Censorship on Stage: Plays and Musicals Challenged at High Schools
Performance still of "Indecent."
Photo by Carol Rosegg. Billy Rose Theatre Division.
This fall, in response to recent increases in book banning and censorship across the country—particularly targeting books for young people—The New York Public Library launched our all-new Books for All initiative to provide opportunities for teens across the country to access frequently banned books, participate in events, and exercise the freedom to read. As attempts to ban books are on the rise, so too are efforts to challenge or ban the performance—and, in some cases, study—of select plays and musicals in high schools, often in response to their inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes or other content that school officials deem inappropriate for teenagers. Here are just a few of the plays and musicals censored or banned from being performed on school stages in America. You can check out these plays and musical libretti at the Library for the Performing Arts.
The Laramie Project
Tectonic Theater Project’s docu-play about Matthew Shepard, a teenager who was murdered in 1998 in a homophobic hate crime, was banned from classrooms in a school system in Lansing, Kansas, in 2023. The play was being studied as literature rather than performed, and was one of three pieces concerning issues of social justice that were pulled from an English class curriculum, according to a report from Playbill. Tectonic Theater Project and The Matthew Shepard Foundation stepped in and offered to provide free scripts for all students in the Lansing area.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
In the winter of 2023, a high school administration in Ohio objected to the performance of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The musical’s director was told school board officials' concerns included "sexual innuendo" and "the gay dads," according to a report by NPR. The show was eventually allowed to proceed but with major changes provided by the musical’s creators.
Indecent
Paula Vogel’s Indecent tells the story of the controversy surrounding the Broadway production of God of Vengeance, a Yiddish play that premiered on Broadway in 1923 and is said to have featured the first same-sex kiss between women on a Broadway stage. Following the 1923 premiere, those involved in the production were arrested on obscenity charges. Indecent premiered in 2015 and went on to win a Tony Award for director Rebecca Taichman and a Drama Desk Award for best play. In January 2023, according to a report by Teen Vogue, the play was banned from a high school stage in Florida. Students speculated the cancellation was related to the state's anti-LGBTQ+ "Don’t Say Gay" law. A school spokesperson said it was because the script "contains adult sexual dialog that is inappropriate for student cast members and student audiences." Students reported that other plays with much more mature content were allowed to be produced in the school’s past, but this play produced in this particular time in history was subject to censorship.
August: Osage County
It may not be the first play that comes to mind when you think of high school theater, but according to a report from The Washington Post, in 2023 a school in Iowa attempted to stage Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, but it was canceled three weeks into rehearsal. The school district said that the community was "not ready" for the themes of the play, which include death, addiction, and racism, and instead put up You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. A student actor interviewed for the Post mentioned feeling unfulfilled by her new role in the classic Kaufman/Hart play, and was very much looking forward to the learning opportunity brought on by a complex play like August: Osage County.
Legally Blonde: The Musical
In 2012, a high school theater teacher in Ohio was fired for staging a production of Legally Blonde: The Musical. According to a report from Playbill, the school principal attempted to shut down the show citing "bootie-bounce dance moves" and the use of the word "skank" in the script. The show was eventually permitted to play its entire run, but the teacher’s termination was not reversed. More recently, in 2021 a planned production of the musical at Maryville High School in Missouri was postponed by the school board less than 24 hours before the opening curtain in order to request changes in language and choreography from the play’s license holder, Music Theatre International. While some changes were granted, the request to cut the song “Gay or European” was rejected.