What: Naked Boys Singing!
Who: Nine men
When: Now
Where: New World Stages
The cast of Naked Boys Singing!
Naked Boys Singing! is stirring up controversy because this play has nudity or partial nudity throughout the entire duration of the show. The main focus is celebrating male nudity, however, there are also gay themes throughout, and this is a big problem for those who are conservative in nature.
2. Naked Broadway
What: Equus
Who: Daniele Radcliffe
When: 2007 and 2008
Where: West End, 2007 and Broadhurst Theatre, 2008
Daniel Radcliffe as Alan Strang in Equus
Daniel Radcliffe as Alan Strang in Peter Shaffer's Equus created quite a controversy in 2007 and 2008 because there is a nude sex scene within the play. There was a wave of controversy because for six years, Radcliffe had been famously known for his role as Harry Potter, a more family friendly character. Many parents who did not understand the art of theatre were horrified that Radcliffe would take on a project like Equus and refused to take their kids to see any more of the "Harry Potter" movies. However, the critics were more than pleased with Radcliffe's ability to break away from the character of the young wizard.
3. Gay Broadway
What: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Who: Director, George Wolfe; Writer, Tony Kushner
When: May 1993
Where: Walter Kerr Theater
“Mr. Kushner's convictions about power and justice are matched by his conviction that the stage, and perhaps the stage alone, is a space large enough to accommodate everything from precise realism to surrealistic hallucination, from black comedy to religious revelation.”
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches was controversial because of the time it came out. Homosexuality was still very much so closeted and not nearly as accepted as it is today. Audiences would have felt uncomfortable with a play being openly gay, especially with the brief nude scene where the nurse is counting the lesions on Prior Walters’ body.
4. Racist Broadway
What: Show Boat
Who: Producer, Garth Drabinsky
When: July 1993 (Show produced in October of 1993)
Where: North York Performing Arts Center in Toronto
“The classic 1927 American musical “Show Boat” is steaming toward Toronto under heavy fire from the city’s blacks, who consider it racist, insulting and dangerous.”
Garth Drabinsky’s production of Show Boat was controversial because the musical itself is controversial. The black population felt that the stereotyping was deep and dangerous, and they felt like they were being portrayed as irresponsible and devoid of any “human characteristics.” Another major problem was that Drabinsky is Jewish and the blacks took this to mean that the Jewish people were demeaning them, and so this caused animosity to arise between the two groups.
5. Busted
What: Pleasure Man
Who: Mae West
When: 1928
Where: New York
"When the show was raided, police arrested 52 members of the cast, several of whom were men in drag."
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/bway101/5.html
Pleasure Man was too hot to handle because it depicted drag culture and female impersonation, topics that were more taboo during that time. It had a heterosexual male who experimented with prominently gay males in the play, many of whom were in drag.
6. NEA 4
Who: Holly Hughes, Tim Miller, John Fleck, Karen Finley
When: 1990
“Labeled by Right-wing politicians as too dirty to be funded, the NEA four spearheaded a national campaign against artistic repression and won their Supreme Court case against the National Endowment for the Arts.”
http://www.johnfleck.net/bio.htm
The NEA 4 were too hot to handle for similar reasons. In the early 1990s, these four performers were given a solo grant and then had them taken away because their work was too obscene. Tim Miller’s work has gay themes throughout them. Holly Hughes’s work has been called pornography by many, and some have said they are oppressive to women. Karen Finley’s performances caused so much trouble because usually at the end, she would take off her clothes and smear chocolate or other substances on herself.
7. Regional Theatre
What: Corpus Christi
Who: Manhattan Theatre Club
When: 1998
Where: New York
“On May 21 the Manhattan Theater Club announced that it was canceling its production of the play due to their concern for security, after anonymous threats of violence to the theater and its staff.”
http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/368
Corpus Christi was too hot to handle because the play portrayed Jesus and his disciples as gay men. The play included wife-beating, loveless sex, and clerical humiliations. The play was insulting to Christians and protests were held by many Christian communities, especially the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
8. College/University
What: Quills
Who: The Company
When: April 2009
Where: George Washington University
Mark Amoroso and Michael Weiss in "Quills"
George Washington University told the Company that they could not perform the play “Quills” because it included full frontal nudity. The play also included the themes of sex, pornography, and censorship. The director went through a series of meetings with the Students Activities Center, and after six months, was given the green light to produce it.
9. High School
What: Rent
Who: Ron Martin, theater teacher and director
When: February 2009
Where: Corona del Mar High School
“…“Rent: School Edition,” a modified version of the hit Broadway musical that, while toned down a bit, remains provocative by traditional drama club standards…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 H.I.V., according to administrators, teachers and parents involved in those cases.”
“Rent: School Edition” was controversial because it has adult themes incorporated in it. Although many of the issues mentioned are present in the world today, many high school students are too young or immature to deal with them. Another issue raised, though, was how the community would handle it. Although this new generation of teenagers are growing up faster and feel that they can deal with the themes, many of the people in the area prefer the older, classic musicals.
10. Wild Card
What: Spring Awakening
Who: The cast
When: March 2009
Where: Washington College
"Allegedly, one of the cast members was approached by two other students who proceeded to taunt and mock him for portraying a homosexual character in the play. This led up to a physical fight which resulted in the administration suspending the actor and consequently barring him from performing in the production."
http://elm.washcoll.edu/past/081/20/spri.php
Spring Awakening is a controversial play because it includes many controversial subjects and puts them out there bluntly. It includes sex, pregnancy, abortion, suicide, religion, and rape, to name a few. In this particular case, homosexuality, just the portrayal of it, was proved to be too much for this college campus.
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