UK Theatre Criticized For "Sound Of Music" Content Warning

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 11:38am

https://www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2023/7/8/uk-theatre-mocked-for-patronizing-content-warning-for-the-sound-of-music?fbclid=IwAR2cW8hquZLZMgJE94WF4EBov1NOLUB78sFDDcLpOdsB24SBUMz1dZtOhKQ

[Kad]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 11:40am

Seems like a tempest in a teapot over a fairly innocuous content warning. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 1:30pm

You never know what will or won't set people off. I had a similar experience at the workshop of my newest musical. It's set in the late forties/early fifties, and one of the characters is an heiress and industrialist who gradually is revealed to be a full-out fascist with secret police and all. The hero tells her off, saying "you're nothing but Hitler in heels." At which point, she completely drops her innocuous mask and smirks, saying "darling, is that such a terrible thing to be?" 

After the show, one of the producers who had come to evaluate the material only had one note for me. "You have to cut the Hitler line. He's taboo. You can't talk about him, you can't joke about him. That one line completely disengaged me from the show." They had no other comments on the material, because the dismissive/flippant reference to the dictator had soured the entire evening for them.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 2:31pm

I certainly hope that producer never tries to watch a Mel Brooks movie. He might faint dead away.

[joevitus]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 2:36pm

There is something very wrong with anyone who is "triggered" by seeing Nazis in The Sound of Music. Not because we should like Nazis or something, but it's an extreme, infantile reaction to an image. And yes, I'm judging the the theater for believing there are such people, and any such people as exist. We're not talking vivid depictions of abuse and dehumanization in this work. 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 3:37pm

Content warning:  Discussion of Nazis/fascism, curtain and pinecone abuse, balletic teen horniness, Gretl being annoying. For full details, please call the box office.  

[Kad]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 4:28pm

If the warning applies to you, great.

If it doesn’t, it doesn’t affect you in any way. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 5:20pm

It's pretty innocuous, but I do wonder who this content warning is for given that the list of themes is literally just the basic premise of the show:

"Music; family; romance; the threat of Nazi Germany and the annexation of Austria"

Also, the contrast in scope between the first three themes and the last two is really funny. It's like if they did Annie and released a content warning of "Music, orphans, dogs, the existential and financial crisis triggered by the Great Depression and Herbert Hoover's slow response to calls for federal assistance"

edit: as has been noted, it’s not even listed as a content “warning” on the website, just a general drop-down that lists content and themes, which appears to be provided for all of their shows. This is fine and inclusive! The phrasing is still funny, regardless.

Updated On: 7/10/23 at 05:20 PM

[Theatrefan2]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 5:38pm

The content warning maybe a minor thing, but that argument works both ways. Why is it needed in the first place? I genuinely question how some people go about their daily lives sometimes. 

If the generations actually impacted by the nazi regime managed to get through numerous war movies and shows, then it really shouldn't be an issue for modern generations. If anything they need to see it, a 20 something said on a TV interview a while back how unimportant ww2 was these days.

You will never ever be able to not upset someone. Everyone has their own triggers, and things they find offensive. I know myself they can be incredibly random and inconsistent.

I saw a crime programme with a content warning 'may contain scenes of crime scenes'. I mean, sometimes common sense should be applied.

Also, by brushing under the carpet  certain aspects of life and history then you just end up with sanitised works (like it looks like the new Miss Saigon in the UK may be) or worse,  eradicating and forgetting things that have happened in the past. No matter how uncomfortable they may be. 

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 5:40pm

It's ridiculous and it has to stop! All this is just pandering and it'd embarrassing.

Updated On: 7/9/23 at 05:40 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 5:48pm

There are sites that tell you whether a piece of media contains sex, or queerness, or animal cruelty, or any number of things that apply to people across any number of religious, social, or political spectrums. Clearly there are many people who want to know what is in something before they see it, for whatever reason. You don’t have to think their reasons are legitimate, but their legitimacy is not yours to assess. You’re free to walk on by. C’est la vie. 

I would rather have a content warning so sensitive folks can avoid it than have the media itself censored, bowdlerized, or altered. 

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 5:53pm

joevitus said: "There is something very wrong with anyone who is "triggered" by seeing Nazis in The Sound of Music. Not because we should like Nazis or something, but it's an extreme, infantile reaction to an image. And yes, I'm judging the the theater for believing there are such people, and any such people as exist. We're not talking vivid depictions of abuse and dehumanization in this work."

my my people are so up in arms about the Nazis being picked on here.  

[joevitus]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 6:24pm

Impeach2017 said: "joevitus said: "There is something very wrong with anyone who is "triggered" by seeing Nazis in The Sound of Music. Not because we should like Nazis or something, but it's an extreme, infantile reaction to an image. And yes, I'm judging the the theater for believing there are such people, and any such people as exist. We're not talking vivid depictions of abuse and dehumanization in this work."

my my people are so up in arms about the Nazis being picked on here."

