The New High School Musicals
In this week's issue of Time, Richard Zoglin describes in his article "Bye Bye Birdie. Hello, Rent" the many ways in which high school musical theatre programs across the country are maturing and evolving, evidenced primarily by the nation's first-ever licensed high school version of Rent this year.
Zoglin writes, "Though the script had been pruned of most of the roughest material, this is still a musical in which most of the characters are either on drugs, suffering from AIDS, or having sex with members of their own sex." So a precautionary letter was sent to parents, the local paper gave the production a "thumbs-up," and, according to Zoglin, now the times are changing.
But how quickly are high school musicals really growing up? Is this actually a new trend at all? Zoglin repeatedly cites high school spring productions of Les Miserables as a new step toward bigger adult epics, but my high school (certainly not known for its ground-breaking spring musicals) staged Les Mis at least six years ago. In addition, a sidebar to the story reveals that although some newer and hipper shows are beginning to break through, high school theatres were still dominated by the old standards in 2007.
The musicals are edited and re-written to comply with high schools' limitations (and in some cases, elementary and middle schools), but several of the shows Zoglin mentiones in the story -- like Grease and Urinetown -- are likely chosen as much because they feature large ensemble casts as they are for their edgy content. Hasn't the point always been to get as many kids involved as possible, anyway?
Zoglin writes:
Just as relevant to the kids, these hipper shows are helping move musical theater out of the nerdy backwater of the high school activities. "The homecoming king and queen at our school are both drama people -- not the football player and the cheerleader," says Stacy Hansen, theater director at Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa. "For so long, if you were in drama, you were a nerd. Now it's the cool thing to do."
Aside from an irritating rush to describe a dubious new "trend," the article also notes that the Cappies, the awards created exclusively for high school theatre (and journalism), have expanded greatly since their inception in 1999. (This year's nominations in 37 categories were just announced, and the awards will be handed out in a gala at Washington's Kennedy Center on June 8.)
Again, I don't know if any of this is very new. But read the article for yourself, and let us know what you think. Is Time out of touch, or have I been overestimating public school theatre programs all these years?
Comments