North Arlington, New Jersey-AP) — The choice of “Cabaret” for the spring musical at a Catholic high school in New Jersey has sparked a ruckus.
The production at Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington opened last weekend and begins its final series of performances tomorrow.
Cabaret is set in pre-Nazi Germany and gets into such issues as homosexuality, promiscuity and abortion. Opponents say Cabaret is an inappropriate show for a religious school. One says it’s “180 degrees” against the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith. Another is calling for a candlelight protest vigil and suggests people buy tickets but then sit facing away from the stage.
Backers, though, say the students deserve praise for confronting tough issues. The director says, “Any school can do Oklahoma.”
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7 comments
The play is cursed. Liza Minelli never made another good movie after it. Joel Grey was typecast for 25 years after playing the MC.
Tomorrow belongs to me.
I actually rather like CABARET as a portrait of Decadence and its Discontents. The title song, though Liza does (and should) sing it exuberantly is, in dramatic context, a song of self-delusion and desperation. Still, it’s obviously inappropriate for a Catholic high school to put on.
Rubbish – “Oklahoma” is a very demanding piece, requiring two outstanding leads and squads of supporting characters who all have to be very good to keep the thing from lagging. Cabaret is a weird case – people think it’s funny and sweet (in fact the elderly love story is the only part that doesn’t make me sick), when Isherwood was clearly portraying a culture in fatal decline. Joel Grey has said that he’s always appalled by the nice motherly women he meets who tell him what a cute character the MC is, when he did his best to make it clear the fellow was vicious and degraded. Hardly suitable for any high school, I should have said.
I am a queen of peace student, and i have to say that i am proud of our school play.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but i believe candlelight vigils and buying tickets then turning your back is a little much. Coming to the play and turning your back, in my mind, is extremely childish.
It’s just a school play. I understand that many people believe its wrong to have a play like that in a Catholic school. Personally, i dont find anything wrong with it. We talk about Homosexuality, abortion, and promiscuity in our religion classes, and we are told what the church teaches about all those things.
Also, just because those in the play are portraying a character doesn’t mean they are like that in real life. We are well informed of what the church believes in, and we can thank our religion teachers for that.
My classmates have worked so hard on this play, you have no idea. Besides going almost everyday afterschool to practice, then all during their easter break they had practiced from morning till night.
They deserve so much for their hard work and time. They definately do not deserve a bunch of people going to our school and then not supporting it.
I believe it is suitable for any high school, including ours.
-QP student
My dear, if people holding a candlelight vigil gets your knickers in a twist, what will you do when somebody really criticizes you? Nobody is suggesting that the play is unsuitable because the little dears don’t know that such wicked things exist; it’s unsuitable because a high school play, attended by minors, isn’t the right setting for a very troubling piece about evil. And bear in mind that the people in a drama club (and I was in all our school plays) are doing a play because they want to, not in a spirit of self-sacrifice, or to right some grave wrong: they don’t “deserve” support. (And it’s “definitely” – no A in the word – useful for the SAT) Try to get over the idea that the world exists to encourage the young – better now than when you go looking for a job after college, and discover that they won’t pay you in the six figures or make you company president right away. This is harsh, but it’s perfectly true.
What in the hell does making six figures after collge have to do with a high school performing cabaret. Actually i don’t think anyone is stupid enough to think that they will be making six figures right out of college. I know i sure as hell didn’t think i was gonna.
I highly doubt the candlelight vigil is putting that students or anyone elses “Knickers in a twist”.
Maybe i am just reading your post wrong, but can you explain to me what exactly you mean by the world is here to encourage the youth?
I am in awe of all of this nonsense. Adults acting like children, it amazes me. I went to a Catholic school when I was younger. I am an adult now, but I am not so far removed from my high school days that I do not remember them. To say that hard working students “don’t deserve our support” is one of the coldest and most un-Christian things I have ever heard in my life. These are HIGH SCHOOL KIDS, and you may not think that they should be putting on this play because of its “evil”, but wouldn’t you rather they learn about these things in school and know that they are wrong rather than learn from their own experiences?
When I was in school, we put on a series of short plays by Edgar Allen Poe, an infamous drug abuser, and no one said a word. There were DEFINITE sexual inuendos and drug references in them, and while we played the characters who were afflicted with these problems, we knew better than to go and do drugs afterward. We also put on “Les Miserables” which has blatant homosexual references. Kids are smarter than you think. If you don’t agree with the play, then just don’t go. Last time I checked it was a free country, no one is holding a gun to your head. DO NOT go and ruin these KIDS self-esteem by turning your back on them. They could be doing a lot worse than putting on “Cabaret,” which happens to be a modern classic production. “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will know we are Christians by our love.” These are issues that are prevalent in today’s society, they have to be addressed somehow. Better in a warm, loving, Christian environment than out on the cold, cruel, streets.