Thursday, April 18, 2019
School District Bans 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' After Protests at High School Performance
OnStage Blog: Last weekend, over 40 Chinese-American protesters gathered in front of Huntington High School opposing the school’s performance of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. The group stated that the musical is racist against Chinese people. In response, the Long Island school’s Superintendent has announced that the show will never be performed in the district again.
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3 comments:
Racism really isn't that funny is what I'm seeing here. Don't get me wrong, I like good satire just as much as the next guy, but this idea of wearing yellow face and blatantly making fun of something that has been so historically disgraceful to so many Asian people. This is a similar concept to the top hit musical, "The Drowsy Chaperone", which contains a satirical number that is just an over stimulation of stereotypes of Asian people. The difference here is that its meant to be satirical and it is acknowledged as racist, Millie makes racism a big part of the plot and celebrates yellow face and treats it as a throwaway topic thats simply apart of the story. I think that this show and other shows in its genre really needs to stop being produced in places like high schools, who don't know how to handle dealing with a show with extreme racism with care. A show like this requires a level of emotional maturity and exposure to properly rehearse this show without jumping into blatant stereotypes without knowing the consequences of that type of acting.
I truly do not understand why Thoroughly Modern Millie needs to be continually put on in this modern day and age. I do not know the full show; however, from what I do know and from every online synopsis or quick review from a friend that I’ve hear, the only reason I hear is that it's got a good song or a great dance or something to make it fun. Well there are plenty of fun shows that do not make entire communities feel uncomfortable and do not continue to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and false histories. There is a strange obsession with old shows, shows often hastily labeled as classics as they get older and older, an emblem of a different age, great for large high school performance pieces. But even among those you can find not as harmful and just as fun shows to fill out your season. There are many there that are also far easier to alter to remove unnecessary racism based “comedy.”
I have never seen Thoroughly Modern Millie so my comment will not be attacking that show necessarily, but I do agree with everyone else here that it is okay and even necessary to retire some of the more problematic posts from the past. There is no reason to keep performing them. For instance, my high school did Anything Goes my freshman year and I just do not know why. First of all, it employs the same racist stereotype that it seems Thoroughly Modern Millie does. Second, it just is not that great of a show in the first place. That said, I know high schools are limited in their choices because of budget, number of and diversity of their students, and content restrictions put on them by school districts. Combine that with a director who does not like to repeat shows more than once every ten years or so, and it can be a genuinely difficult thing to do without delving into those problematic golden age shows. I feel like some of these shows could still be performed at the high school level if they were allowed to remove problematic elements. Generally I wouldn't want to do this because it requires breaching the copyright contract and because brushing that stuff under the rug and pretending it did not happen is not great, but for high schools, I think it is a valid way to deal with racist content when the choice of shows is pretty limited.
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