Actually no one is. But "Nazis being picked on" (great) has zero to do with being triggered by seeing someone in a Nazi uniform in the second half of the second act of The Sound of Music.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 7:24pm

verywellthensigh said: "Content warning: Discussion of Nazis/fascism, curtain and pinecone abuse, balletic teen horniness, Gretl being annoying. For full details, please call the box office."

Cultural appropriation of dirndls, lederhosen and yodeling. 

 

[chewy5000]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 9:07pm

You'd be amazed how many people rock up to the theatre (or cinema etc.) with absolutely no clue what they're about to see. Also, just because it's a classic, every performance will be someone's introduction to the material.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 9:18pm

I suppose that some are just tired of dealing with other people's ridiculous fragility.

[Voter]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 10:05pm

2022 Sound of Music at Paper Mill Playhouse did this too with their content warning. They said this production contains Na** paraphernalia

Updated On: 7/9/23 at 10:05 PM

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 10:38pm

I'm with Kad on this one.

On their website it's not labeled a "trigger warning" or a "content warning." In fact, it's not labeled "warning" at all. These are labels that Chris Peterson and all of you have ascribed to it. 

It's just part of a list in a section with descriptors about the show. Is it not true that it's a show about "Music; family; romance; the threat of Nazi Germany and the annexation of Austria?" 

I'm just confused about what is making people mad. 

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 11:12pm

The fact that theatre has existed forever without having to do this should speak volumes. Its pandering to the very very few but vocal voices on social media who get triggered by anything that could make them feel.....anything.

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 7/9/23 at 11:16pm

songanddanceman2 said: "The fact that theatre has existed forever without having to do this should speak volumes. Its pandering to the very very few but vocal voices on social media who get triggered by anything that could make them feel.....anything."

Without having to do what though? Tell you about the show? Last I checked, telling you what you're seeing in very basic terms has existed for most of forever. 

The only triggered or offended people I see here are all of you who are so bothered by this. 

[Pernigraniline]

Posted: 7/10/23 at 9:22am

People do walk into the stage version and have no idea that it has a different script to the film, with a different tone, and has those two 'nasty' little satirical songs in, and seeing real people dressed up as stormtroopers and saluting Hitler has a VERY different effect in person than on a grainy film. The Palladium/ALW show for instance turns the entire auditorium into a Nazi rally with swastikas dropping down from the ceiling and the audience held at gunpoint.
Of course there needs to be a warning, it can be forgotten that it's about evil Nazis. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 7/10/23 at 10:30am

I looked at the website and all of their shows have little drop-down sections regarding content, with a note that there may be spoilers. The content tab for one of their other shows, for example, reads:

“Rock Follies Content and Themes

Language Strong language
Nudity None 
Violence A punch
Themes The music industry in the 1970s; feminism; friendship; sexism and misogyny; sex; drug taking and addiction; reference to porn films; rivalry and ambition.”

So it’s literally just what’s in the show, and you kind of have to go out of your way to find this information. As noted by jkcohen626, it’s not labeled as a warning - this is just information about the content of the show, which is a pretty common practice.

[joevitus]

Posted: 7/10/23 at 10:31am

Oh please. Do they post these warnings before performances of Cabaret? This is beyond silly. To my knowledge, no actual Holocaust survivor has ever been triggered by a stage performance of The Sound of Music (and the Nazis actually have more, not less, menace in the film, so the whole "it's more powerful in the stage version" argument doesn't work), so I have no tolerance or empathy for some hypersensitive millennial going to pieces over it.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/10/23 at 10:40am

jkcohen626 said: "songanddanceman2 said: "The fact that theatre has existed forever without having to do this should speak volumes. Its pandering to the very very few but vocal voices on social media who get triggered by anything that could make them feel.....anything."

Without having to do what though? Tell you about the show? Last I checked, telling you what you're seeing in very basic terms has existed for most of forever.

The only triggered or offended people I see here are all of you who are so bothered by this."

Utter rubbish. Movies have age certificates and more recently 'contains violence'. From a production of Romeo and Julliet  announcing it contains suicide to this, its like nobody is just allowed to go in to a show and experience a story and emotions anymore. And these signs are not just on websites, it's on boards inside the venues. 

 

Announcing a show contains gun shots or strobes etc is perfectly normal, the rest is all pandering to a small offended by everything audience.

 

I have a major play opening in the UK next year and it contains very adult things, but if I and the producers have to put everything on a board in the theatre that the show contains, then its pointless doing the show. 

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/10/23 at 10:59am

As Charley Kringas noted, they literally do this for all of their shows, the label it as a potential spoiler and there isn't anything noted as a 'trigger warning' or 'content warning.' 

This seems like the dumbest thing to let raise your blood pressure. Come on now.