"Word is Will Ferrell's new Broadway show, You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush, has audience members storming out mid-performance because of some sizable imagery: a "supersized" photo of a flaccid penis!
The audience is led to believe the displayed phallus is attached to the former prez himself. "We were joking that now he was out of office, he could do whatever he wants… so I said, 'Let's have him show his own penis," explains You're Welcome America director, Adam McKay. "
http://perezhilton.com/2009-02-09-will-ferrells-new-broadway-show-offensive-to-many-prudish-theatergoers-walk-out
Not only is politics involved with this highly satirical look at the former president, but now so is male nudity--or at least a picture of it. Will Ferrel made a name for himself with his parodies of George Bush. Now the jokes seem, for at least some people, to have gone a little to far.
2. Naked Broadway: Daniel Radcliffe in Equus"That Broadway revival of Equus that's packing them in at the Broadhurst (93% attendance, giddyup!) has been getting a lot of press, much of it focused on Daniel Radcliffe's frenzied nude scene, in which [spoiler?] he runs amok and blinds some horses. Michael Riedel at the Post has dubbed the show's big attraction "Harry Potter's other wand" ha ha, but at least one person is not amused by the quip: Equus's author Peter Shaffer, who tells the columnist, "How very naughty of you. There is a great deal more going on in the play, you know. I'm not writing porn, for God's sake! I was irritated that people talked on and on about it. It was so infantile." He's absolutely right! So let's have no immature comments about these NSFW cell phone photos of Radcliffe's penis taken by an Equus audience member the other night." http://gothamist.com/2008/09/11/equus.php
Because of Daniel Radcliffe's 'Harry Potter' celebrity, the play--and his bare body--recieved a lot of attention. So much so, that the play itself was somewhat forgotten. I mean, do we know of anyone else who performed with Daniel?
3. Gay Broadway: Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi
"NEW YORK -- It's the gospel according to Terrence McNally, a polemical Sermon on the Mount that has produced an opinion from just about everyone -- whether they have seen the play or not. We're talking, of course, about ``Corpus Christi,'' the so-called ``gay Jesus'' play that off-Broadway's Manhattan Theater Club decided to produce after initially canceling the production because of death threats. " http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-156992605.html
Mixing religion and homosexuality in a script is a recipe for controversy. Whether people know what the play is about doesn't even matter. For some, religious beliefs are a fiercely guarded subject and any kind of tampering with the Scriptures is blasphemy. Offense is sure to be taken with this subject.
4. Racist Broadway: Jonathan Pryce in Miss Saigon
"ACTORS' Equity-perhaps the only union whose unemployment rate regularly hovers somewhere above 90 per cent-announced on August 7 that "it cannot appear to condone the casting of a Caucasian actor in the role of a Eurasian" and therefore it was denying the British actor Jonathan Pryce permission to appear on Broadway in the role he. originated in London in Miss Saigon, the hit pop opera by the authors of Les Misgrables that transposes Madama Butterfly to 1975 Saigon. The show's producer, the phenomenally successful Cameron Mackintosh (Cats, Les Miz, Phantom of the Opera), had threatened to cancel the production, despite a record-breaking advance, should Mr. Pryce be prevented from reprising his role in New York, and promptly did so." http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:q4VctfheU1EJ:findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n18_v42/ai_8859928+race+controversy+broadway&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us
Actor's Equity later reversed their decison, citing the use of "moral principals on an inappropriate matter." The fear of public outcry and backlash shaped this organization's decision. This is an instance where the attempt to avoid public criticism severly backfired.
