p>HGFM…my daughter also has been in The Crucible (played Mary Warren), so I’ve seen it. </p>
<p>There was a case a few years back when a school in The Midwest would not let the teacher put on The Crucible. And eventually the teacher quit (or was fired…)…I forget the details now…the second year she tried Grease and both got her into a heap of trouble and she basically was ousted. One ironic thing is that The Crucible is a play read in high school.</p>
<p>EDIT: Ok, my memory is going with regard to details but I surprisingly was able to find the story online all this time later. It happened in Fulton, Missouri. The school superintendent banned the school’s production of The Crucible which was scheduled at the HS. His rationale for dropping it was to prematurely keep the school from being “mired in controversy”. His reason for avoiding that predicted outcome was because there was a previous uproar in the town when the school staged Grease. It began when three people from a religious congregation wrote letters complaining about scenes in Grease. So, since they were embroiled in THAT conflct previously, the superintendent did a preemptive strike with the scheduled Crucible production. This is exactly what I mean in earlier posts when just a handful of people can “decide” for the rest what plays/musicals the school should put on. The three people raising a stink “won.” Then, they had to start ruling out future productions they may have chosen out of fear.</p>
<p>BTW, Grease and The Crucible are the second most frequently performed musical and drama on school stages.</p>
<p>The teacher was warned that her contract might not be renewed due to the controversy with Grease and then she resigned rather than being terminated.</p>
<p>By bowing to the hysterical pressure, the actions of the superintendent reflected ironically on themes in The Crucible.</p>
<p>Interesting that they would ban the Crucible. The Juniors read it every year in English. Our HS did it last year. We had not really intended to take our 6th grader but she ended up there due to a logistics issue. I don’t know if she understood every bit of it, but she was interested and enjoyed it.</p>
<p>I read the Crucible junior year as well and loved it…and the play they did (Junior year, coincidentally, and our English teacher gave us extra credit if we saw it) was wonderful. I just find it interesting that people can be upset by things like Sweeney (and apparently the Crucible), but no one bats an eye at the Nazis in Sound of Music.</p>
<p>We, too, had a local pastor and some of his parishioners get upset when they found out our high school wanted to do the Laramie Project. The director (it was student directed) met with them and after some dialogue, the pastor agreed not to stage any formal protest to the school board.</p>
<p>We did, however, have some Westboro church wannabees protest one or two nights of the show at the entrance to the parking lot of the high school.</p>
<p>My D’s high school (an arts high school) did The Laramie Project the year my kid was a junior (only seniors in the acting program were in it) and the folks from Westboro Baptist Church came and picketed in front of the school, which drew counter protesters to the site, too. The newspaper covered the protest (which began the day before the show opened) and as a result (ha ha!), even more people came to see the production.</p>
<p>Not everyone agrees with me, but I think it’s great when schools tackle this kind of material. </p>
<p>Sweeney Todd is an amazing musical and very much worth doing, I think, though I have to admit that I am skeptical that most high school kids are up to handling the complicated music in the way it deserves to be done. The show is very operatic.</p>
<p>NMR - another local high school group formed their own summer community theatre group this past summer and did Laramie. Westboro showed up for it, but not ours. </p>
<p>I do have mixed feelings about the press coverage for these protests. I think it feeds right into the hands of those looking for the attention. I wish the media would stop covering the protests, not just for Laramie, but for the funerals protests Westboro engages in. It might not be so enticing for them to attend.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion, with good points made on both sides of the issue. </p>
<p>Our local high school did stage “Sweeney Todd” a couple of years ago. I do not know if it was a school edition or the full version. There was some controversy, but I heard that the school administrators received letters about equally divided between community members who thought it was inappropriate, and community members who commended the school for reaching to do something so unusual. It was the only high school production of this musical I had heard of at that point.</p>
<p>One thing I do know is that when choosing musicals, the music directors consider the students they have to work with for the lead roles. We have a large school and the lead roles are generally double cast. The student I saw play Sweeney was **excellent **for and in the role – absolutely haunting. I am so glad the school did it.</p>
<p>The school music department also likes to challenge the highly talented kids, musicians in the pit as well as performers on the stage, and chooses musicals with that in mind as well. My understanding is that Sweeney is very musically challenging.</p>
<p>It seems they do often alternate a heavy musical (have done Les Miz and *Cabaret *for example) with something light (such as Music Man). </p>
<p>I do support the full range of shows as I get to see more interesting theater that way! Both of my kids have now graduated but I plan to continue seeing the shows. :)</p>
<p>Re younger audiences, usually the high school invites some middle school classes to come to see a pre-opening show during the day. I believe they skipped that tradition with Sweeney and also had some notice on the advertising, etc. that the show might not be appropriate for young audiences – don’t recall if they noted an age, but there definitely was some advance notice related to the issue.</p>
<p>IMO it was well handled and I am very glad I got to see the local production.</p>
<p>Jyber, I recall that your son’s school did this show and it sounds as if it was handled quite well. </p>
<p>His school did the full version not the school edition. A few years ago, my D’s theater camp did the full version as well (they’ve done it about three times in the past ten years or so). The school edition was just developed in 2007 and tried out for the first time at D’s theater camp that summer. The theater camp worked in conjunction with MTI and now MTI has made the school edition rights available and so now it likely will be in more schools.</p>
<p>When our HS did Into the Woods, they did a special matinee of the first act only for elementary school kids. The second act gets kind of dark.</p>
<p>A school near us is doing Rent this year, but I don’t see it happening at our HS. Some school districts are looser than others. I have also heard of a HS doing Hair (but with clothes on.)</p>
