Thanks for the input…It’s not really that I’m “offended” per se…I mean they just put on American Idiot (first HS in NJ to do so) and there was the whole heroin theme and lots of bad language. They used it as a teachable moment though and had people come in who were affected by drugs speak to the students. I guess what I’m more annoyed about is that they’ve left out the girls for the second show in a row…and after Legally Blonde was officially announced months ago. There would have been so many more parts for both boys and girls in that one. I happen to love The Producers and actually saw it in previews with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick way back when. I just don’t get the logic! Anyway thanks for letting me vent!
Is playing favorites less of a thing for college directors? I have heard it is a problem at some schools
@marg928 - HS “drama” is what it is. There will always be “offensive” shows - for a myriad of reasons - that for the rest of their lives, theater kids/professionals are going to have consider whether, or not, to be involved with. I find many musicals offensive from a “feminist” point of view, but sometimes there are other redeeming qualities that may “override” the historical portrayal of women. IMHO, The Producers is not one of those. The considerations from a male perspective are a quite different and my S would have been thrilled to be in that show. The currents of female portrayal in theater are SLOWLY changing (Go, @soozievt’s D!!), but there will still be sexist shows that “pay the bills” for any given theater for decades to come. (S’s current college program just did No, No, Nannette - it had great tap dancing at least.)
If it were my D in her senior year, I would be more concerned about the amount of time required to attend rehearsals and performances during what might be a critical time in my D’s college audition season and possible round of college visits when it gets to be decision time - when balanced against what she would “gain” from being in the show. Is the possibility of singing that one sexist solo and performing a blatantly stereotypical role worth the time/effort involved? If your D can’t imagine life w/o being in the musical, then go for it.
My S, currently a BFA MT junior, opted out of his senior musical (had to audition, but made it clear he had schedule conflicts). A major consideration was that the performances conflicted with two college audition weekends in November and the rehearsal schedule would have greatly impacted his ability to prepare for the auditions, prescreens and send in college apps. The other consideration was that they decided to do Peter Pan - after STRONGLY hinting that it was going to be Joseph . . Dreamcoat. My S knew the Hook part was not a good fit for him vocally and he was about twice as tall as anyone ever considered for Peter or a Lost Boy. Schmee might have been fun, but he figured he would tower over anyone chosen for Hook and probably not be cast. That left Pirates and Indians. Nothing against them, but the rehearsal requirements far outweighed the “benefits” of being in the show and he made it clear to the HS “powers that be” that his college prep and audition schedule would not work with time commitment for the show. He has no regrets. He now attends a program he auditioned for that November. Some of his HS classmates who were in the show had to scramble to make their college applications/prescreens/auditions come together. And quite a few of them had “less than desirable” outcomes - perhaps affected in part by their show commitments and being unable to truly focus on what my S felt was THE most important goal of his senior year - getting into college. Others on this forum totally disagree.
thanks so much @mom4bwayboy for your insight. Of course I realize that in the real world there will be plenty of sexist roles and I wouldn’t ever expect my D to turn them down…again that’s in the real world. I’m just surprised they would go that route in HS and choose a show where the only female part is a woman who sings about letting it all hang out and showing the boys your birthday suit LOL. You are very right about the college audition schedule and this is something my D will have to be very up front with. Plus she has had to turn down her last few auditions through her agents because of cheer commitments that they wouldn’t give her any slack on. Pilot season is coming up…ugh I hope she makes the right choice here. It’s funny but all her football player friends are looking to try out for the play this year! This should be very interesting!
