Avenue Q
By: Jeff Whitty
Broadway
The characters use profanity, and the songs concern adult themes. A recurring theme is the central character's search for a "purpose." Since the musical soundtrack for it was released, the song "The Internet Is for Porn" has become particularly popular on websites such as YouTube and can be downloaded for free from the official website. According to the official site, the musical is appropriate for both adults and mature teenagers.
The show does raise eyebrows due to the fact that it is a show about adult themes and has suggestive parts about the show. To the outside the show looks like a puppet show but it brings up issues such as Homosexuality, Racism and other hot issues. It pokes fun at these issues but that is something that shouldn't be so funny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_Q
Equus
By: Peter Shaffer
Broadway
The play caused controversy because actor Daniel Radcliffe (Alan Strang) appears in full Equus is being produced on Broadway by David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers."
The show caused controversy here and also in London due to the fact that Daniel Radcliffe goes full frontal for the show. At the time he was only 17 years old and also was appearing in the Harry Potter films. The show goes on to win rave reviews for his portrayal of the character and also for having to do the show at such a young age.
http://www.newyorktheatreguide.com/news/feb09/equus08feb09.htm
La Cage Aux Folles
By: Harvey Fierstein
1983 Broadway
A gay-themed project was risky in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, even though many Broadway performers, crew members, and devotees were homosexual. But the creative team - all gay men - felt that such a show was the tonic needed by those suffering from the illness and to combat the overt homophobia that had surfaced in some quarters due to the threat posed by the epidemic.
This musical at the time was very controversial because due to the nature of the show. There really wasn't a lot of information about AIDS at the time and this was a show about homosexuality. It goes on into great lengths talking about the show and how there really hadn't been anything like it until Rent came along in the early 90's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cage_aux_Folles_(musical)
By: Jerome Kern
The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River Showboat, from 1880 to 1927. The show's dominant themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
The show Show Boat is basically about people having entertainment traveling on boats though the Mississippi bring entertainment to people. This show dealt with it being in the south and having to use racial slurs. When this show was produced in the 20's Ziegfeld used African Americans on stage and some people were in shock over this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat
Pleasure Man
By: Mae West
Broadway 1930
A hung jury caused the judge to dismiss obscenity charges against Mae West's Pleasure Man. This is the same judge who broke a gavel, pounding to keep order and erase from the record a question by Miss West about how a police officer could tell if he were addressing a young lady or a man in drag. When the show was raided, police arrested 52 members of the cast, several of whom were men in drag. This resulted in an amendment to the "Wales Padlock Law" in New York.
The article goes on to talk about how the show was raided and that this wasn't the only theatre in New York that was having this issue. This was also during the Great Depression so people were into seeing Vaudeville type of show that may have had some racy acts. They were able to be dismissed on all charges due to it was the writers fault not the actors.
Actor's arrest revives police racism row
Katherine Butler
Tuesday, 20 July 1999
NEW YORK police were facing fresh accusations of racism yesterday after they wrongly arrested and strip searched the star of a hit Broadway musical, causing him to miss a performance.
The article is about Alton White starring in the Broadway musical Ragtime. It goes on into great detail about how he was arrested on his way to a performance for maybe being a possible drug dealer. He missed at least one performance but was dismissed of the charges because it was someone else who was the dealer. He trusted the law before but now because it was all racial profiling he will never be able to trust the law again.
NEA 4 (all right, 2 of them) Re-Unite
By: Robert Akins
In 1990, I, a wandering queer performance artist, had been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts' Solo Performer Fellowship, which was promptly overturned under political pressure from the Bush White House because of the lush, wall-to-wall homo themes of my creative work. We so-called "NEA 4" (me, Karen Finley, John Fleck and Holly Hughes) then successfully sued the federal government with the help of the ACLU--if you're not a card-carrying member, become one!--for violation of our First Amendment rights. We won a settlement where the government paid us the amount of the defunded grants and all court costs.
The article goes on to talk about how the NEA 4 was formed and what they did as a group and as individuals. They were pioneering because they successfully sued the National Endowment of the Arts for saying that what they call art really isn't art. They just pushed what they believed and thought that every should be able to express themselves.
http://www.artistswithaids.org/artery/centerpieces/centerpieces_nea.html
Board member defends theater's action in flap
By: Harvey Rice
Houston Chronicle May 11, 2002
Feranchak agreed to remove the f-word, which appears twice, but not to removing the 27 g--damns. Feranchak resigned at a meeting in which the board voted to allow the teens to perform, and in a separate vote ordered Feranchak to remove the profanity. He said he resigned because removing the profanity would have violated the integrity of the script and federal copyright laws.
This too me was an issue that the theatre wanted to do something illegal so that they community wouldn't be upset by the language. This script is loosely based on a true story, so changing the language wouldn't make it seem as true as it could be. I was in this show and continued to perform because everyone cusses and if they tell you they don't, their lying.
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2002_3544453
Assassins
By: Stephen Sondheim
Arkansas Tech University
A student production of Assassins, the award-winning musical, was to have premiered Thursday night at Arkansas Tech University, but the administration banned it -- and permitted a final dress rehearsal Wednesday night (so the cast could experience the play on which students have worked long hours) only on the condition that wooden stage guns were cut in half prior to the event and not used.
The article says that the reason for banning the production because of the use of guns. I find this insulting to the cast for all of their hard work. This was just because of the Virgina Tech killing a little over a year ago. This was something they could have continued to have done.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/22/arktech
Ron Martin, the theater teacher and director at Corona del Mar High School in Orange County, found out how controversial “Rent” can be. It was canceled after he chose the student version for the spring musical, hoping it would counter what he saw as creeping homophobia on campus. A recent video on Facebook, featuring Corona del Mar students using gay slurs, had upset faculty and parents, and some teachers reported they had heard slurs at school.
“This is the first time I've chosen a show for the high school because I had an agenda,” Martin said. “In this instance, having an agenda as a teacher didn't give me pause. My job is to give my students life skills. Discrimination is wrong on all levels.”
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