<p>mommusic - when we did Into the Woods, we tried to casually suggest to people bringing young children that they might want to leave after the first act. Yes, the second act is much more dark; but my daughter was the witch, so I enjoyed the second half her character becomes much more complicated (and my favorite song she sings is in the second half).</p>
<p>Just found a couple of hours ago that our high school is doing Fiddler on the Roof this year. I’ll have to say, our director does a good job of alternating fun with more dramatic.</p>
<p>It can be done well if the director is able to do so. Sons’ school did some productions that had warnings that the shows were not for kids under high school age. </p>
<p>Some of the most offensive parts of hair does not include the nudity! I’ve seen edited versions of Hair done, and I would guess changes can be made to Sweeney Todd or many other plays that have some controversial or R rated scenes, language.</p>
<p>Our local Catholic high school did Hair, with bodystockings – I heard – I didn’t make it to the performance. I did hear a hilarious recounting of it from a mom who took her young children (ranging in age from jr. high age down to 1st or 2nd grade) to it because she thought since it was at a Catholic high school that it would be okay for young kids. And her friend assured her that it would be appropriate for families since it was at a Catholic school. Somehow she ended up sitting with her friend, and the kids sat four rows in front of them. She was considering leaving when a certain song was sung that had a lot of sexual words in it, but couldn’t figure out how to do it without disturbing a lot of people, so she ended up staying but wasn’t too happy about it. Fortunately, that was the only really objectionable thing that happened. She thinks (hopes) that most of lyrics of that song went over her children’s heads.</p>
<p>I remember when I saw Sweeney Todd several years ago, I didn’t know what it was going to be about. I went because I knew a family (mom, dad and elementary school age daughter) in it. It took me completely by surprise.</p>
<p>I learned tonight that the drama teacher at our public high school is hoping to do Sweeney Todd this year, LOL. I wonder how that will go over if they do it! The young man who told me this was very excited about it.</p>
<p>A skilled director can make a controversial play fly if the administration supports it. I will add that just because a book or play is on the reading list does not make it palatable to be on stage. THere were some pretty tough books on my kids’ lists that I could not imagine a high school doing as performances. Crucible does not make that list, though. And Grease??? I’ve known middle schools doing that one. Catholic middle schools. Maybe edited.</p>
<p>Sometimes censorship just goes to an extreme. My friend was outraged because her district got flamed for wanting to do Godspell. Some Jewish families felt that it did not belong on stage because of the strong Christianity theme. A lot of debate ensued, but the district dropped it because it just did not want to deal with the controversy. A civil war scene garnered protest because of some lines in the script and the confederate flag. Never mind that this is a historical situation. Political correctness can go too far. </p>
<p>Most musicals have their lascivious scenes. A good director can get around that nicely.</p>
<p>" My friend was outraged because her district got flamed for wanting to do Godspell. Some Jewish families felt that it did not belong on stage because of the strong Christianity theme."</p>
<p>I agree with the Jewish families. No reason for a public high school to perform a musical that’s so obviously Christian.</p>
<p>That’s interesting. I’m Jewish and would have no problem with Godspell. My child hasn’t been it but she has been in Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I just see these shows as having themes and it doesn’t matter if we are aligned with the themes in the shows or condone behaviors depicted in shows or agree with issues in shows. I’d like it to be open so that all these sorts of shows are produced. My D’s theater camp puts on Godspell as well and many kids in it are Jewish in fact. I mean I expect Christian kids to be in Fiddler on the Roof! You know, in our school’s production of Cabaret, one of the kids who had to dress as and depict a Nazi is actuallly one of Maria Von Trapp’s great grandchildren (grandparents of students are the children in the Sound of Music story). When my daughter was in a professional production of Cabaret, she had to wear a swastika on her hat in one of the Kit Kat Girl numbers. This summer, my D’s former theater camp put on the Producers and I have seen video clips and one had to dress as Hitler and the backdrop was a big Swastika and they all had to raise their hands to Hitler and many in the cast were Jewish.</p>
<p>I think that doing “Fiddler on the Roof,” which simply tells the story about a fictional Jewish family, is very different than is doing “Godspell” or “Jesus Christ Superstar,” both of which are based on the New Testament, and therefore are religious in nature. My concern about schools doing those musicals is because they are Bible stories: My concern isn’t that nonJewish students would be cast in roles as Jews. </p>
<p>Would one not view a musical based on the Koran or on Buddha’s life as to be religious in nature?</p>
<p>Both “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” have been done by children’s and college theaters in my city, and it’s no coincidence that they were done around Easter. They also were extremely popular with very religious people, including getting widespread support from church groups.</p>
<p>I just don’t have a problem with it myself. I feel it is a work of art and I don’t mind musicals such as JCS, Godspell, Joseph, etc. that deal with religious points of view. I had no problem with my kid in the musical singing about Jesus despite she doesn’t believe in those things and we are Jewish. I think these musicals show us about other ways or thoughts or religions. I don’t think by staging a musical that deals with these ideas or religions mean one supports or stands for the same ideas. I think these are works of art…just like those in literature or fine arts. I’d want my kid exposed to it all, particularly when it is told as a story and it is not the same as asking one to worship, or celebrate, or believe.</p>
<p>I’ll contrast it a bit. Within a work such as a theater piece, my daughter has had to sing about Jesus. I don’t mind…it is part of the theatrical work and story. But what she did mind was at the school winter concert, the school chose to sing songs celebrating Jesus such as Silent Night. I guess I see it differently in a piece of theater or a piece of literature to read or see a story about different religious beliefs. But that is not the same as singing songs rejoicing Jesus in the school concert and I think other songs of the season would be more appropriate. It is one thing to read or depict a story about another religion and another to be asked to celebrate that religion. The entire audience at the school winter concert was asked to end the concert by joining in and singing Silent Night.</p>