@marg928 We are in an odd season of HS (and PA HS) musicals here, too. I had 2 kids in musicals in the fall - 0 lines and they sang a collective 4 bars - one played a prostitute and the other a “native.” It was a little strange. The next 2 shows are male-dominated and for one of them, there are nowhere close to the number of males needed to pull it off traditionally. But it is what it is. My kids have some great roles and some not so great roles - I committed not to grouse about show choices. I think it will be my Jr. daughter’s last HS musical (if she is cast and chooses to do it) since, as others point out, spring of senior year is audition time! I second @mom4bwayboy point. My S was WAY too committed to performing his senior year. We really didn’t know any better and thought building the performance opportunities was important. I have changed my mind. I don’t think it would have changed his results - nor do I think it would have changed his ultimate college choice - but I do think he would have been able to more fully engage in the process had he been less committed. As it was, he spent his senior year thoroughly exhausted. Sort of like being a BFA in college B-)
Add my S the list of those who skipped senior year musical. He chose to do a fall community musical and skip fall auditions. He started auditions at Chicago Unifieds and finished the last weekend of February. This required him to cut his list in half (I don’t recommend that), including two of his top 5 choices (that was scary). It also worked out for him and he has no regrets. He did not miss the senior musical and had better options than his classmates who did the senior musical (to echo what someone said earlier).
As for HS theater… add me to the it sucks and is overrated club.
@artskids - ditto on the “too exhausted” consideration. My S knew he would be in a bad way if he had done the HS musical his senior year.
As things tend to work out, S was an “Indian” in Peter Pan is freshman year of college. He was “exhausted” the entire time - dance ensemble has THE worst rehearsal schedule. His main function on stage for that production? Lifting Tiger Lily over his head. Our only glimpse of our DS in the production photos? His arms holding up a beautifully-posed Tiger Lily behind all the rest of the Indians. 
@marg928, personally I don’t see the character in “The Producers” as offensive - the show is a broad farce, and the character is a stock “sexy bombshell.” If it was supposed to be a realistic piece, I could see it. But complaining about a character being “sexist” in a broad farcical comedy seems counterintuitive. I mean, there’s a whole number called “Make It Gay” that makes comedy out of gay stereotypes – that’s the kind of show it is. And then there’s “Springtime For Hitler”!
IMO, the lack of female roles is more of a problem. But there’s also the old lady who comes to Bialystock’s apartment (although that’s “sexual” comedy too).
But if your D is a dancer, there should definitely be ensemble roles available (there are a lot of big, splashy production numbers in the show).
My daughter is a junior, and her school is currently doing “Les Mis,” and she’s in it and thrilled. But the dancers in the school were very upset because it’s not a dance show. So, word is that next year’s show will be a dance-heavy show…which makes my daughter sad because she’s NOT a dancer, so probably won’t get cast. But it is what it is.
My D did not skip her senior year musical, and was cast as the lead (Mary in Mary Poppins). She was very fortunate to have a theater director who really knew how to use her throughout the three years she auditioned (freshman year she chose to do cheerleading, as she wanted to try something new and had been doing theater since she was 6). There’s definitely a lot of favoritism in HS theater, and I’ve heard some horror stories of directors being biased against kids who’ve worked professionally, like mine had. Thank goodness that was not the case for us.
I won’t lie, winter/spring was tough, between college auditions (we started with 17 schools, winnowed down to 13 when she got an early acceptance and took a few off the list), rehearsals for the musical and the FIRST robotics program my daughter was heavily involved in all coming to a head at the same time. I think my D missed more Saturday rehearsals than she made. But we scheduled her auditions so that she was done by the beginning of March, before crunch time and tech week for Poppins, and we were upfront with the director about her scheduling conflicts, which she was willing to work with.
:-h
Raising my hand to say my D also didn’t participate in her high school’s theatre program senior year.
Truthfully, the drama director was a nutcase, and had always been a nutcase - and it came to a head D’s senior year when she could no longer take the way the director played favorites (mainly boys) and treated people so disrespectfully. I don’t think I’ve ever mention this story here on this board, but it came to a head in the beginning of senior year when the senior awards were given - and the director called my D on stage and gave the world’s biggest passive aggressive speech directed at my D. (Director had heard through the grapevine that D was considering bowing out for the remainder of the year.) And then moved on to two senior boys who quite literally had roses thrown at their feet.
