Sex on stage

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 3:36am

What is this new trend of actually watching sex on stage?  I’ve seen a number of things recently with women and men pulling down their undies and the audience is sat there watching man cheeks thrusting and jiggling all around.  Jonah, Teeth.  There was a handjob in The effect.  Isn’t there a more tasteful way to do this.  Why does it have to be so literal? 

[The Other One]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 8:20am

I'm not very comfortable with it either, Broadway Flash, but they can't exactly fade to black, can they?  (I usually just feel sorry for the actors involved.)

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 8:29am

This is why intimacy choreographers exist. To make it as comfortable for the actors as possible.

If you’re asking why it’s happening, it’s because sometimes people do it in real life and if the story calls for it, well…

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:02am

I don't know that 2-3 shows really qualifies as a "trend". However, simulated sex is different on film than on stage.  It seems more personal, more like you shouldn't be there.   But I also think thats what makes theater so beautiful, the personal connection.  

As long as it serves the story, I don't really care.  Portraying it just because you can is a different story

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:18am

Avenue Q had the best sex scene on stage ever, in my opinion. IYKYK.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:52am

You’re asking why sex was shown in Teeth!??

Uh did you not know the plot going in?

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:56am

Grow up.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 10:08am

As long as it serves the story, I'm fine with it. Not comfortable with it? They usually-key word: usually- have some sort of warning in the plot description. If it's something like Teeth, unless you never saw the movie and didn't read the plot description well....that's your own fault. It's not a trend in shows right now. Exaggerate much? 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 11:15am

I actually did go into teeth not knowing anything about it, which was perfect cause it was shocking and thrilling.  I was in the front row for Jonah and it looked like they were actually f*cking.  I feel like a lot of the sex scenes back in the day were done through dance or some sort of creative staging. Now it just feels like, well they have sex so we’re gonna show them having sex. 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 11:32am

Broadway Flash said: "I actually did go into teeth not knowing anything about it, which was perfect cause it was shocking and thrilling. I was in the front row for Jonah and it looked like they were actually f*cking. I feel like a lot of the sex scenes back in the day were done through dance or some sort of creative staging. Now it just feels like, well they have sex so we’re gonna show them having sex."

It's not just a sex scene for the shock value or anything like that. Wicked has "As Long As You're Mine" which I believe is a very intimate scene and maybe graphic in the book (I could be wrong! I haven't finished the book)? but in the musical it is far from graphic. Hadestown also has characters being intimate through song and dance. There are many examples but those are the two that come to mind first. You're naming two off Broadway shows, and with one of them you can't take those scenes out because it is part of the plot lmao. It's not like every other show right now is trying to shove sex in our face. You need to chill. Unless you can name 5 shows that do try to do that. I'll wait. 

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 11:51am

It's a good thing you weren't around in the seventies on Broadway.

[Dionysus3]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 11:55am

Perhaps they’ve made changes since I saw it, but I actually found the sex scenes in Teeth to be somewhat tame, and so ridiculous as to never approach titillating or gratuitous. I don’t know how that show would have worked without it. 

[tacotheatrelover]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 4:30pm

this was a weird thread to read right after waking up this morning

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 7:14pm

Dionysus3 said: "Perhaps they’ve made changes since I saw it, but I actually found the sex scenes in Teeth to be somewhat tame, and so ridiculous as to never approachtitillating orgratuitous. I don’t know how that show would have worked without it."

Since the OP thinks the sex scenes in “Teeth” are explicit I wonder how he would have reacted to The New Group’s “Intimacy” a while back. Now that was shocking.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 7:47pm

The sex in Teeth- three instances, if I recall- is all basically unsexy thrusting. The focus isn’t on the sex itself, after all.

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 7:49pm

this is not a "trend" if you've consistently been seeing off-broadway theatre for the last few decades...it sounds like you just happened to see your first few shows with sex.

Congrats.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 8:02pm

I’ve been going to off broadway shows for over a decade, but ive never seen this type of thing before.  I also mostly feel bad for the actors involved. 

[Kad]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 8:28pm

Broadway Flash said: "I’ve been going to off broadway shows for over a decade, but ivenever seen this type of thing before. I also mostly feel bad for the actors involved." 
 

No words. 

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 8:32pm

Broadway Flash said: "I’ve been going to off broadway shows for over a decade, but ivenever seen this type of thing before. I also mostly feel bad for the actors involved."

Did it ever occur to you that maybe the actors onstage each have their own individual relationship with sex that doesn’t align with your antiquated feelings on the matter? Just a thought.

[yyys]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:09pm

If you're prude, don't go see theater.

Updated On: 3/17/24 at 09:09 PM

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 9:25pm

Not a prude, just don’t think it’s pleasant to watch on stage.  Aspects of Love they each had sex with each other (including with family members) but it was so exquisite and elegant not trashy and awkward 

[veronicamae]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 10:14pm

Broadway Flash said: "Not a prude, just don’t think it’s pleasant to watch on stage. Aspects of Love they each had sex with each other (including with family members) but it was so exquisite and elegant not trashy and awkward"

Ah yes, exquisite, elegant incest...

You see enough theater to know that it would be boring if every show was directed and acted the same way. You don't have to like it, but it is not a "new trend." Seems as though you happened to see a few shows within a narrow span of time that all had sex scenes. I've seen half a dozen shows so far this year and none had sex scenes - if we apply your logic to my experience, the trend seems to be no sex at all in shows.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 10:16pm

Sex, in reality, is seldom elegant.   And it is often trashy.   These are good things.  (Usually.)

 

If seeing acts of sex makes you uncomfortable (and I don't think it's a big deal if it does) maybe you should research a little more before attending shows.

 

 

Updated On: 3/18/24 at 10:16 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 3/18/24 at 12:01am

I mean, didn't Spring Awakening have a fairly graphic sex scene to end act 1?  I guess in Rent it was more interpretive, but I think the wide variety of ways to depict sex on stage has been more than just a recent trend.  You could say that maybe audiences like seeing things more literally depicted on stage nowadays (fewer dream ballets for one thing), but the director decides how to depict those scenes and now that intimacy coordinators are pretty standard, it seems like it's fine as long as actors don't have an issue with it?  I could see the case for putting a parental warning for those kinds of things, but sometimes they're just meant to shock the audience.

[The Other One]

Posted: 3/18/24 at 7:03am

Some of you are a little too comfortable with shaming. The OP never called for the plays to be closed for indecency.