If THE HELP was a play/musical...

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 7:33pm

How do you think the show would be done, or which would it be better as: a musical or a play?

Just an idea after watching the movie and currently reading the book.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 7:39pm

Well Jennifer Holiday would obviously have to be in it.

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 7:46pm

I hadn't thought about it, but it could totally work as a musical.

[Owen22]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 7:51pm

...as it someday will be...

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 8:15pm

Chenoweth will don her Promises, Promises wig and beg to play the Jessica Chastain role.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 8:15pm

Chenoweth will don her Promises, Promises wig and beg to play the Jessica Chastain role.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 9:15pm

I think Laura Benanti would be a good Elizabeth, but it's a relatively small role.

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 9:17pm

Sounds like a terrible idea. "The Help" - both the book and film - are very problematic pieces, e.g., Skeeter is every much a racist as all the other white people in the "The Help."

Enough commentary has been written about "The Help" and after reading the novel and seeing the film, I think the novel and its film adaptation are more than enough. There's absolutely no need to do a stage production of this not-really-groundbreaking work.

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 9:43pm

Woah! How is Skeeter a racist? I never got that impression at all!

[gypsy4]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 9:54pm

I think it would translate nicely to the stage with the right creative team and cast and all, the movie it's self has a theatrical fee to it I actually started picturing the characters going in to song while watching it a couple nights ago who would penn the score? what about LaChanze as abilene?

Updated On: 12/23/11 at 09:54 PM

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 9:57pm

...then you'd have Facebook commenters all pissed off. Trust me, I know.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 10:04pm

I think a more interesting piece would be "The Long Walk Home" the movie with Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 10:08pm

I have my students read and discuss this novel in my American lit. class. As a naturally curious person (and resident of Jackson, Mississippi, and Mississippi native), I, too, would like to see why Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a racist. I've read the book several times (as well as had the privilege of meeting Katherine Stockett twice - not that that matters), and I am not saying that Skeeter is not racist; I would just like to check out this angle.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 10:42pm

Not a musical.

An opera.

This is one of those stories that, if we're going to drag it onto the stage, needs to be as completely sung through as SWEENEY.

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 10:43pm

That's funny! I'm from Jackson, too! I found most everyone in the book and film to be despicable besides Skeeter and the maids. I know real racists down here and none of them behave the way Skeeter does.

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 11:27pm

By the way, I also think it's ironic that LaChanze was mentioned in this thread for a musical version and was also in the movie!

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 12/22/11 at 11:33pm

I think a musical could be very intriguing if it utilized the musical trends of the period and the location and contrasted the music that would've been popular for the maids and for their employers. Sometimes that music could be different and sometimes it could be the same.

I also feel like some of the characters as portrayed in the book and movie are so over-the-top that they're just screaming to have a song to sing. I'd see it for sure.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:14am

I've only seen the movie but it's curious how people think that racist immediately means that you believe slavery is right, for example, or that racist people are only the people who act like Hilly. At least as portrayed in the movie, Skeeter is implicated in practices that perpetuate racist ideas. For example, the fact that we see her going out with her "real racist" friends and talking about boys even after she has made such a fuzz about how she believes in civil rights is really problematic. The movie never bothers to portray Skeeter as someone who's concerned about the fact she's hanging out with those girls, she just does it and we're supposed to be excited that they are introducing her to a new boy.
Then there's the larger issue of how Skeeter gets to leave Jackson, become a successful writer after basically using the maids' stories to get *her* dreams but meanwhile Minny and Aibileen are stuck in Jackson. Aibileen especially is out of a job by the time the film ends, yes she has her dreams and whatnot, but hers are just dreams whereas Skeeter's dreams are actually a reality by the end of the movie thanks to all the maids who provided their stories.
It's a white woman's story at the end of the day. I know people will say I'm being radical and reading "too much into it" but that's my perspective on what I think is an incredibly problematic story. We already have a brilliant musical about black maids that escapes a lot of the traps THE HELP buys into, and that is CAROLINE, OR CHANGE.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:17am

I didn't even think of the inherent similarities between this and CAROLINE, OR CHANGE. Which is incredibly strange since CAROLINE is one of my favorite musicals...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:27am

Can you buy Minnie's pie during intermission?

[ComingUpRoses2]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:29am

I really just think Skeeter was scared of being alone and not having any friends whatsoever. I know I've stuck with people who aren't good for me or don't believe in the same things as me. I've been "friends" with people who say that everything's "gay" or call people "fags", which I find despicable. I also never believe in most of their political views. Hell, people in my family still use the n-word. I've called them out before, but what am I gonna do? Move away and never speak to them again? Some people simply don't change.

I can relate to her feelings of not wanting to be alienated, especially in the south, where people are extremely judgmental and sometimes, very backwards in their thinking.

[Starcarolina]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:41am

"Can you buy Minnie's pie during intermission?"


Probably, but I hope they have someone watching her make them so she doesn't spit in them for spite since it will more than likely be white people seeing the show and eating them...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 12:48am

Oh, that Minnie. Always messin with the white folk' food.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 2:32am

The show curtain reads:

YOU IS KIND
YOU IS SMART
YOU IS IMPORTANT

[lida rose]

Posted: 12/23/11 at 3:23am

"I know people will say I'm being radical and reading "too much into it" but that's my perspective on what I think is an incredibly problematic story. We already have a brilliant musical about black maids that escapes a lot of the traps THE HELP buys into, and that is CAROLINE, OR CHANGE."

nailed it. i'm surprised that this is the first time i've ever seen caroline, or change come up in a discussion of the help, which is a shame because caroline is definitely the superior work. it does a beautiful job of exploring the complexities of those relationships in a way the help, in any incarnation, never could.