Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Arts But You Can't Play the Rent!
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 10:13 AM
Officials at a high school in Minnesota cancelled the fall musical, a sanitized production of Rent.
The musical was to be a toned-down version of the original script, but would have still centered on a group of young artists and musicians struggling to succeed on New York's Lower East Side.Superintendent Stan Slessor and Red Wing High School Principal Beth Borgen say the play's homosexual elements were not behind their decision. Instead they say the main problem was the issue of drug use.
It's good to know that it wasn't the homosexual elements—helium (for the heels), zirconium (cubic'd, for the drag queens), chromium (for the dykes on bikes' bikes), silicon (for the dykes no bikes' strap-ons), neon (to light the way to the gay bars), etc.—that lead to the canceling of the show. And here's hoping the drug that school officials had trouble with wasn't AZT. The article goes on to note that the last time officials at Red Wing High cancelled a musical it was West Side Story. Perhaps the dancing was too difficult—or maybe it was the, er, interracial elements of the love story.
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1
Zirconium isn't an element. Cubic zirconium is primarily carbon. Ask Golob, he'll straighten you out.
4
Did Roger ever actually get around to writing that Musical Accomplishment of A Lifetime Song, or did he just sing about maybe writing it and then play Musetta's Waltz at the end?
6
Don't forget Manganese (for the gays), and Tungsten and Titanium (for the lesbians). Europium and Berkelium could work as well....
7
Oh this reminds me of doing FAME! in high school. In the script we bought Montgomery was a eunuch instead of gay. I played Montgomery and asked the director to cut the eunuch part and make Montgomery gay again, though I wasn't allowed to say it in so many words due to district policy that didn't allow any mention of homosexuality in any school activity or curriculum. (Including health class. Thanks Federal Way School District!) I made it pretty obvious that he was gay, though, without actually saying it.
Oh and at the end of the version of the script we bought the class sang "America the Beautiful" instead of "I Sing the Body Electric." Fortunately, we were able to go back to the original on that, as well.
Oh and at the end of the version of the script we bought the class sang "America the Beautiful" instead of "I Sing the Body Electric." Fortunately, we were able to go back to the original on that, as well.
8
The article doesn't mention whether they actually licensed the rights to perform RENT (or were planning to)--several years ago in college I heard that the rights were either really hard to get, or impossible. Maybe it's changed since the show has closed on Broadway, but I'd still guess that it's way more expensive than most other options for high school musicals.
10
Chances are, they canceled West Side Story when they realized there are like 50 roles for boys and 2 for girls, and they had 50 girls and 2 boys auditioning for the show. That's the way high school musicals usually go.
11
There's a teen version of RENT out there. My brother works at a small theatre west of the Mississippi and they got so many complaints from parents and former company members about their teen production that they, too, ended up canceling it. We've got a long way to go, baby.
12
Yeah, Red Wing is really a city in Minnesota. It's where Red Wing shoes and boots come from:
www.redwingshoes.com/about/
www.redwingshoes.com/about/
13
@9 Could you just speak for me today? 1st you said what I was going to say about the "self-esteem" post above, and now you made me squirt milk out my nose.
15
I am from Red Wing and I graduated from the high school there.
This is embarrassing.
When I was a senior in high school, we did a production of "Bye, Bye Birdie," in which teens obsess over and throw themselves at a celebrity singer. Like that's a good message.
This is embarrassing.
When I was a senior in high school, we did a production of "Bye, Bye Birdie," in which teens obsess over and throw themselves at a celebrity singer. Like that's a good message.
16
Geez, so much for Minnesota being the blue gem in the Midwest. I'm from South Dakota, and they somehow got away with doing Rent in high school there.
18
I remember getting all indignant when the School Board canceled our proposed sanitized version of "Hair." Now that I'm older, I realize that it's stupid to want to put on sanitized versions anyway. Stick to something bland (but not bowdlerized) in high school. Then do the real thing in college.
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