My D stood on stage trying to hold back tears while I brainstormed different ways to have the director killed “accidentally”.
But dropping senior year theatre was the best thing she did - followed closely by dropping second semester AP Bio II when she figured out it wouldn’t matter admissions wise. =))
She was able to more fully focus on auditions - leaving high school theatre behind was a huge weight off her shoulders. You could physically SEE how happy she was when she finally made that decision.
I always say learning to judge an insanely busy and conflicting schedule is a must for anyone thinking of pursuing a theater career. My D was in 6 shows senior year while taking a full load of AP classes. And then she went to college and got even busier. And something tells me that when she is out in the real world trying to hold down a survival job (or 2) go on auditions and rehearse projects etc she may be busier still…
@marg928 just because I like looking for things as of today there are no schools in NJ that have the rights for the Producers. That is up to May 31st. So here’s hoping they are doing Legally Blonde and someone is just yanking someone’s chain. My daughter is a BFA MT and she only did the musical the last two years. At this point it’s probably moot anyway depending when the production is.
@Ducky312 if they got the rights it would have had to be within the last couple of weeks. I didn’t know you could check that kind of info…very interesting!
@marg928 I wonder if it could simply be the fact that the director couldn’t get licensing for the show. That seems to happen a lot. It could be that The Producers was all they could get last minute. When my D was in HS, there is no way they could have done that show they were so short on male talent!
Being short on male talent doesn’t seem to stop the HS directors from licensing male-heavy shows LOL!
It’s interesting but when I first heard they might not do Legally Blonde my D mentioned something about getting the rights but I thought she was referring to having to get the rights to The Producers…but I guess it’s possible you’re correct. I feel terrible for her she came home today really bummed out. She really had been so looking forward to the Spring show and now she’s considering not auditioning. And we definitely don’t have guys that can dance so I don’t know what he’s thinking! We have tons of girls who can dance though…and many of them are seniors who were planning on trying out for the show for the first time. They all changed their minds too.
Sometimes the timing of the show can make all the difference. My D’s spring musical was the last weekend in April - and so the heavy rehearsal period was perfectly timed to begin in earnest after her auditions were done. (She finished the week of unifieds - cancelling her only March audition after an artistic acceptance) - and it kept her busy through those 2 months of waiting for results/wait list movement - it made scheduling college visits challenging - but we made it work. For us - doing her Senior show was the right decision. She did give up competition season with her dance team - because that conflicted directly with audition season. (We were also REALLY lucky that a fabulous new director started at her (non PA) HS her freshman year - who has been nothing but supportive of her - even to this day!)
Yes, my son was in an April show which was a very useful distraction.
Same with us - D’s show (the musical that she was actually cast in - haha!) was April - perfect timing for after auditions were finished. She had pretty much decided where she was going, so we were able to visit over spring break. There were 2 others where she was “on hold” until the bitter end, but only one she would have considered over her chosen program. We would have had to do a fast visit! Ultimately, as others have said, if high school conflicts a lot with audition season, it’s fine to not do the show & concentrate time & energy on the auditions. It’s exhausting, but so much fun!
My D came home from her acting class last night and announced that she decided she wasn’t going to try out. She spoke to her acting teacher about it and based on that discussion she made that decision. She hasn’t talked to her MTCA coach about it yet but I’m sure he will say she’s better off not doing it.
Also, we got in the last of the apps that were due 11/30 and 12/1 and last night I went on Penn State’s theater website and saw that the prescreen (research paper) was due that day (yesterday)! On the Accept’d website on the main page it said it was due in 2 months! What the heck??? I emailed them and asked if it could still be sent in so we’ll see. She also last minute applied to University of Washington. I have no idea if it’s a good program but she has this yearning to be in the Northwest all of a sudden! They require 70 credits in the major which is very high for a BA.