Cleaning up school versions of Broadway shows

From today's Broadway Maven Weekly Blast:

ESSAY: Recent news stories have highlighted school cancellations of productions of shows like Indecent and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. But there’s another kind of censorship that’s been happening for decades — Broadway shows losing “adult” content in the official “Jr.” versions — or just being changed (illegally) by individual directors.

Note: clips of the original and the edited versions of each example are included in this video.

Avenue Q: The song “The Internet is for Porn” becomes “My Social Life is Online,” which makes a completely different point. Given that schoolchildren are fully aware — too aware — or the existence of internet pornography, I’m not sure the change is necessary.

A Chorus Line: Instead of “Tits and Ass” in the song “Dance 10, Looks 3” Val sings “This and That.” It’s awfully prudish but actually works pretty well.

Anything Goes: In “I Get a Kick Out of You,” Reno Sweeney sings of getting “no kick from cocaine,” which is sometimes changed to “perfume from Spain.” It’s strange to cut a lyric in which a character disdains a dangerous drug, but the particular “fix” is quite nice, because it allows the song to keep the rhyme in the lyric “I’m sure that IF I took even one SNIFF” — since cocaine and perfume are both things that you sniff.

Rent: Two interesting changes in “La Vie Bohème.” In that list song, “to leather, to dildos” becomes “to leather, to latex,” which at least adds some alliteration. And the original’s line about Mark Cohen’s inability to “hold an erection” on the High Holy Days becomes the denuded “make a connection.”

Annie: In “It’s a Hard Knock Life” there’s a quick reference to making Mrs. Hannigan “drink a Mickey Finn” — essentially a date-rape drug. In the age of #MeToo that’s not OK, so some productions replace that line with “throw her in a looney bin” — thus replacing one problematic lyric with another. (Do we really need to mock mental heath facilities?)

Grease: The original lyrics to the song “Greased Lightnin’” were quite naughty, including phrases like “You know it ain’t no ****, I’ll be getting lots of tit” (becomes “You know without a doubt, I’ll be really making out” “the chicks’ll cream” (becomes “the chicks’ll scream&rdquo and “**** wagon” (becomes “dragon wagon&rdquo.

Chicago: In “Cell Block Tango,” the lyric “You’ve been screwing the milkman” gets adjusted in various ways (like “messing around with” or “seeing&rdquo.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with cutting out or changing adult content as written in the junior versions. Those are sanctioned by the authors and/or estates. If a director is just changing things without authorization though, that shouldn't be happening even though I know it does all the time. For some shows, you can write in to propose a change or edit and the licensing company can sometimes secure it for you. For example, I know MTI gives some creative license to schools or theaters wanting to change the Wan Tan Ye scene in Music Man and some actual scripts like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Mean Girls have authorized changes at the front of their script. People should just work with the licensing companies on it instead of trying to do it themselves.

Updated On: 5/18/23 at 12:25 PM

Mr. Wormwood said: " For example, I know MTI gives some creative license to schools or theaters wanting to change the Wan Tan Ye scene in Music Man "

Wan Tan Ye? Excuse me...what is this?

 

fashionguru_23 said: "Mr. Wormwood said: "For example, I know MTI gives some creative license to schools or theaters wanting to change the Wan Tan Ye scene in Music Man "

Wan Tan Ye? Excuse me...what is this?

"

A scene in the script of The Music Man where the Mayor's Wife and her gang perform a Native American skit. Most contemporary productions including the recent revival don't include it.