Electrifyin' controversy

Letters to the Editor
Published Thursday, July 19, 2007

Profanities, cigarettes not needed in ‘Grease’
I attended the opening night production of “Grease” at the Muni. While the performances were outstanding, with wonderful singing, dancing and sets, I walked away feeling angry and disappointed.

Nick Rogers noted in his review that the show featured “slightly more profanity” than the film version. So much for the family-friendly venue expected for a Springfield reproduction of an American classic. Every time a character threw out a profanity during the show, the audience took a collective gasp, parents and kids alike.

The directors also failed to announce the main sponsor of this year’s Grease production, although they provided plenty of product plugs. Even with all the money the tobacco industry has, I’m doubtful that even Philip Morris could afford the kind of publicity the Muni provided for them. Who needs laws forbidding tobacco companies from advertising to children when the Muni will do it for them?

“Grease” had a cast of some of the most talented performers Springfield has to offer, each waving a cigarette between two fingers. When star Cory Blissett (Danny Zuko) was in high school, his face was plastered on a few dozen buses in Springfield touting an anti-smoking message. How long ago four years seems.

Were the directors really so blind to their own talent that they thought a performance without smoking (real cigarettes, too!) would be somehow less exciting?

It’s too bad the directors deemed it best to expose their proteges (singers, no less!) to more than 4,000 chemicals for each performance, glorifying for thousands of Muni patrons the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States each year.

What’s really “electrifyin’” is that no one thought of the impressionable kids sitting in the audience, watching and listening with eager eyes and ears the people they may one day hope to emulate.

Ashley Thomas, New Berlin

-------------------------------------------------

Let's see how our friendly Springfield community responded to this, shall we?


TO Ashley wrote at 7/19/2007 9:16:10 AM

Have been watching TV the last 20 years? Give me a break.


grease 7/19/07 wrote at 7/19/2007 10:39:32 AM

Isn't is the point of a play to re-invent the film version? Did this lady watch the movie? I thought the inclusion of smoking and profanity was included to replicate the movie. Do people live in the real world anymore? Do they not think that children see smoking and hear profanity everyday? Maybe before taking children to a replication of a movie, you should watch the movie to see if you choose to have your children exposed. How did former generations ever survive with all of the drinking and cussing. Somehow they created this perfect generation of people who judge and complain because they have nothing better to do.


anonymous wrote at 7/19/2007 11:25:19 AM

I would like to ask Ashley Thomas if she knows how many chemicals she is exposed to when she cleans her house, washes her car, paints the garage, feeds the grass, kills bugs or weeds, fills the gas tank, eats food or just about anything else we do in our daily lives. Ashley, Grease had smoking in it's original production whether you like it or not. What makes you think it is your place to scrub history clean to fit your own personal desires? Obtuse elitism, that's what. It was said that people just up and left the production. That is GREAT! It is an example of what free people are supposed to do when they find a situation disagreeable. Those who stayed, also GREAT. It is also an example of a free people doing what a free people are supposed to do when they find a situation agreeable.


Stay Home Ashley wrote at 7/19/2007 1:00:16 PM

I'm tired of prudes ruining everything in Springfield because they think we have to change everything to be child-friendly. Sorry but the world doesn't revolve around your choice to have children. Stay home with them if you can't handle the real world.


My final remark --
I also think a lot of people underestimate the danger of cigarettes since tobacco is so engrained in our culture. Cigarettes today contain more nicotine than ever to hook people quickly. Was it really necessary to use real cigarettes in the performance? Even if the Muni had issued a content warning (which they didn't), that still doesn't excuse the directors from endangering their performers and not having their best interests at heart. The show may have been set in the 50s, but it took place in the 21st century when we SHOULD know better.