5. Raided or Closed: The Padlock Law, New York 1927
"Shortly after Mae West announced plans for a Broadway production of her play The Drag, which opened with a Doctor decrying the criminalization of homosexuality, the controversy reached a head. On February 9, 1927 the police raided the plays and arrested members of their casts. Soon after the New York legislature passed the Padlock Law, which prohibited the production of plays that dealt explicitly with homosexuality." http://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA904&lpg=PA904&dq=homosexual+controversy+broadway&source=bl&ots=cbpwU55U-l&sig=SMulRKQTDdizLX_kONHufYJI89s&hl=en&ei=ZL2tSeCICIqhtwfSxI2GBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result
6. Arrested7. NEA 4: Holly Hughes, Tim Miller, John Fleck, Karen Finley
"...the case involves four avant-garde performance artists who sued the Endowment in 1992 for overturning grants that an NEA peer panel had favorably recommended. Known as the 'NEA 4' the artists--Karen Finley and Holly Hughes from New York, and Tim Miller and John Fleck of Los Angeles, work with sexual and political themes. These artists were among the first to be affected by a 1989 backlash against the NEA-funded exhibitions of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, whose photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine drew the wrath of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms." http://www.lamurals.org/Newsletters/0197Nwsltr/0197A.html#anchor285054
Art is met with opinion by everyone who views it. When those viewing it sit behind a government desk, things can get more complicated. Instead of focusing on art for art's sake--the NEA let it's fear of how the PC world woud react get in the way of it's original purpose. A government led organization avoids backlash in anyway possible. This time, they received more attention than they thought possible.
8. Regional Theatre: Center Stage, Baltimore MD, 1970-1972
"In 1972 the theatre offered the first all black production of Death of A Salesman, and two Center Stage productions 'Slow Dance on the Killing Grounds' and the musical 'Park' were transferred from Baltimore to the New York stage in 1970. The theatre also survived some official public outrage occasioned by its mounting of 'The Trial of the Catonsville Nine,' a liberal play in which the subject was too close for comfort (Catonsville is a suburb of Baltimore.)"
http://books.google.com/books?id=-uyTMSptXZYC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=outrage+play+regional+theatre&source=bl&ots=jFORb3F5kf&sig=bdEBJ-odwS4ONSBQqVhsiRfcJvU&hl=en&ei=HMetSdSnOpO5twegiZ2DBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
Certain plays or certain versions of plays can evoke emotion and illicit response more than others can. A theatre that has no qualms in choosing to produce these type of plays refuses to "play it safe." And good for them. Creating innovative and relevant works is an admirable trait of a theatre.
9. College/University: The Vagina Monologues, Santa Clara University, June 2, 2008
" 'The Vagina Monologues' won't be making any noise on campus this year. After controversy over the explicit sexual nature of the play caused headaches last year, coordinators decided to avoid the administrative red tape and move the production off campus. Despite these issues, people were turned away at the door due to its popularity last year." http://media.www.thesantaclara.com/media/storage/paper946/news/2008/05/22/News/Controversial.Play.Moves.Off.Campus-3374899.shtml
Students from our very own Sam Houston State produced this play a few years ago, and it too was performed at an off campus venue. This show is a thorn in the side of many Catholic Universities as well, and there is even a committee whose sole cause is to stop productions of this play. The subject matter is, well, genitalia, and it's frank treatment of the feminine sexuality is seen as offensive and even immoral. Administrators at schools don't want to risk the almost certain public outrage if they were to back a show like The Vagina Monologues.
10. High School: Rent: The School Edition
"Too provocative, in the view of some high school officials and parents. At least three of the planned high school productions, in California, Texas and West Virginia, have been canceled after administrators or parents raised objections about the show's morality, its portrayals of homosexuality and theft, and its frank discussions of drug use and HIV, according to administrators, teachers and parents involved in those cases. " http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/20/1n20rent004712-stage-set-controversy-when-schools-/
Rent rocked the world when it came to Broadway with it's pop/rock soundtrack and in your face depiction of AIDS, homosexuality, and drug use. It made a powerful statement to the liberal New York audiences alone. With those issues still present in the school edition (the fact there was ever a version adapted for schools still boggles my mind) I can easily see the reasons behind this hot topic. What I want to know is how those schools who did schedule the rock opera for their season get the show past their community standards clause.
