Is Mamma Mia appropriate for a high school musical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster here.

I also live in PW county, and yes I was surprised that Colgan performed this show. I don't think it was appropriate.

I am sensing a trend here. I would love to see a Venn Diagram of "People who choose, willingly, to live in PWC" and "People who are all aflutter that Mamma Mia was performed by high school students."

Curious if you would say the same thing about PG County?

[Anonymous]

There are school versions of many of these musicals so the ones pps referred to that were “sanitized” we’re probably the school version. Schools have to buy the rights to do a show and they can choose a less racy school version. A lot of the school versions are also shorter.

Also all of the Disney shows have a junior version that most of the middle schools do.

[Anonymous]

They usually do a watered down version, but even if they don't, high schoolers are usually able to get into PG 13 movies by themselves OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just saw an ad for Langley High school .. must be the same

Yes, Langley is performing it this spring and also Heritage HS in Loudoun. I'm wondering if the rights recently became available and that's why several high schools chose it.

[Anonymous]

Haven't read the whole thread, but basically every high performing student I went to school with in the NYC UMC suburbs knew every word to Rent by 8th (which they had seen on Broadway) grade so...going to say that even if you disagree with the premise (reasonable; my parents also disagreed with drugs and neither me or my sibling did them- TS-SCI for life!) the concepts shouldn't be age inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

I think Mamma Mia is fine. Granted, my high school did The Who's Tommy, which caused quite a stir among parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What's wrong with Legally Blonde?

She uses her sexuality to achieve her success, at least in part. I know her intellect was there as well, but there's a message that being hot can also help.

Plus, why she went to law school and how she got in...

[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...

Yes, yes, yes, I get it. Obviously lots of plays are a little risque. It's not like I expect them only to be performing Annie, but this is a play where the main story plot revolves around a woman who had sex with three men in two weeks, and there are jokes regarding oral sex.

High schoolers make jokes about oral sex.

Do you think they would be surprised that a woman wouldn't know who her baby's father is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What's wrong with Legally Blonde?

She uses her sexuality to achieve her success, at least in part. I know her intellect was there as well, but there's a message that being hot can also help.

Plus, why she went to law school and how she got in...

Oh, please! Stop taking everything so seriously. Legally Blonde is hilarious and I happily watch it with my daughter. It's satire and even she recognizes it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we go back to the Rent-with-diabetes production? How does this even work?

Diabetes isn’t communicable, and isn’t associated with the lifestyle choices of la vie boheme, so was the whole script rewritten to take place in a southern or midwestern suburb where the characters made poor food choices and practice sedentary lifestyles?

When my HS did Rent in 2010, we had to use pneumonia. They felt that was a good compromise because so many with AIDS died from pneumonia complications "back then."

We did Grease in middle school and I don't remember all of the changes, but it was heavily sanitized. Instead of "you know that ain't no shit / we'll be getting lots of tits" during Greased Lightnin' it was changed to "you know that ain't no lie / we'll be singing lots of hits in grease lightnin'" The chicks'll cream was changed to girls will scream but I cannot remember what "she's a real pussy wagon" was changed to. Rizzo also didn't have a pregnancy storyline. She was acting out b/c her parents were getting a divorce.

Honestly, I've seen tons of MS & HS productions and the only ones I was every really uncomfortable with were Cabaret and Chicago.

Honestly, if a school/director doesn't think elements of a show are appropriate, they shouldn't do that show. Changing lyrics and entire plotpoints (diabetes, pneumonia) violates copywrights as well as any permission from licensing companies. It is very explicit in all licensing contracts that no changes are allowed. Can you imagine if schools started changing parts of classic books they thought were inappropriate???

Really it is bad to teach theater students that it's okay to change a show that was written by someone else. It's not. It's extremely bad theater etiquette and violates the intention of the playwright and lyricists as well as voiolating contracts with the licensing companies. If a show can't be done the way it was intended, a more appropriate show should be chosen. There's literally hundreds of shows that can be performed without the need to make significant edits.

I'm seriously aghast about the whole diabetes/pneumonia thing. If I knew what schools had done this, I'd report it to the licensing company myself.

[Anonymous]

Dear Anonymous,

I’m with you and I am FAR from being a prude. My daughter is going on 16 and is asking if she can audition for this show. It is not a high school performance but is open for high schoolers. I was just about to acquiesce and I’m glad I read your post before I did. The whole premise of the movie is not appropriate for middle OR high schoolers and from what you and others have shared on other sites I have perused, neither are some of the words and in some cases directions choreography (depending on the director). Does this situation ( the storyline) happen in real life? Of course! But should we propose it to our kids in fun-loving musical form, celebrating the situation? I think not.

I love a great musical, racy or not but I am an adult. I think that we have forgotten that some things, even if they “happen” in this society, can and should be still kept from our children’s eyes as ears, to the best of our (parents’/guadians’) abilities. I’m involved in musical theater in the grade school level as well as the high school level and I believe that some plays should NOT be a “mainstay” in high school theater and that INCLUDES “Grease” (which was my favorite for many years.). From what I hear, I would add “Mama Mia!” to the list.

I’m sure many will disagree with me and that is their prerogative. I’m with you. Stay strong and even if you gave in this time, know that you are NOT alone in your thoughts, you are not any of the “names” other posts have brought up. I think you are a kind and conscientious parent. Peer pressure never served us in school and it certainly doesn’t in the parenting world either.

[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 . . .

As a lover of English, literature and shakespeare I think its kind of disturbing you believe or want to believe that your students don't grasp the material you are supposed to be teaching them.

Do you teach Pride and Prejudice? Some juicy stuff in there. How about Their Eyes Were Watching God? How about As I Lay Dying?

These things exist in literature. Mamma Mia is really just about family and how it looks different to everyone. The sex in question happened two decades before in the story and clearly mom cleaned up her act as the main character doesn't have 8 siblings.

[Anonymous]

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 auditioned for Oklahoma in 10th grade...sang Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. I was cast as a dancer, no vocals for me lol. I don't remember those references in the play. Thanks for triggering the memories, PP!

[Anonymous]

I know im a little late but im part of a mama mia musical at my high school and there is nothing crazy about it. We are high. Schoolers and, like it or not, we know about sex and such

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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...

Yes, yes, yes, I get it. Obviously lots of plays are a little risque. It's not like I expect them only to be performing Annie, but this is a play where the main story plot revolves around a woman who had sex with three men in two weeks, and there are jokes regarding oral sex.

What if it were Chicago or another mob-based play instead of a musical? Would you object? I think your reaction is over the top about sex. If you are equally concerned about violence, for some reason, I would give you more of a pass than if you said violence is okay but sex isn't.

Chicago is about sex. It's about an affair cover-up and faking a pregnancy. As well as murder. It has a lot of raunchy Fosse pose dancing in the prison scene. And there are some implied things too.

My kid's school put it on. There is a watered down teen edition which is what the high schools use.

https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/62461/chicago-teen-edition

It is popular because it has two sexy and dramatic female leads. Not my fave but the kids don't care. TV is worse.

It is hard to find good shows that tilt more towards females. These days there is increasing imbalance in the gender split of who wants to make time to do high school theater.

I assume Mamma Mia is popular because it has a mother and daughter lead role. Our high school also recently did the Freaky Friday reboot musical with a mother-daughter bodyswap.