Is Mamma Mia appropriate for a high school musical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mamma Mia! is a PG-13 movie. Did they make it racier for this high school performance?

It's a play about a woman who had sex with three men in the span of 1-2 weeks. It deals with this in a light hearted, fun manner. Do you really think this is an attitude that should be promoted in a HS play?

NP. I think you are sounding more and more batty with every post. No, it wouldn’t bother me. If it did I wouldn’t attend the play. It’s not like the plot is a secret so i’m baffled why you attended.

Well if you read my previous posts you would see that I personally don't mind if my own kids see it. I let them watch the movie in middle school But schools generally are more strict about things like this. Many parents including myself let their middle schoolers watch R-rated movies as well, but still wouldn't expect it to be shown in school. It might be something that I don't mind my own kids seeing, but I still see how it goes beyond the bounds of what's appropriate for a HS play.

[Anonymous]

Grease lightening literally has the word pussy in it. And ends with the lyric about "chicks will cream" (their pants) for the damn car

Mama Mia is adorable in comparison.

I think Chantilly hs did Chicago a year or 2 ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s fine; high school musicals don’t all have to be sanitized.

Grease is a mainstay in high school musicals. The most famous song (“Summer Nights”) has a lyric about whether or not Sandy “put up a fight” in the backseat. A side plot is about Rizzo thinking she might be pregnant.

Even Oklahoma isn’t all wine and roses. Curly sings a song to Jud in which he essentially suggests that Jud commits suicide. Ado Annie is “Just a Girl Who Cain’t say No.”

And on and on...

I remember when we did this musical at my HS the lyrics were changed to something like "was it a magical night?" instead of "did she put up a fight?"

The school did Rent the year before I started there, but I remember seeing it with a friend and instead of HIV/AIDS, it was changed to diabetes. My niece's HS in MA did Rent two years ago and made no changes.

They seem to do less changing these days.

Exactly. Lots of times with HS plays they change some of the more inappropriate parts. I was actually curious to see if they would do something like this to Mamma Mia, although I didn't really see how it could be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grease lightening literally has the word pussy in it. And ends with the lyric about "chicks will cream" (their pants) for the damn car

Mama Mia is adorable in comparison.

I think Chantilly hs did Chicago a year or 2 ago.

Yes, and every time I've ever seen a youth performance of Grease these lyrics have been changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up, my high school performed the play “Gypsy”. So they had like 3 girls with scenes that I think they were strippers. This was in FCPS. But it was all very sanitized. They also did Grease. I never noticed that lyric.

Hence the difference.
Mamma Mia was not sanitized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you might fit in better in a parochial school.

Really? I mean really? Has society actually come to this now? Thinking that it's inappropriate for a HS to stage a production where the entire plot revolves around a woman who doesn't know which of three men is her baby daddy makes me a contender for parochial school? Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was growing up, my high school performed the play “Gypsy”. So they had like 3 girls with scenes that I think they were strippers. This was in FCPS. But it was all very sanitized. They also did Grease. I never noticed that lyric.

Above pp here. When I mean sanitized, if someone had walked into Gypsy without understanding any English, they wouldn’t have known they were strippers. They would’ve that they were dance and musical numbers.

So I think they had tame versions of those plays or movies for high school plays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry but have you all read Shakespeare? The jokes are very bawdy and there are rape jokes too.

Yeah

But the language goes over most people's heads.

How many kids really get the meaning unless it's explained to them?

True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
to the wall.

RJ 1.1

If your kid is studying R & J in high school and doesn't get that it's about an older teen or adult male having sex with a 13 year old, withins days after he met her, then either he/she wasn't paying attention or whoever was teaching him did a lousy job, or most likely both.

1. She was soon turning 14.
2. He was most likely closer to 16. Paris was MUCH older and established and therefore, a "better" match for her.
3. There is so much a teacher can do regarding close language analysis.
4. The above lines do not address the interaction between R and J; they discuss the feud and how it's extended to servants working for both families. The bawdy language centers on the "weaker vessels" being the women - THRUST to the walls (basically raped) during a fight.

right over kids' (and adults') heads

Shakespeare is MUCH safer compared to Mamma Mia.

just sayin' as one who's taught high school English for over 25 years . . .

[Anonymous]

She didn’t have sex with three men. She went on dates and dot dot dot...

I saw Edison’s production last fall. It was fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mamma Mia! is a PG-13 movie. Did they make it racier for this high school performance?

It's a play about a woman who had sex with three men in the span of 1-2 weeks. It deals with this in a light hearted, fun manner. Do you really think this is an attitude that should be promoted in a HS play?

It does show the consequences of that behavior.

[Anonymous]

Did you also have a problem when McLean did Urinetown ?

[Anonymous]

So no Hair either, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry but have you all read Shakespeare? The jokes are very bawdy and there are rape jokes too.

Yeah

But the language goes over most people's heads.

How many kids really get the meaning unless it's explained to them?

True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels,
are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push
Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids
to the wall.

RJ 1.1

If your kid is studying R & J in high school and doesn't get that it's about an older teen or adult male having sex with a 13 year old, withins days after he met her, then either he/she wasn't paying attention or whoever was teaching him did a lousy job, or most likely both.

1. She was soon turning 14.
2. He was most likely closer to 16. Paris was MUCH older and established and therefore, a "better" match for her.
3. There is so much a teacher can do regarding close language analysis.
4. The above lines do not address the interaction between R and J; they discuss the feud and how it's extended to servants working for both families. The bawdy language centers on the "weaker vessels" being the women - THRUST to the walls (basically raped) during a fight.

right over kids' (and adults') heads

Shakespeare is MUCH safer compared to Mamma Mia.

just sayin' as one who's taught high school English for over 25 years . . .

1. Who cares? Why are we being so puritanical?

2. You all keep ignoring all the themes you'd be clutching your pearls over in Catullus, Sophocles, Homer, and other ancient Roman and Greek literature that many high school students have to read. Should we suddenly declare these poems and plays inappropriate for high schoolers? The story of Oedipus literally discusses incest.

[Anonymous]

I have no issues with it. My school certainly did edgier plays than Mamma Mia!

I went to see it as a middle school field trip too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Super tame compared to the shows our high school does.

Geesh, what are they performing? Best Little Whorehouse in Texas?

Urinetown. Rent. Hair. And frankly it is a toss up whether the message in Legally Blonde is better/worse than the message in Mama Mia. But high school kids are not naive about this stuff and can certainly handle a musical aobut it.