2. Naked Broadway: "Love! Valour! Compassion!"
opened on Broadway in 1995, Walter Kerr Theatre

“it offers more male nudity than has probably ever been seen in a legitimate Broadway theater,” http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/15/theater/theater-review-love-valour-compassion-love-hits-broadway-running-like-broadway.html?pagewanted=1

Why: This show was controversial because of the type (and amount) of nudity within it. Male nudity has been, at least in my experience, more controversial than female nudity in pretty much everything. Also, this show apparently has a pretty hefty amount of nudity, which probably didn’t endear it to its critics at all.



3. Gay Broadway: “Angels in America”

Opened May 1993, Walter Kerr Theatre

"A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9f0ce2dc1431f936a35756c0a965958260

Why: Having seen Angels in America, I can see why this show might have been a tad controversial in 1993. It’s been seventeen years, and we still have issues with the gay community…so to have that, mixed in with AIDS, which at the time was pretty scary and mysterious, as well as being heavily concentrated in gay communities, was pretty controversial.

4. Racist Broadway: Miss Saigon

Opened on Broadway in April, 1991

“The trouble began when British producer Cameron Mackintosh announced that Jonathan Pryce would reprise his starring role in the Broadway edition of Miss Saigon” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970956-1,00.html

Why: I’ve never seen this show, but the big deal seems to have been the idea that a white guy was given an Asian role. He had done the role in London, and they gave it to him to reprise when it moved to Broadway. The controversy stems from our readily seen aversion to having people play cross-racial characters, as well as from the Asian community, who feel they are underrepresented on stage as it is.

5. Busted!: Kill to Eat
Rodrigo Garcia, Busted on March 16, 2007

“Police raid on theatre saves a lobster from certain death,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/17/italy.animalwelfare

Why: Because the lobster was going to get cooked on stage. That’s where the controversy was. The irony of this one is that if he had cooked it in his kitchen before the show started, there wouldn’t have been any controversy at all, at least not on any scale to speak of.

6. NEA 4

7. Regional Theatre: The Vagina Monologues
The Atlantic Theatres, February 15, 2007

”What’s in a Name? Controversy,” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/theater/12mono.html

Why: This one was controversial because of the title. Americans are very sensitive to language, and vagina is a word that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. The funny thing about this one was it was a woman who got mad that her neice saw it. Two women. A woman is upset that another female saw the word vagina. It just seems comical to me.

8. College/University: Hair
George Washington University, December, 2007

“Nude scene causes student theater strife,” http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2007/12/10/News/Nude-Scene.Causes.Student.Theater.Strife-3140828.shtml

Why: Interestingly, this seemed to cause controversy among the students. The organization that put this on apparently forbade the nudity, and the director (and cast) left it in anyway. So the controversy here was cause by nudity, and both a failure to honor the playwright (the organization) and the failure to follow directives by your boss (the Director).

9. High School: Picasso at the Lapin Agile
La Grande High School, February 20, 2009

“Steve Martin Offers to Fund Banned Student Production of His Lapin Agile,” http://www.playbill.com/news/article/127374-Steve-Martin-Offers-to-Fund-Banned-Student-Production-of-His-Lapin-Agile

Why: Apparently this show is considered to adult for high school kids. I read it my freshman year of college, and none of it was anything newm but parents will be overprotective of their children until the Earth is consumed by the sun. There was bad language and treatment of sexuality, and we can’t have that in high schools, now can we?

10. Wild Card: Rent: School Edition
Corona Del Mar High School, Newport Beach, California, Feb 2009

“Tamer ‘Rent’ Is Too Wild for Some Schools,”http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/theater/20rent.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

Why: I didn’t have anything else I wanted to put here, but apparently they took Rent and modified it so that it could be done by schools. Ironically, even the dumbed down version was too much for this school district, which shut down the proceedings.