CHRISTMAS BELLS ARE RINGING ... SOMEWHERE ELSE: There are parts of America where I would still expect Rent: The School Edition to prove controversial, but canceling a production in Trumbull, Conn.? The principal is offering the b.s. grounds that he wasn't consulted far enough in advance, because "Without proper planning, Rent: The School Edition has the potential to become a speech rather than a meaningful dialogue to capitalize on all significant themes it presents."
(I'm sure there was a lot of meaningful dialogue around The Wiz and The Music Man, which they've done in the past.)
From one of the show's producers, from that first 2009 link:
ReplyDelete“Like it or not, we’re right smack in the middle of an enormous cultural shift right now, and that shift will give way to acceptance of homosexuality and acceptance of gay character. But it’s a process, it’s a messy process, and it makes sense to me that we’ll take steps forward and hit a pothole and take a step backward.
“But you know what? The kids are going to win. They may not win this month, they may not win this year, but if they want to put on ‘Rent,’ then they are going to have to fight a little bit and stand up to their schools.”
That letter struck me as the weaseliest form of double-talk and passive-aggressive jujitsu. Just a mass of words saying nothing of substance at all. You'd think he worked in corporate communications.
ReplyDeleteI think they're ok with the gays and the AIDS, but Rent shows poor people as having dignity, and we can't have that.
ReplyDeleteHey! Point of personal privilege! I write much better double-talk than that.
ReplyDeleteOH, me too! That was a dig from within the trenches. ;)
ReplyDelete