Wednesday, May 25, 2011
HOWEVER WILL THEY LEARN WHAT THE INTERNET IS FOR? Yes, there's now an official "School Edition" of Avenue Q for high school productions--the script's been tweaked throughout, two songs are gone entirely ("My Girlfriend Who Lives In Canada" and "You Can Be As Loud The Hell You Want"), "The Internet is For Porn" is replaced by "Social Life Is Online," and the Bad Idea Bears have slightly different bad ideas.
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And yet they're keeping Trekkie Monster and Christmas Eve? And "Special"?
ReplyDeleteI'm generally in favor of the School Editions, especially for elementary/middle school age, especially when they're shortened (e.g. Into the Woods Jr.) rather than bowdlerized. (I've never figured out why Annie needs a Jr., but maybe it's a length and amount of production numbers issue.) But this is uttttttterly ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteNext: Hedwig and the Angry Inc., School Edition. 5 minutes long.
And will the Bad Idea Bears be serving Long Island Iced Tea?
ReplyDeleteOf all the really specific things this blog and this blog only alerts me to with surprising reliability, the issuing of school editions of blue plays is the specifickest.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I want to know how Trekkie Monster will have made his $1,000,000.
ReplyDeleteMy first question was about Lucy the Slut, but I see they've resolved that. What are they going to do, make Princeton and Lucy hold hands? Kiss? Will Gary Coleman mean anything to the kids putting this on? Or watching? Are they keeping "But I'm Not Gay?"
ReplyDeleteI'm not good with change.
If "The Internet is for Porn" is not in there, then it's not Avenue Q. It's just not.
ReplyDeleteWorking our bowdlerization desk is a f***ing hard gig!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the "School Edition" of Book of Mormon.
ReplyDeleteIs there a school version of Dirty Rotten Soundrels? Every time I listen to that cast album it strikes me how good a fit it would be for high schools. Not crazy hard to sing, lots of comedy, songs, not sung-through, etc. But some of the lyrics would never fly.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that Christmas Eve is less appropriate for high schools than Lucy T. Maybepartiestoomuch.
ReplyDeleteI emailed the article to my husband and his response was, "What does a high schooler know about a BA in English?" My feeling is, unless said student knows s/he plans to go to grad school, the more kids we can convince not to get a BA in English, the better they'll be served. And I say that as someone who has, yes, a BA in English.
ReplyDeleteIt's problematic for high schools less because of content than because of casting--it requires two very strong male leads, and that's a big issue for high schoolers. (It's also tricky because part of the show is about generational differences, which makes it hard to do with an all-high-school cast.)
ReplyDeleteI don't know that it would be much harder than South Pacific, which has been done once or twice in high schools.
ReplyDeleteHow do they cast Bloody Mary et al for high schools without strong Asian Pacific female singers?
ReplyDeleteLots of eye makeup and scenery-chewing, if my youth group production is any indication.
ReplyDelete"Two very strong male leads" - so every school that put on a good version of Guys and Dolls should do it.
ReplyDeleteStrong male leads is a problem for many shows at high schools, sure. But the Lithgow character doesn't have to be a strong singer, just a hammy actor, and that makes things easier. I directed Pippin at a high school once. To this day, I wish I had made Pippin a girl.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't they wait until the kids are 18 to let them see it? Geez, making it "for kids" kinda defeats the purpose.
ReplyDeletePUtting aside the awful changes to the actual show, I'm also kind of curious how high schools are going to handle making the puppets. If they have budgets anything the size of my high school drama club, they'll have brown paper bags over their hands, colored in with crayon.
ReplyDeletesconstant, I love your comparison of iisp with herpes...
ReplyDeleteI believe the puppets can be rented from MTI.
ReplyDeleteIn Guys and Dolls, only one of your male leads needs to be a good singer. Nathan can talk-sing through "Sue Me" and be carried by a good Adelaide. (Insert curse and comment re: Brando and Sinatra.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Nathan needs to be charismatic and interesting. (Brando was, Oliver Platt was not.)
ReplyDelete