My high school is doing it right now.

And it is shaping up really nice. The dancing is incredible and we have a really nice cast.

[quote="The Tink"]" Most of the time, when they are done, it is becuase the Director is a frustrated actor who is trying to live through his/her students. quote]


well said!

I don't have a problem with a high school putting it on due to subject matter, because it's not the students saying or doing the things presented in the show, it's the characters they are portraying. You are not who you are on stage, a tremendously difficult thing for young actors to learn. Next time you're in a show, take note of how quickly people come out of character once behind the curtains.

Amen

My school had All that Jazz in one of the show choir shows and my school is a Jesuit/Catholic school. We've had a ton of stuff banned...like not being allowed to talk about periods at the end of Grease because it was "offensive" so Rizzo might have stayed pregnant at the end...we dont really know. My director always liked to do slightly scandalous shows and we pulled it off best we could. *Side note: scandalous= sexual reference, because my school is super conservative

There's a few people on this thread who should climb down off their high horses. You may not realise it, but some of your claims sound quite judgemental and offensive.

I musically directed a high school production of Chicago in 2007. It was a great success. The cast confronted the various challenges associated with the material and they did a superb job. We are not a specialist performing arts school - I work for a Catholic college in a regional area in Australia. There were a few concerns among some conservative audience members about some of the material (and I would have been surprised if there hadn't been), but the director's message in the program and some of our staging choices made it very clear that the show is a satire, not a documentary. I think even our conservative audience members recognised that the show is satirising exactly the sort of behaviour that they dislike, even if they didn't personally appreciate the manner in which it was done. But the vast majority of the audience were blown away by the production and I don't see the need always to cater to the uptight minority in our choice of shows. There's room for balance. If they're content for us to stage shows like Beauty and the Beast and Bye Bye Birdie, then they should accept that we will also do shows like Fame, Cabaret, Chicago and other shows with contemporary or edgy material that engages and challenges our students.

Our cast members and crew were mature enough to deal with this material, guided by a wonderful director who is far too mature a person with far too rich a life to "try to live through his students", as someone here alleged.

Your school may not have been able to cope with this kind of material. That does not automatically mean that every student in every school around the world should also be banned from the attempt. We have an understanding, supportive principal who understands that theatre presents students with opportunities to learn about all sorts of things and who trusts us as a production team to lead them sensitively and maturely through this process.

When you present intelligent, gifted, hardworking student performers with challenging material and a production team they trust, they can and will rise to the occasion. Please give them a chance.

I think the trick is knowing your audience, and knowing which kind of students you have.

Our school is doing "Snoopy" this year. We could no more pull off "Chicago" than we could pull off "West Side Story" - we just don't have the wherewithal artistically and financially. Heck, I'm pushing for "The Fantasticks" next year and hoping we don't have to do the alternative "Abduction" number instead of "Rape."

never heard of any high school who has done it. Heard of quite a few college and universitys though. I also think it' better for them than high schools. Mostly because Chicago is built for a very small, but highly talented, cast. So it only fits in at a musical theatre program at college or uni, you can't have 40 people on stage.

Can't have 40 people on stage??????

We have regularly had 80 students on stage for our school productions. We usually construct double-storey sets to make things more interesting visually and also to provide more places on the stage for students to occupy.

On principle, we have never said no to a student who wishes to be involved in school productions, no matter how inept they may be. There are always ways in which they can belong and feel a part of the whole process. Sometimes it is the least talented students who get the most of the experience, both socially and in terms of maximising their abilities.

Incidentally, even with the occasional inept student in the chorus, we have an excellent reputation in our local region for the quality of our productions. That has nothing to do with budgetary considerations - it's the outcome of the way we educate the kids to really care about producing high-quality shows and teach them the skills and strategies they need to make this happen on the stage. We don't just "do" productions - we use them as teaching opportunities in lots of different ways (and not just how to sing, dance and act, but the underlying principles such as how to work together as a team to achieve a common goal). A really nice aspect is that the teaching doesn't all come from the staff - our senior students are great role models and our junior students learn from their example as much as they learn from us.

My high school was thinking about doing chicago... but I convinced the director that we didn't had the right actors ánd singers. Our school drama club is full of people that only can sing simple poppy songs and that can't play another role that a snob or something like that.

Our drama club sucks

Of course I know that you can have more than 40 people on stage- what I was saying is that Chicago aint built for 80 people on stage, because it's a small cast and a small dance ensemble. However shows like Les Mis, Beauty and the beast etc., is really great for a big number of people, and wouldn't work out well with the same number of people as Chicago.

I agree with you- you shouldn't stop anybody for being in a school production- but you need to pick shows made for that cast size.

Agreed!

Chicago should not be put on by High Schools.

Firstly, there are about 5 principal roles. Most highschoolerrs will not be as understanding as you'd like when they don't get Roxy, Velma, or Billy.

Secondly, every little step in this show oozes sophistication, maturity, and therefore, difficulty for anyone who isn't in their late 20s or 30s

Our dance choreographer is in her mid 20s, she told us when she auditioned for chicago, she was on the YOUNG side. She is absolutely the most brilliant dancer I`ve ever seen, and she had trouble with it.

The kind of performers that this show should have are the seasoned, more mature ones who have been doing this for a while, and reallly know their way around the stage.

The added dilema of the subject matter hardly comes into point in my opinion...