I taught high school theatre for five years so I have been there and it really annoys me. I could understand if the school was doing something that was meant to be offensive or a show that was too adult for high school...but other than an odd title there is really nothing bad about the show. Unless you are offended by some very mild bathroom humor!
When I directed
Little Shop of Horrors I caught a little flak because of the language and because of the relationship between Orin and Audrey. The parents all loved the show, but it was the principal who had some reservations. A friend of mine was going to do a production of
Oliver! at a junior high school, but it wasn't allowed because the uptight principal thought that the character of Nancy was too much of a whore.
About 10 years ago another school in the area was going to do
A Chorus Line (which I thought was brave to begin with) but caught lots of flak because of the homosexual characters in the show and because of the song "Dance 10, Looks 3". The teacher caved in and cut one of the characters and the entire song. A local gay rights organization got wind of the changes and protested that the show should not be changed. Tams-Witmark was then notified and since the changes were not approved the rights to the show were pulled the day before opening night. I don't think they should have ever done the show to begin with knowing that parents would find some of the material offensive and obviously the teacher should never have cut anything without approval from the licensing organization. However, the real losers here were all the kids who had worked long and hard on the production only to have it cancelled on the eve of opening night.
Ok rant over....
"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering." --Harold Hill from The Music Man
Updated On: 1/26/06 at 03:49 PM