Worst Changes Made in an Amateur Production- Page 5

[jordangirl]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 4:20pm

And aren't there authorized "Junior" versions of the shows that have been "sanitized"? I've been to a few middle school plays that has the licensing statement and were "Annie Jr." or "Fiddler on the Roof Jr." Yes, they're shorter, but I believe they're at least legal.

And it language is that big of an issue, how'd you get away with "Damn Yankees"? Change it to "Darn Yankees"?

[lildogs]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 5:40pm

My good friends were in that GODSPELL tour, Kringas! Joey and Sarah....



EDIT: And broadwayguy is right--do the show as it is, or do another show--there are plenty of appropriate shows out there to perform that you won't have to pirate. I also find it ironic that the teachers are torn between giving the students "real theatre experience" and then sanitizing the show until the original aim is completely lost. Updated On: 4/25/07 at 05:40 PM

[K8eeyore]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 6:11pm

We did a production of HAIR in high school where all references to drugs and sex were cut. Kind of made the entire thing pointless.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 6:22pm

My Fair Lady - reverted to the Pygmalian ending and Eliza doesn't return to Higgens.

Posted: 4/25/07 at 10:49pm

They've had female emcees for years--one of the first official European versions of Cabaret did it around '71 or so. It doesn't really bug me nor seemed to have bugged the creators of the show (similarly I'm not bothered if the Leading Player in Pippin is female or male--this is one of the few cases where a gender switch feels fine to me though)

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 11:10pm

If they changed it to "Darn Yankees," then nobody would've seen it, because they thought it would be a parody of the show.

The only issue then was the kind of innuendo or content about a specific person, like "got the lady high" has a different meaning now, much like "rape" does in FANTASTICKS. I do know "Blonde and stacked and absolutely bare" was changed, but I just don't know what they changed it to.

Anyway, if anyone wants to do "THE FANTASTICKS", and people are sensitive to the word "rape," then they might as well do "It Depends On What You Pay" with the lyrics they have in the current production:

"We've the obvious open school-boy chase
With little mandolins and a fast embrace", etc.

[gcal]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 11:13pm

"Once on this Island-
Agwe played by a male and a female"

oh god- did you see our production of it?
The Agwe played by a male and a female made more sense to me than the two girls running around as Ti Moune for the ENTIRE show.
So awkward... especially playing Daniel, as I literally had a Ti Moune on either side of me for the whole thing.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 11:22pm

Josh: I was talking more to Dez who said they changed things because cursing wasn't appropriate at their school, then said they'd done "Damn Yankees". I was just confused. :P

I saw a version of Grease at a middle school and there were some sanitized lyrics. I do think they kept the pregnancy scare thing in there though. Given that there WERE pregnant kids at the school (yes, middle school) it would have been kind of silly to change that.

[notyourself]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 11:35pm

The theater I work at did the Fantasticks this past summer before it re-opened off-Broadway. The writers actually recommend you change the word "rape" now. The licensing includes permission to replace it with "raid".

The new off-Broadway production has changed some instances to "chase" and others to "raid".

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 4/25/07 at 11:38pm

Oh, and in the same production of Oklahoma!, our Aunt Eller had to say "darned as good" instead of "damned as good". Ah, the joys of high school theatre.

[birdboy782]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 1:37am

In elementary school, we did a production of "Reader Pan"...I played Captain Book...there were also the Little Lost Books...and Thinkerbell! The story pretty much paralleled Peter Pan...wish I remembered more details! Very punny - used a lot of the original songs but changed all the lyrics to fit "our" story. Actually, I think it was pretty genius....

[birdboy782]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 1:37am

double
Updated On: 4/26/07 at 01:37 AM

Posted: 4/26/07 at 1:45am

Is there a new lyric for the Rape song in Fantasticks? I know about Abductions--the song written to the rape ballet music that is available as an alternative ("abductions, abductions, theatrical productions...")

[truk777]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 1:48am

Worst director in community theatre ever. She wrote a song for Potiphar's wife and then at the end of the show during the Any Dream Will Do Finale, the narrator gave each brother a coat of many colors. She also added Keebler elves to Into the Woods. She was fired.

[morosco]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 9:50am

"...She also added Keebler elves to Into the Woods."

Oh...that's too much! lol

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 9:55am

Had to throw my 2 cents in. I HATE when I see productions of Godot or Rosencrantz&Guildenstern with women in either of the 4 lead roles. And I don't know if it counts but our local LORT theatre did a production of Hamlet with Michael J Fox's sister playing the title role. I can't comment on it though because I didn't see it and I heard she was brilliant.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 10:04am

Women have been playing HAMLET for at least 150 years. Some of the great actresses of the 19th century played the role to much acclaim: Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, Maude Adams, etc.

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 10:16am

Oh I'm well aware of that Bennett. I wasn't commenting that I thought it was bad just that it happened. And sorry my brain wasn't fully functioning when I posted. Had I finished this delicious Dunkin Donuts coffee before I posted, my theatre history classes would have come flooding back over me.

[thenewmoon]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 12:09pm

What is it with Grease and gratuitous added songs? Saw an already-bad high school production with someone's little brother as a pint-size greaser... who then performed "Rockin' Robin" during the dance scene. Painful.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 12:11pm

I think people feel they can add songs to GREASE because both the film version and the last Broadway revival interpolated actual 1950s songs...

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 1:50pm

I did the double-cast Charlie Brown thing once...

We added back a verse in Fantine's Death and a verse in Stars in our version of Les Miserables SE this year.

Mostly the cuts I've seen are HUGE cuts to the underscoring over the years. We cut out the "Opening Act II" from South pacific, heavily abridged the Entr"Acte in Cabaret, etc. Oh, and cut out some scene change music and endlessly repeated others...

[hellzapoppin2000]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 2:15pm

The worst thing I ever saw was a production of A Chorus Line in which the director cut the character of Cassie and gave all of her lines and the music and the mirror to Paul. After Val, it was "Paul, Stay on stage please." Then the Paul monologue and then part of the Cassie scene, beginning with Zach butting his forehead with Paul and asking "what are you doing here." It made no sense, but the guy really could dance the Bennett choreography.

[sparrman]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 2:45pm

"Is there a new lyric for the Rape song in Fantasticks?"

Indeed. Go spend a dollar and download it off iTunes if you're curious. Pretty decent way to deal with a problematic song, I think. Better than "Abductions".

[LuPonatic]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 2:51pm

In Anything Goes, our Reno couldn't say "You Bet Your Sweet ASCOT" it was changed to "You bet your sweet BIPPY"

so, our Reno, during the last performance, said "you bet your sweet ASS"

hilarious!

[over_dramatic]

Posted: 4/26/07 at 4:07pm

we did The Fanstasticks at my school last year. and first i must preface this by saying we are a small Liberal Arts College with about 550 students total, so we didn't have much of an audition turn out to begin. we had 3 boys total in the cast. Matt. one of the father's and a "chorus member" (we were gypsies... members of El Gallo's rag tag army!). every other cast member was female, but played male. our director is notorious for cross gender casting.
we also used "It Depends on What you Pay" instead of the Rape Song. it fit great.

in my high school, we changed Fiddler to make Anatevka the finale. we walked through the house singing it at the end. it was heartbreaking.